Josh Haden's Guide To The California Statewide Special and Consolidated Elections, May 19, 2009

Note to Gov. Schwarzenegger:

You can't go around blaming the people for problems you helped create and not expect the people to get angry.

If the measures you support (1A - 1F) don't pass, don't blame the voters for an even more "dire" state of the state.

The voters don't trust you!!

California is at least as bad off now if not worse than when you replaced Gray Davis. All of the problems we are experiencing now happened under your watch.

You need to take responsibility and step down!

What is this b.s. about 1F?

There needs to be a measure on this ballot saying that, as a step towards balancing the budget, and as a way of admitting responsibility for the current crisis, and as a gesture towards showing the people they honestly want to change things, all California lawmakers must cut their salaries down to $1 a year for the next four years. I'm sure that would save California a lot of money.

Thus, for the State Measures, my strong recommendations are:

1A: No
1B: No
1C: No
1D: No
1E: No
1F: No

I know, for once I agree with the California Republican Party, but I don't think for the same reasons. The California Democratic Party support 1B, 1C, and 1F (on the rest they officially have "no position". Hmmm... Weren't these measures written by Schwarzenegger and the Democratic Party in the first place?)

For Los Angeles City Attorney, I endorse Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich. Not that I think he's any better than Jack Weiss, I just think Weiss is a little too friendly with Villaraigosa for my taste. 

For the Los Angeles Community College District I endorse incumbents Angela J. Reddock and Nancy Pearlman. They seem OK to me.

My recommendations hold true for my district only. Other districts will have other and additional measures/candidates to vote for.

LAist has posted a guide to the myriad of endorsements for this election, including L.A. Times, Young Progressive Majority, and others. Kudos as always to Zach Behrens and LAist.

Josh Haden's Guide To The March 3 Los Angeles Municipal Elections

I wanted to write a much longer blog entry on today's Los Angeles election, in which we Los Angeleans, amongst other things, get to vote on a new mayor, but I simply didn't have the time!

Its frustrating because this is a very important election for Los Angeles, even though probably most registered voters will be ignoring it.

An incredibly fascinating article about the corrupt and out-of-control politics of our city was published last week in the L.A. Weekly, I encourage everyone who's interested to read it.

Every city's political machine is corrupt to a certain extent and Los Angeles is no exception. Watch the movie "Chinatown" with Jack Nicholson to see how twisted it is and how far back the corruption goes.

Anyways, I love my city no matter what!

Please note this guide only applies to my voting district. There are many offices and candidates I won't be covering here, a great source to check out for other districts is the Young Progressive Majority.Org Voter's Guide.

My picks for the election, without fanfare and very little if any explanation:

Mayor: David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg

City Attorney: None

Controller: None, there really is no good candidate running for this important office, and that's sad because this office oversees audits of city government operations and financial disbursement programs, amongst other things. The apparent front runner, council district 2 representative and council President Pro Tempore Wendy Greuel is so much a part of the problem in L.A. city government I don't know how anybody could expect her to have a proper neutral perspective to do a good job. Her television advertisements are so disingenuous (me paraphrasing: "such and such office hired a firm to teach its employees Zen meditation! Horrible! With me in office there will be no governmental funding of Zen meditation on L.A. city property!"). I'm not sure we should trust her. I hope she proves me wrong.

Los Angeles Community College District:
Member Of The Board Of Trustees, Seat No. 2: Angela J. Reddock
Member Of The Board Of Trustees, Seat No. 4: None
Member Of The Board Of Trustees, Seat No. 6: Toss-up between Robert Nakahiro & Nancy Pearlman.
Member Of The Board Of Trustees, Seat No. 7: Miguel Santiago

Measure A: YES
Measure B: NO (A good article about this measure can be found here.)
Measure C: YES
Measure D: YES
Measure E: NO

Happy voting!

I'm going to sleep now!