President: Obama. He is very smart, extremely capable, brings people together, and shares most of my deepest, most important values.
Vice President: Biden. I really wanted Hillary, but compared to Sarah Palin it's a no brainer. If she can't handle Katie Couric, how's she going to do with Vladimir Putin?
Representative: Sam Farr. He's the Democrat and the Republicans have done such a lousy job of running this country they need to be badly beaten so they make some serious changes.
State Senator: Joe Simitian. See previous.
State Assembly: Bill Monning. I heard him speak and liked him.
SC County Board of Education: Rachel Huff. Her statement is reasonable and I talked to her opponent. He didn't know his stuff. His focus was increased spending on the schools, perfectly reasonable, but he didn't know how much was being spent today. Governing well requires knowledge, as we have discovered with our current President.
Cabrillo Community College District: Susan True. I liked her spiel in the voter pamphlet. I liked Kevin McGibben too but not quite as much.
Santa Cruz School District: Ken Wagman. His spiel was decent and his opponent didn't bother with a Spanish translation.
Soquel Union School District: Kim Nadeau, Mary Glenn-Cahalen, Kathy Hees, and Cynthia Torres-Ricca. I know Kim. She's smart, capable and, based on a long telephone conversation, extremely knowledgeable, especially on finances. The others are running with her. I also really don't like the current school board. I didn't like it when they closed Capitola Elementary and I don't like their plans for Jade Street Park. Her ideas on the direction the school district should go are very close to mine: fiscal transparency, keep Jade Street a park and look into converting schools to K-8 to promote community and so hundreds of parents aren't driving their kids to school every day clogging the roads and wasting gas. She also has some ideas for increasing funding.
City of Capitola: Michael Termini and Dennis Norton. I talked to Kirby Nicol and liked a lot of what he said, but he wants to build three new hotels in Capitola and I don't really want that many more hotels in Capitola. Termini seems like a good guy and I liked an email on presidential politics he sent me. Norton wants to do a bunch of stuff I approve of, like a skateboard park. The kids love to skateboard and right now there's no good place for them to do it, so they tend to use New Brighton School which creates problems.
Soquel Creek Water District: Thomas La Hue and Bruce Daniels. They seem to understand that our water resources are finite and at their limit.
Initiatives: NO on 1A, 3, 10, 12 because they are all bonds. Bonds increase debt. The State of California already owes $60 billion and has the authority (from previous initiatives) to borrow $76 billion more. All this on an income of $100 billion. This is too much debt. There's always some worthy cause to borrow for, and if we do it every time we'll go bankrupt or at least have constant fiscal crises. Actually, note that we seem to have lots of fiscal crises!
YES on 2, farm animal welfare. The initiative seems simple and reasonable, but mostly the opposition argument in the voter pamphlet is obviously fear mongering and probably lying.
NO on 4, parental notification of minors having abortions. This is an area where government should tread lightly, and also looks like someone is just putting some hoops for young girls seeking abortion to jump through.
???? on 5, non-violent drug offenses. I like the idea of keeping drug offenders out of our overcrowded prisons, but the initiative is very complex and I'm not really sure it's better than what we have now. However, the opponents in the voter pamphlet seem to be fear mongering and possibly lying. On the other hand the presidents of the California Police Chiefs Association and District Attorneys Association are against it. For a better legal approach to recreational drugs, see http://alspolitics1.blogspot.com/2005/04/how-to-actually-win-war-on-drugs.html
NO on 6, police and law enforcement funding. It mandates major spending increases without saying where the money comes from, allows greater use of hearsay evidence in court, and putting even more people in prison. We already incarcerate about 1% of Americans, and over 3% are on parole, waiting for trial or are in prison. That's way above international standards and way too high.
NO on 7, renewable energy generation. This is a trojan horse. Among other things, there is a really terrible clause that will effectively wipe out alternative energy businesses generating less than 30 Megawatts. They won't count towards the renewable energy quotas the utilities must meet under this bill. It's also too complex to understand, which always gets a NO from me.
NO on 8, anti-gay marriage. A couple little old ladies getting married is a lot better for marriage than a couple of drunk teenagers getting married by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas.
No on 9, victims rights, parole. Some of this initiative seems to be good ideas, but it's complex, mandates expenditures without providing funding, and has some legally questionable parts. However, the killer for me is in the arguments, the proponents are obviously fear mongering. They are also clearly unaware that in America people are innocent until proven guilty.
???? on 11, redistricting. This would mostly take redistricting out of the direct control of the legislature. That is definitely a good thing, but I'm not sure it's done the best way.
YES on D. Continuing the sales tax through 2017 is needed to pay some bonds the city took out while allowing the police force to be fully staffed. The large police force in Capitola is closely related to the low crime rate. Let's keep it that way.
There you have it. If you have a good reason I should change my vote, please let me know before November 4!
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