2016 Primaries
I am just dying to know who will win the primaries here in California tonight.
At this moment, with 7% of precincts reporting, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders by over twenty percentage points. It's not terribly surprising. Much of Bernie Sanders' appeal was to independent voters, the folks not registered as Democratic. In order to vote in the primary, indies had to either re-register as Democrats or go into a polling place today and request an alternative ballot. On neighborhood Facebook pages, there are reports of voters who went in but were unable to get the new form, or found they were registered for a party that doesn't allow its members to vote in other primaries. That's what happened to me. I didn't realize until after the May 23rd deadline that if I wanted to vote for a Democrat, I had to re-register as a No Party Preference. Since I'm registered as a member of the Green Party, I vote in the Green Party primary.
Well, nuts. I like Jill Stein a lot better than any of the other Presidential candidates but I would have given the vote to Bernie to try to keep him in the running.
My fault.
--
At least I got to weigh in on the California Senate race, where Barbara Boxer's departure from her post has led to a wide-open, crazy field. I like voting third party - all the self-righteousness and none of the responsibility for the final results, ha ha - and I'm pretty much a one-issue voter. A candidate's environmental policies makes or breaks their campaign for me. This made Mike Beatiks the perfect candidate for me. He's running on pretty much a single issue: protecting California from climate change.
Does he have a chance of winning? No way.
Is his entire campaign a joke? Probably. Hard to say with a domain name like IWillNotDoNothing.Org. He doesn't have a lot of specifics in his platform, but should he win a seat in the Senate his plans include:
• Sit patiently outside of fellow lawmakers’ offices, waiting for them to talk to me.
• “Peacock” - wear unique and showy pieces of clothing and/or jewelry that will catch fellow lawmakers’ eyes and pique their interest in me. Then, I go in for the kill.
• Eat bugs for votes.
• Stand over the shoulders of certain Senators during climate votes and puff my chest out. I won’t actually do anything, but they don’t know that.
• “Negging” - give fellow legislators backhanded compliments to lower their self-esteem. Then, I go in for the kill.
• Learn about other politicians’ interests. Use that to strike up conversations with them. Lure them into friendship. Have them over for dinner with my family. Enjoy a few drinks and a few laughs. Set up scenarios where I save their lives. Cash in on those debts.
• Spend every session of congress crying loudly until climate change is fixed. You’d be surprised how hard it is to ignore a 200-pound crying man.
• Disable the thermostat on the senate floor. Just as, like, you know, a gentle reminder that, ultimately, we exist at the whim of the planet that sustains us.
• Use every dollar and ounce of support I can get my hands on to recruit the right scientists and policy experts to get us the exact perfect plan for the political and scientific climate we will be inhabiting when I am in office.My kind of politician. Can I get a beer with this guy?
Yeah, I know that Kamela Harris will likely be duking it out with another Democrat when the fall election comes, but the beer offer is still good if Beatiks wants to take me up on it.
--
I haven't paid as much attention as I should to the local races. Oops. There was one local councilman that I really want to see replaced, because he's made some decisions that I really disagree with, but he ran for a different position and his potential replacements failed to distinguish themselves in a meaningful way.
--
Looks like that stupid pot initiative (Measure AA I think?) is going to go down in flames. It's currently 65% NO, although with only 15/432 precincts reporting there's a lot of counting left to do. But I can't seem to go a day without selling someone smoking weed in San Jose, so I really don't believe there's any need to bring in more dispensaries. I am surprised to see that Measure B, which would raise the city's sales tax, appears to be carving out a sizable lead. Every time the local sales tax gets raised, more shoppers turn to the Internet to avoid paying it.
At this moment, with 7% of precincts reporting, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders by over twenty percentage points. It's not terribly surprising. Much of Bernie Sanders' appeal was to independent voters, the folks not registered as Democratic. In order to vote in the primary, indies had to either re-register as Democrats or go into a polling place today and request an alternative ballot. On neighborhood Facebook pages, there are reports of voters who went in but were unable to get the new form, or found they were registered for a party that doesn't allow its members to vote in other primaries. That's what happened to me. I didn't realize until after the May 23rd deadline that if I wanted to vote for a Democrat, I had to re-register as a No Party Preference. Since I'm registered as a member of the Green Party, I vote in the Green Party primary.
Well, nuts. I like Jill Stein a lot better than any of the other Presidential candidates but I would have given the vote to Bernie to try to keep him in the running.
My fault.
--
At least I got to weigh in on the California Senate race, where Barbara Boxer's departure from her post has led to a wide-open, crazy field. I like voting third party - all the self-righteousness and none of the responsibility for the final results, ha ha - and I'm pretty much a one-issue voter. A candidate's environmental policies makes or breaks their campaign for me. This made Mike Beatiks the perfect candidate for me. He's running on pretty much a single issue: protecting California from climate change.
Does he have a chance of winning? No way.
Is his entire campaign a joke? Probably. Hard to say with a domain name like IWillNotDoNothing.Org. He doesn't have a lot of specifics in his platform, but should he win a seat in the Senate his plans include:
• Sit patiently outside of fellow lawmakers’ offices, waiting for them to talk to me.
• “Peacock” - wear unique and showy pieces of clothing and/or jewelry that will catch fellow lawmakers’ eyes and pique their interest in me. Then, I go in for the kill.
• Eat bugs for votes.
• Stand over the shoulders of certain Senators during climate votes and puff my chest out. I won’t actually do anything, but they don’t know that.
• “Negging” - give fellow legislators backhanded compliments to lower their self-esteem. Then, I go in for the kill.
• Learn about other politicians’ interests. Use that to strike up conversations with them. Lure them into friendship. Have them over for dinner with my family. Enjoy a few drinks and a few laughs. Set up scenarios where I save their lives. Cash in on those debts.
• Spend every session of congress crying loudly until climate change is fixed. You’d be surprised how hard it is to ignore a 200-pound crying man.
• Disable the thermostat on the senate floor. Just as, like, you know, a gentle reminder that, ultimately, we exist at the whim of the planet that sustains us.
• Use every dollar and ounce of support I can get my hands on to recruit the right scientists and policy experts to get us the exact perfect plan for the political and scientific climate we will be inhabiting when I am in office.My kind of politician. Can I get a beer with this guy?
Yeah, I know that Kamela Harris will likely be duking it out with another Democrat when the fall election comes, but the beer offer is still good if Beatiks wants to take me up on it.
--
I haven't paid as much attention as I should to the local races. Oops. There was one local councilman that I really want to see replaced, because he's made some decisions that I really disagree with, but he ran for a different position and his potential replacements failed to distinguish themselves in a meaningful way.
--
Looks like that stupid pot initiative (Measure AA I think?) is going to go down in flames. It's currently 65% NO, although with only 15/432 precincts reporting there's a lot of counting left to do. But I can't seem to go a day without selling someone smoking weed in San Jose, so I really don't believe there's any need to bring in more dispensaries. I am surprised to see that Measure B, which would raise the city's sales tax, appears to be carving out a sizable lead. Every time the local sales tax gets raised, more shoppers turn to the Internet to avoid paying it.