Since I've already voted...

I might as well reluctantly endorse the guy I voted for to be our next Governor.



Nothing like a reluctant lesser of two evils vote to get you excited about the process eh?

Angelides on Adam Corolla

Angelides was on the Adam Corolla show earlier this week and dropped what is easily the best line of the campaign:

Angelides took shots at Schwarzenegger. He recounted that the governor asked him what the funniest moment of his campaign was during their only debate.

"I really wanted to say, 'Sitting here with a guy whose hair looked like it was dipped in Tang.' "


You can read the rest of the interview rundown here.

The Election: Where We Stand

Time for Recall Arnold Schwarzenegger to take a stand. Every statewide elected official is up for re-election and there are a slew of ballot measures to decide on. Without further ado...the picks:

Governor - undecided - Yeah, we're ducking this one. Schwarzenegger is a boob, so he's out. Normally that would leave us with Phil Angelides as the lesser of two evils, but we're not totally sold on him yet. If its not Angelides it will be Peter Camejo (Green) or Janice Jordan (Peace and Freedom).

Lt. Governor - John Garamendi (D) - Lt. Governor shouldn't be a stand alone elected office, but it is. Since that is the case, we have to go with John Garamendi. Granted he's dull and somehow manages to send me spam emails (even though I never signed up for his newsletter), he's light years better than the Republican Tom McClintock. At the moment, this race is inexplicably close.

Secretary of State - Debra Bowen (D) - Another office that shouldn't be on the ballot. The Secretary of State oversees elections...yet its an elected office. Lunacy. Bowen has made a career of protecting voter rights and consumer protection in the state legislature and will make a fine elections officer. Inexplicably, this race isn't close - Bowen is polling up to 35 percentage points ahead of moderate Republican (and Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.

Controller - Liz Barron (Peace and Freedom) - A devout socialist for controller? Why the hell not...

Treasurer - Claude Parrish (R) - Democrat Bill Lockyer is a sleazebag ambulance chaser and must go away. Parrish gets the lesser of two evils vote even though he hasn't even bothered to set up a website. Lockyer has about $10 million cash on hand compared to Parrish's $176k...yikes.

Attorney General - Jerry Brown (D) - The clearest choice of all. Brown was one of the finest Governors this state ever had and would have made a fine President. His opponent, Chuck Poochigian is slightly to the right of Atilla the Hun so Brown should be a shoe in. On a side note, I returned some campaign mail mistakenly sent to my previous office by Poochigian with a note that I planned to vote for Brown. I received a letter back, signed by Poochigian thanking me for my candor and saying he wouldn't try to talk me out of voting for Brown. Its found a permanent place on my fridge.

Insruance Commisioner - Cruz Bustamante (D) - For sheer entertainment value, you can't go wrong with Cruz. At a Steve Westly rally I attended, he suggested State Senator Martha Escutia would probably be a Basque terrorist if she wasn't a legislator. Comedy gold...I mean seriously, look at his website. Its about weight loss...

Prop 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E Infrastructure Bonds - NO on all - For the love of god, no more bonds. Pay for it now or don't do it.

Prop 83 "Jessica's Law" - YES - Not much to debate here. Tightens penalties and residency restrictions on convicted sex offenders. While an argument can be made that they "served their time", the recidivism rate is just too high to take chances.

Prop 84 Flood Control Bond - NO - While I don't like being in the company of the Howard Jarvis Cheapskate's Association, NO MORE GOD DAMNED BONDS!

Prop 85 Parental Notification of Abortion - NO - Didn't we reject this mess last year? You still can't legislate family relationships, no matter how much the religious right may want to.

Prop 86 Cigarette Tax - NO - A 300% tax increase on cigarettes? No way. "Sin" taxes disproportionately affect the poor and are often proposed by those to lack the guts to admit they want to just ban the behavior in question.

Prop 87 Oil Tax - YES - Tough call here. The prop will basically institute drilling fees for the oil companies which will fund alternative energy research. While their attempt to ban passing the cost on to consumers will likely be circumvented, its a worthy cause that needs our support.

Prop 88 Parcel Tax/Class Size Reduction - YES - A modest $50 annual tax on each parcel of land in California (with exemptions for low income and seniors) to reduce class sizes - I don't have kids, but I can't say no.

Prop 89 Public Financing - YES - Public financing of campaigns is the only way we're ever going to clean the system up. This is a step in the right direction.

Prop 90 Eminent Domain - NO - Completely bogus proposition backed by big developers. The state could end up paying developers huge settlements if environmental laws interfere with profit. While protecting the little guy from eminent domain is a worthy cause, this damn sure isn't the way to do it.

The Debate

Since I was watching the tragedy unfold at Chavez Ravine last night, I had to record the one ill-timed debate between Angelides and Schwarzenegger. I expected the Governor to come out and ramble incoherently and the Treasurer to come out sounding like a cranky old substitute teacher who thinks he's running against George W. Bush. To my pleasant surprise, only one candidate delivered on these extremely low expectations.

To put it mildly, the Governor doesn't know what he's doing. He doesn't seem to understand the issues or policies. In one breath he parrots his old line of "living within our means" and in another he urges everyone to pass the $37 billion dollars in bonds. This was helpful for those of us who were beginning to wonder if the Governor finally "got it". He doesn't.

Angelides, the object of much scorn from this blog, came out swinging, but managed to not come off like a schmuck (no tall order for him). Admittedly, he used his George W. Bush lines, but with enough back up that I think they can make sense to the average voter. Throughout the debate, he emphasized the need to focus on the middle class. In what I thought was the best moment, in his response to an answer from Schwarzenegger, Angelides really drove home the point that the Governor believes the props from last year's election were sound policy.

The debate should benefit Angelides. If nothing else, I believe it will solidify his support among Democrats, which will at least stave off embarrassment on election night. Unfortunately for him, its probably too late.