2010 California Primary Election

It's not that I'm CIVIC DUTY CHALLENGED, I'm usually just way to busy to notice the date. My wife tells me it's time to vote when the absentee ballots show up in the mail. Then, she goes back to doing what she does, and I go back to doing what I do. A week goes by, and BAM! we gotta dig through the propositions, look up the candidates, and figure out exactly HOW CRAZY the judges are. -- ALL with NOTHING printed that actually says anything REAL about them.

This year I got everything done by 11 pm, only ONE hour past my bedtime. At which point, Annette finished sewing a little viking apron dress for our granddaughter and decided to START looking at stuff. Needless to say, I was a zombie at work the next day, but we got our mail in ballots done.

Now all I have to do is drive them by the county registrar in my copious spare time between today and the 8th. When they're open. Which coincides with when I WORK.

Why am I hand delivering mail in ballots? They won't be counted if they show up late, so don't mail them after the 3rd (that's two days ago). Coincidentally, that's when we were filling out the ballots.

Now, because this is my forum for ranting about politics and spewing my personal opinions, here's how I voted ... to the best of my recollection:
 

So now you are all thinking: "OMG THIS IS MADNESS! HOW COULD YOU VOTE YES or HOW COULD YOU VOTE NO! CURSE YOU RON! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!?"

Umm, after great consideration and working out the details of the props with my intelligent wife who ALSO read the propositions, I've decided to vote for what I THINK is the best interest of the people of the state (ME included).

"BUT WHY RON!? WHY!?"

Okay, Okay, you asked. I'll tell you why I voted yes or no ... Those were the only two options.

Seriously, here's my thinking:

13: Don't tax my SAFETY

This is a very focused proposition. By that I mean it fixes ONE THING without a bunch of "OH and (pork pork pork pork)" thrown in.

Currently, earthquake retrofits on buildings do NOT cause a reevaluation of their property value for 15 years. AFTER 15 years, they jack UP your property tax.

They don't raise it to the rate that was in place WHEN you did the SAFETY RETROFIT. They raise it to the current (100% guaranteed to be way higher) rate. All this because you did the right thing and made your building safer. If you have tenants, guess who has to pay the difference or find a new place to work/live?

Prop 13 says don't jack the rates, don't screw the property owner, who won't screw his business tenants, who won't screw YOU -- or ME when I go to buy a box of screws to earthquake retrofit my bookshelf.

14: BIG MONEY WINS

What does it really mean when they say "the two candidates with the most votes" get to go on to the General election? That means there will never be a Green or Libertarian candidate in an election. They can't out-propaganda the Democrats and Republicans to get the votes. EVER.

"So, what's the problem?" you say. That's fine if you're a Republican or a Democrat, you're a shoe-in! Except you're not.

Instead of battling with the two or three other members of your party for the nomination, you now have to battle with them, AND THE THREE candidates from the OTHER PARTY. Solution: spend more money. Oh, you don't have more? Get more from your supporters (bleed a stone anybody). They can't give you more? Oh well, I guess that really rich candidate who keeps tapping into their own funds out-propaganda's you!

Next bit: If you've already gotten rid of EVERYBODY but the Top 2, why not get rid of #2? Didn't we all just vote on ALL of the candidates what's the point of having a general election?

15: Bait and switch

This was written to combat "slur campaigns" and to allow state funded Secretary of state candidates to spend huge gobs of money to fight other candidates who have put out negative ads against them.

In order to do this they want to get rid of a pesky little law that came from the PEOPLE (not the legislature) that says the government can't fund candidates. Which means that yes, the government could spend OUR TAX MONEY on anybody running for any position, including Secretary of State of California.

16: Keep Government out

It's really simple. Whether you do or do not want the Government spending tax payer money to build/buy infrastructure and run an electrical power service, you should be able to vote on it. The real question is, should the state run ANY private sector businesses?

17: Transferable persistency discount

Why is Mercury insurance spending $14.6 million to be able to give new customers a 20 percent discount? Since EVERY insurance company will do this, won't they lose as many customers as they gain?

There's money to be made on people who would normally cancel insurance for over 90 days. OK, who drops their insurance? I found this on the San Francisco Examiner website:

"Prop 17 would require soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to maintain auto insurance or suffer huge rate increases. Have a kid going off to college? Well, in addition to the tuition, books and food for your son or daughter Mercury wants you to continue paying your kids auto premium, even if they're no where near a vehicle for the next four years."

D: D is for Do you think I trust you THAT much?

This prop sounds pretty bland and run of the mill until we get to the part about amending the ordinance without a vote so long as the changes would not nullify the basic principles. Hello? How far can you bend a principle without breaking it? Can you bend more if you do it slowly over time? Do I really trust politicians to uphold a principle if it gets in the way of anything they want? What principle isn't worth breaking if doins so is "for the greater good"?

Well, I really wanted to tell you who I chose for various offices, but I'm not gonna. Partially because it's late at night, and partially because I want to have SOME time to do stuff other than type this weekend.