Hold your nose and vote on Tuesday, June 8, 2010: California Statewide Offices

[mithriltabby]

If you’re disgusted with the available choices and want your choice of politicians to look more like a free market and less like a duopoly, or annoyed by having to worry about vote-splitting among too many candidates, I commend your attention to Californians for Electoral Reform; they’re promoting instant-runoff voting, which would make new political parties a real threat to the established ones. If you’re exasperated with the influence of money in politics and would like to try out clean elections, check out the California Clean Money Campaign.

Candidates

I have placed a $ next to anyone who has not accepted the Proposition 34 spending limits.

• U.S. Senator

  The LA Times declines to endorse anyone due to politics and money.

  • Republican Party. SmartVoter.
    • Al Ramirez. SmartVoter. Vote Smart.
    • Tom Campbell. Vote Smart. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Sacramento Bee. He supports an Israeli attack on Iran, which makes me dubious of his knowledge of foreign policy. He wants to repeal health care reform and destroy any possibility that I can ever start my own business. He is much less moderate than he appears, opposing cap-and-trade carbon controls, the stimulus package that pulled us back from the brink of another Great Depression, and he thinks that it’s feasible to build a physical barrier on the border with Mexico. I suppose he’s moderate for a modern Republican, but you have to bear in mind that the current Republican Party would kick out Ronald Reagan for raising taxes, signing the UN Convention Against Torture, and daring to dream of a world free of nuclear weapons. Overall, I think Campbell is a better choice than Fiorina.
    • Tim Kalemkarian. Vote Smart.
    • Chuck DeVore. Vote Smart.
    • Carly Fiorina. Vote Smart. Offering to bring the experience of her failure at Hewlett-Packard to California; she was #19 on Portfolio Magazine’s list of the worst 20 American CEOs of all time. She wants to scrap AB32, our law to help curb global warming, which is a flip-flop from 2008. She has no faith in our Constitution and the rule of law: she wants terrorists to be tried by military commissions. She has enthused about saving money by taking steps that were already implemented in 1995. I just don’t think she’s competent to do the job. Update: Her “Hot Air” anti-Boxer ad is rated false, and the one about national security was rated Pants-On-Fire Wrong.
  • Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
    • Robert M. “Mickey” Kaus. Vote Smart.
    • Brian Quintana. SmartVoter. Vote Smart.
    • Barbara Boxer. Vote Smart. MAPLight.org. Pro-choice. Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Planned Parenthood. I’ve been pleased with her performance.
  • Green Party. SmartVoter.
    • Duane Roberts. SmartVoter. Vote Smart.
  • Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
    • Gail K. Lightfoot. SmartVoter. Vote Smart.
  • Peace & Freedom Party. SmartVoter.
    • Marsha Feinland. Vote Smart.
  • American Independent Party. SmartVoter.
    • Don J. Grundmann. Vote Smart.
    • Al Salehi. Vote Smart.
    • Edward C. Noonan. Vote Smart.
• U.S. Representative, District 14
  • Republican Party. SmartVoter.
    • Ronny Santana. SmartVoter. Vote Smart.
    • Dave Chapman. SmartVoter. Vote Smart.
  • Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
    • Anna G. Eshoo. Vote Smart. MAPLight.org. Incumbent. Pro-choice. Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood, California League of Conservation Voters.
  • Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
    • Paul Lazaga. SmartVoter. Vote Smart.
• Member of the State Assembly, District 22
  • Republican Party. SmartVoter.
    • Eric Shooter Hickok. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. No response to Planned Parenthood.
  • Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
    • Paul Fong. Vote Smart. MAPLight.org. Pro-choice. Follow the Money (2008). Incumbent. Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood, California League of Conservation Voters, California National Organization for Women PAC.
      
  • Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
    • T. J. Campbell. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Leans anti-choice.
• Governor.

  The LA Times declines to endorse anyone due to politics and money.

  • Republican Party. SmartVoter. It’s popular for Republicans to campaign on reducing waste and inefficiency, but the fact is that California already has the lowest number of state government employees per 10,000 residents; the notion of runaway spending is mythology, not fact. The San Francisco Chronicle fact-checks the Poizner-Whitman debate, and Politifact weighs in on their claims about themselves and each other: her accusation of his budget increasing 14% is false, he did support Barbara Boxer and Al Gore’s recount, his claim that “taxpayer-funded benefits to illegals” in California are “a skyrocketing cost under Obamacare” is false.
    • Bill Chambers. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. I like his goal of restoring control of politicians to the voters, but he doesn’t say how he’ll do it. Sadly, anyone with a slogan of “less taxes, less spending, and less government” is living in a fantasy world or had better be fantastic at selling people on austerity.
    • Douglas R. Hughes. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Ken J. Miller. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Lawrence “Larry” Naritelli. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Robert C. Newman II. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Steve Poizner. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money. No response to Planned Parenthood. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle. He wants to cut taxes and has no plans for how to pay for it; even Schwarzenegger’s Director of Finance thinks Poizner’s plan is bad. People at Mt. Pleasant High School take issue with Poizner’s book. He seems to think that being “tough on the environment” is a good thing, and that the recent this year’s health care reform bill is unconstitutional and somehow constitutes a government takeover. I don’t like him, but I think he’d do less harm than Whitman.
    • David Tully-Smith. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Meg Whitman. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money. No response to Planned Parenthood. Endorsed by the San Jose Mercury and Sacramento Bee. Critique in the San Francisco Chronicle; the site Wall Street Whitman is calling her out on her Goldman Sachs ties. She wants to eliminate the capital gains tax in California, getting rid of $10bn in revenue. She wants to file suit against the Affordable Care Act and is in favor of scrapping California’s state-level insurance regulations, which means that she wants to destroy any possibility that I might ever start my own business. She is clueless about the budget, has an interesting association with slave labor. And given that she’s spending astonishing amounts of money to get elected— just what is she expecting as payoff?
  • Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
    • Richard William Aguirre. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. His California Prosperity Plan is short on implementation details and bereft of an understanding of infrastructure.
    • Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Pro-choice. Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Planned Parenthood. The American Prospect on a Brown candidacy. I don’t want to reward the guy who jumped onto the Proposition 13 bandwagon that made such a mess in the first place. To be fair, the original story behind his “Governor Moonbeam” appellation makes him look prescient these days. Whitman is making up the charge that Brown got Oakland into a bad interest rate deal with Goldman Sachs. He doesn’t seem to have a plan for dealing with the budget deficit. None of the other candidates are organized enough to challenge him, but I’m going to look for the best possible protest vote to send a message during the primary. Update: Schurman withdrew from the race, so I’m going to hold my nose and vote for Brown.
    • Lowell Darling. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Promises to do nothing as Governor until the Assembly finds a way to void the 2/3 majority rule.
    • Vibert Greene. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. His web site suggests he doesn’t know “common sense” is two words. I’m very dubious of his notion of running state offices with a 4-day/40-hour workweek with alternate Monday and Friday closures.
    • Charles “Chuck” Pineda, Jr. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Seems to be incoherently in favor of Proposition 8 (his web site calls it “Constitutional Amendment 8 (The Marriage Law)”), which is enough for me to drop him from consideration.
    • Update: Peter Schurman has ended his campaign for governor and is endorsing Brown. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Founding director of MoveOn.org; he makes the case for his candidacy. He supports SB 810, the California Universal Health Care Act, which will save $8bn in the first year and $343bn over the first decade, and has detailed plans for raising revenue to pay for the programs that voters demand.
    • Joe Symmon. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. He says he’ll cut income and sales taxes, and is very nebulous on how he’ll make up for it— he says he’ll “seek new ideas”, but the time for that is before you run for office.
  • Green Party. SmartVoter.
    • S. Deacon Alexander $. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Laura Wells. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
    • Dale F. Ogden. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Peace & Freedom Party. SmartVoter.
    • Stewart A. Alexander. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Carlos Alvarez. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Mohammed Arif. $ SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • American Independent Party. SmartVoter.
    • Chelene Nightingale. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Markham Robinson. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Lieutenant Governor.
  • Republican Party. SmartVoter.
    • Sam Aanestad. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Bert Davis. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Yvonne R. Girard. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Dave Harris. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Scott L. Levitt. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
    • Abel Maldonado. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times.
  • Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
    • Janice Hahn. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, California National Organization for Women PAC.
    • Eric Korevaar. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Claims “I will save millions by having no staff”, which translates to me as “I have no clue about how I will do the job.”
    • Gavin Newsom. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, California League of Conservation Voters. I haven’t been terribly impressed with my view of Newsom from the distance of Sunnyvale, but I’m not seeing anyone who looks better in this race.
  • Green Party. SmartVoter.
    • James “Jimi” Castillo. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
    • Pamela J. Brown. $ Smart Voter. Follow the Money.
  • Peace & Freedom Party. SmartVoter.
    • C.T. Weber. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • American Independent Party. SmartVoter.
    • Jim King. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.

Secretary of State.

• Republican Party. SmartVoter.
  • Damon Dunn. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle.
  • Orly Taitz. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
  • Debra Bowen. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Incumbent. Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, San Francisco Bay Guardian, California League of Conservation Voters, California National Organization for Women PAC. I like her emphasis on the integrity of our elections, given all the problems seen with electronic voting machines.
• Green Party. SmartVoter.
  • Ann Menasche. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
  • Christina Tobin. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Peace & Freedom Party. SmartVoter.
  • Marylou Cabral. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• American Independent Party. SmartVoter.
  • Merton D. Short. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.

Controller.

• Republican Party. SmartVoter.
  • David Evans. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Tony Strickland. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
  • John Chiang. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Incumbent. Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, San Francisco Bay Guardian, California League of Conservation Voters, California National Organization for Women PAC.
• Green Party. SmartVoter.
  • Ross D. Frankel. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
  • Andrew “Andy” Favor. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Peace & Freedom Party. SmartVoter.
  • Karen Martinez. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• American Independent Party. SmartVoter.
  • Lawrence G. Beliz. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Nathan E. Johnson. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.

Treasurer.

• Republican Party. SmartVoter.
  • Mimi Walters. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
  • Bill Lockyer. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Incumbent. Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, San Francisco Bay Guardian, California League of Conservation Voters, California National Organization for Women PAC.
• Green Party. SmartVoter.
  • Charles “Kit” Crittenden. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
  • Edward M. Teyssier. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Peace & Freedom Party. SmartVoter.
  • Debra L. Reiger. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• American Independent Party. SmartVoter.
  • Robert Lauten. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.

Attorney General.

• Republican Party. SmartVoter.
  • Steve Cooley. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times.
  • John Eastman. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Tom Harman. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
  • Rocky Delgadillo. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Kamala D. Harris. $ SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, California League of Conservation Voters, California National Organization for Women PAC.
  • Chris Kelly. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Ted W. Lieu. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Pedro Nava. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Mike Schmier. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Alberto Torrico. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. I got a sleazy push-poll trying to tar his opponents on May 11.
• Green Party. SmartVoter.
  • Peter Allen. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
  • Timothy J. Hannan. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Peace & Freedom Party. SmartVoter.
  • Robert J. Evans. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• American Independent Party. SmartVoter.
  • Diane Beall Templin. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.

Insurance Commissioner.

• Republican Party. SmartVoter.
  • Brian Fitzgerald. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
  • Mike Villines. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the Los Angeles Times.
• Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
  • Hector De La Torre. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the California League of Conservation Voters.
  • Dave Jones. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Jose Mercury, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, California Democratic Party, California National Organization for Women PAC.
• Green Party. SmartVoter.
  • William Balderston. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
  • Richard S. Bronstein. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Peace & Freedom Party. SmartVoter.
  • Dina Josephine Padilla. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• American Independent Party. SmartVoter.
  • Clay Pedersen. $ Vote Smart. Follow the Money.

Board of Equalization District 1.

• Republican Party. SmartVoter.
  • Kevin R. Scott. SmartVoter. Follow the Money.
  • Rae Williams. Follow the Money.
• Democratic Party. SmartVoter.
  • G. Alan Montgomery. $ Follow the Money.
  • Ted Ford. Follow the Money.
  • Betty T. Yee. SmartVoter. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, San Francisco Bay Guardian, California National Organization for Women PAC.
• Libertarian Party. SmartVoter.
  • Kennita Watson. SmartVoter. Follow the Money.
• Peace & Freedom Party. SmartVoter.
  • Sherill Borg. Follow the Money.

Superintendent of Public Instruction. SmartVoter.

• Larry Aceves. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the Los Angeles Times.
• Karen Blake. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Alexia L. Deligianni. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Lydia A. Gutiérrez. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Diane A. Lenning. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Leonard James Martin. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Grant McMicken. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Daniel M. Nusbaum. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Gloria Romero. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Incumbent. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, California League of Conservation Voters.
• Faarax Dahir Sheikh-Noor. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.
• Tom Torlakson. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money. Endorsed by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, California League of Conservation Voters, California National Organization for Women PAC.
• Henry Williams, Jr. SmartVoter. Vote Smart. Follow the Money.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Why are you linking to "Vote Smart"? Everybody I looked up on it, it doesn't have any useful information.

[mithriltabby]

For some candidates, particularly incumbents, it has collections of interest group ratings for a variety of issues.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Maybe. But if you're going to go to the very kind trouble of finding all these links, it might help to sort through the crap?

[mithriltabby]

A good point. While I’ve been putting the post together, some of the link targets get updated as various candidates are tardy in returning their surveys, so when I just threw everything in on the possibility they might develop more data later. For next time I should add a notation for “no useful information here at time of posting”.

[chuckles48.livejournal.com]

A few thoughts:
- Tom Campbell: Ummm, Max? Why are you using an avowedly progressive (aka hostile) site to go on about TC's "stealth conservatism"? The man's been a fiscal conservative since you were in HS. A very _vocal_ fiscal conservative. Using Calitics to provide knowledgeable commentary on him is like using Rush Limbaugh for thoughtful commentary on Barbara Boxer's campaign.
As to health care reform - AFAIK he's in favor of reform, just not _this_ reform. Not sure what that has to do with your ability to start a small business (which, note I have a lot of experience with, from the driver's seat).
And he objects to cap-and-trade for, again AFAIK, pretty much the same economic reasons I object to it. It doesn't work, and is prone to massive abuse, as the last decade's European experiment has so clearly demonstrated.
- Governor's race: Note that while California has the lowest # of state employees per capita, we rank 22nd when it comes to per capita state spending.
http://sourcebook.governing.com/topicresults.jsp?sub=157
is illustrative - look at the average state employee salary. California is #1. So you might want to revisit that "it's mythology" claim.
Also, I had cause to backtrack the "Governor Moonbeam" thing a few weeks ago. He didn't get the "moonbeam sobriquet for the satellite idea, though that's the version that's currently being mooted. Actually, he had the name 2 years before he had the satellite idea.
As for Mr. Schuman...being a co-founder of MoveOn is enough reason to pillory him by itself.
And no, I don't really like any of the gubernatorial candidates. ;)
- Treasurer: You really want that career hack Lockyer running the state Treasury? Why?
- Attorney General: I would suggest that it is highly illustrative that Kamala Harris's own home-city police force dislikes her. Since she'd be the top law enforcement official in the state, one might want to look into her relationship with her current crop of LEOs.

[chuckles48.livejournal.com]

Oh, and on the small business thing... you're aware of the small business screw-over provisions in the health care 'reform' bill, right?
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/smallbusiness/1099_health_care_tax_change/index.htm

I don't think you realize how much extra administrative burden that is. It's beyond non-trivial. Buy a new computer @ Frys? You're going to be sending them a 1099.

That's all _courtesy_ of the much-vaunted health care reform.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Max is a progressive, pretty much, so I'm not surprised at his sourcing. From his spot on the spectrum, Campbell is way out there, for a lot of the reasons that make him one of my favorite politicians in California. I appreciate the research, but as with any other source of news, internal recalibration is not an optional step.

[mithriltabby]

Yes, the links here are heavily skewed toward the sources that catch my personal interest. Can I tempt you into doing a similar post from your perspective someday? I’d enjoy seeing the references and reasoning you would use.

[chuckles48.livejournal.com]

There is that. One point worth noting is that if you set the fiscal conservatism, and foreign policy libertarianism, aside, you wind up with someone who's moderate-to-liberal on the domestic/social side of things.

But I don't set aside my point that using Calitics as an source of commentary on the man is as relevant as taking Rush Limbaugh seriously.

[chuckles48.livejournal.com]

Oh, that'd be a long week, just for Campbell, let alone the entire slate.

But, to do a distilled version:
- Campbell's a fiscal conservative, and has been for 2+ decades. He's got the demonstrable track record on that front.
- WRT foreign policy, he seems to be fairly isolationist-libertarian. Was against the Iraq War, and has advocated some...interesting positions WRT Israel. Has a very Jeffersonian view of the world when it comes to US relations with everyone.
- Domestically, he's mostly moderate, with a tinge of liberal. Very individual rights-centric, BUT...
- When it comes to individual civil rights, he seems to come from the Chicago-Imperial school (you have those rights I _say_ you have).

I can source all of this, but... it's a fair bit of research, and I'd have to recreate some stuff that's several years old.

[mithriltabby]

Results:

• Governor: Brown vs. Whitman
• Lieutenant Governor: Newsom vs. Maldonado
• Secretary of State: Bowen vs. Dunn
• Controller: Chiang vs. Strickland
• Treasurer: Lockyer vs. Walters
• Attorney General: Harris vs. Cooley
• Insurance Commissioner: Jones vs. Fitzgerald
• Superintendent of Public Instruction: Aceves
• Senate: Boxer vs. Fiorina
• Board of Equalization: Yee vs. Scott
• Congress: Eshoo vs. Chapman
• Assembly: Fong vs. Hickock