My post on how I'm voting this election

[professionalhenchman]

So, since many others on my F-list are posting about where they're leaning on the various items on the ballot, I thought I'd do so as well.  I'll include a summary of my reasons for voting the way I am.  I encourage people to share their views, and even try and convince me to change my mind, but I'm putting in a few ground rules. 
1.  Be polite.  Really.  I don't care whether you're supporting my position or not. 
2. The best way to change my mind is to give me a reasoned argument as to why your position is good - ideally by telling me why you'll be voting the other way, rather than telling me why my position is wrong/evil/whatever.  I will actually listen, though I make no promises to agree with you. 
3.  Be willing to accept that I may not agree with you, no matter how good you think your argument is.  We may just have different core beliefs which we're not going to change.  I'm perfectly OK with having friends who disagree with me, and I enjoy discussing differing perspectives, because I usually learn something.  I don't expect to convince everyone to see things my way, but I do ask that you listen to my points, and I'll listen to yours. 
4.  Please don't keep making the same argument over and over - trying to clarify it is fine, but if you've explained it to me, I've listened  to it and decided that it's not enough to change my mind, and constantly just repeating the same point over and over is annoying.  See rule 3.

Here we go.

Presidential/Vice Presidential race:  Barrack Obama/Joe Biden
      Honestly, this year's presidential election will be the first one I've voted in where I won't be really upset if my candidate doesn't win.  In 2000, I'd likely have voted for McCain had he won the Republican nomination, but I've been very unhappy with his veer towards the social conservative & religious right side of things in the past few years as he's worked on courting his party's base.  I'm a moderate by conviction, leaning liberally on social issues, so that's a problem for me.  Also, I like Obama's stance on increasing basic science research much better than McCain's, as I see that as an essential long-term investment for us to make if we want to stay the country that comes up with the new technologies of the future.  Since we seem to be outsourcing everythng else, I think it important to stay on top of that.  McCain really lost points with me for the example of the study of Grizzly Bear DNA as an example of pork spending.  I looked into that project a bit, and decided that it's something I think is important, and that line of his makes me think he won't support my priorities in research funding.

US representative:  Mike Thompson
      He's been pretty responsive to the few things I've wrote him about, and I've liked his voting record on the few issues I've cared enough about to look up.

State Senator:  Lois Wolk
       Really, I was tempted to vote write-in, as both of the candidates were in the assembly and passed the ridiculous budget we've been stuck with.  They should have fixed the problem either through taxes or spending cuts, not just borrowed again to get out of town.  Still, I'm leaning towards Wolk as she's one of the few legislators who actually refused the extra Per Diem money for working on the budget, and she's supported a couple of local things here in Davis that I'm in favor of, most notably the CA House Multifaith Living Community - I'm on the CA House Board of Directors, so that one's important to me. 

State Assembly:  Mariko Yamada
        Looking over her website, I like Yamada's stance on public health and food saftey issues.  Her opponent's website has an issues section, but a week and a bit before the election, the only thing there is "coming soon."  This does not inspire confidence.  Fail.

Initiative measures:

Prop 1A:  Yes
       I think that infrastructure like this is one of the few good uses for a bond measure, and I think that this project would be beneficial to the state as a whole.  Yes, times are tough right now, but the recent bond sales shows that the state doesn't have difficulty selling bonds in this market, and I think this is worth the investment.

Prop 2: Leaning No
        The fact that Dean Cliver, The Major's former PI when she was here working on her latest degree, opposes it based on food safety grounds sways me.  I'm quite confident that he knows what he's talking about where that's concerned.

Prop 3:  No
      Good cause, can't afford it right now.  I realize that some could say that this one is more important than 1A, but that one's starting a new project, where this one's for expansions and renovations, so it's not like the hospitals will have to close in the interim.  We can wait a while for the economy to improve.

Prop 4: No
      I'm sympathetic to the idea that parents should get to know what's going on with their children, but really, if your child wants to get an abortion and doesn't want you to know about it, I think you have some pretty severe family issues going on.  I'm not particularly tired of voting on the same issue over and over, as my philosophy is that in a democracy, everything's subject to change, and as long as enough people feel that something's important, we should vote on it, no matter how often it's been voted down in the past.

Prop 5: Yes
      I think that our prisons should have rehabilitation their main goal wherever possible so that when people get out of prison having served their time, they are able to function in society again, rather than going right back to prison.  Particularly given the problems with prison overcrowding, I think this is important.

Prop 6: No
      Not another ballot-box budgeting proposal.  I'm sick of those.  Also, I'm not in favor of using the initiative process to make more things a crime or increase penalties - that's the Legislature's job.

Prop 7: No
      When many of the solar & renewable power companies oppose a piece of legislation that seems like it would help them, I smell a rat.

Prop 8: No.  Very much No.
      My church opposes this one, and as a wedding photographer, I could use the business.  More fundamentally, I think that as far as civil (as opposed to religious) marriage is concerned, it should be a matter of contract law open to any number of consenting adults of whatever genders are desired.  I'd prefer for the government to get out of the marriage business entirely, leaving that to religions.  Make an easy civil contract which confers the current civil benefits of marriage on any combination of adults who are willing to enter into such a contract.
     The only argument I've heard for this one so far that has a rational argument behind it is the idea that the Supreme Court's decision was a violation of the rule of law, so we need to correct that.  I can respect that argument, though I disagree with it, but even if I did agree, I would not vote for something I oppose just to send that message.  Instead, I'd vote out the Supreme Court justices involved - we get to vote whether to retain them every 12 years.

Prop 9: No
    This seems to me to push our judicial system still more towards the punishment side of things, which I disagree with.

Prop 10: No
    This one really seems to me like T. Boone Pickens is trying to buy himself a market.  Also, I don't think spending money on getting vehicles upgraded is a good use of bond funds, as we'd be still paying off the bonds well after the vehicles have been scrapped.

Prop 11: Yes
     It may be a flawed measure, but I think it's better than letting the legislators draw their own districts.  That's just got too much potential for abuse of power.

Prop 12: Yes
    Since the program has been paying all its operating costs, including the bond payments, since 1921, I think this one is a good investment.  And quite frankly, we treat our veterans pretty badly as is, so I think they've earned some consideration from the rest of us.

Local Measures:
    Measure M:  No
       Good use of bonds, bad timing.  See Prop 3.

    Measure N: No
        I really don't want the Davis City Council to have even more power over planning decisions - they're bad enough as is.  It took 7 years for the CA House project to get approved, despite widespread support, because a couple of neighbors didn't like the idea, and the city council will bend backwards for a small group of people.

    Measure W: Yes
         I'm for a small tax increase to help keep the Davis schools at their generally high level of quality.  Yes, I rent, but hte tax will still get passed along to us by our landlady - or at least I think it should.

    

Comments

[whalejudge.livejournal.com]

You'll be glad to know that I didn't write your name in for State Senate.

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on all (except for your local stuff not on my ballot). Well thought out.

[cowgirlknits.livejournal.com]

I just want to urge you to read the text of the law on prop 11. It doesn't fully remove the redrawing from the legislature. :/

[groblek.livejournal.com]

Well, from my reading of it, it removes the redrawing of their own districts. They still get to make the districts for the US House of Representatives, but it's better than nothing. Unless I've missed something, in which case, please, point it out.

[buffaloraven.livejournal.com]

Pretty much agreed, except on 3. I'm leaning yes, and here's why:

Sure, the economy sucks at the moment. However, the best way to improve the economy, in my opinion, is to go back to FDR's policies that got us out of the great depression.

California has a high rate of unemployment at the moment. Creating more construction jobs will help our economy start to rebound, or at least stabilize its downwards descent.

Additionally, the construction jobs created between 3 and 1A would also create more jobs to fund their jobs, etc, and help keep things going.

My thoughts. :)

[loupyone.livejournal.com]

Ht ehing I don't like about 11 is that it creates a 14 panel membership with 10 seats being given to the two major parties automatically. I'm vaguely tired of 2 party strangelholds in CA, so 11 won't be getting my vote.

On 1A: I was talking to someone today about 1A. First, I don't like the bond measure idea. We're skating close to the magic 6% number in terms of indebtedness, and this certainly wouldn't help us stay under. Beyond that though, based on what i learned today, the proposed route is flawed and a better route is being ignored. The specifics were too detailed for me to fully duplicate here, but what it boils down to is taht ocming up through San jose is actually less useful than coming in from the east and splitting trains north and south. The current plan looks only at current population centers and takes into account neither the growing central valley or the future expansion plans to sacramento.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

On 11, from all the debates I've listened to, the unfortunate reality is that without that kind of representation of the two major parties, the whole idea is a nonstarter politically. I'll take a flawed revision over what we've currently got. Good point though.

On 1A, I hadn't heard anything about alternate routes - I don't suppose you've got any ideas where to go looking that up - I'm intrigued, and would like to find out more about that, it's a good point to address.

[loupyone.livejournal.com]

not sure where to look for teh 1A stuff. I can look into it.

[cowgirlknits.livejournal.com]

Aha, on re-reading, I see where I was mislead and misread part of the text. Ignore my plea. :)

[squeekiemouse.livejournal.com]

Ill check back here, but I would be interested in this information as well.

[agengrgal.livejournal.com]

Thank you for talking to someone about Prop 2. I am voting no for reasons of food safety and because it would take away some very helpful tools from farmers trying to do their job, namely farrowing crates that prevent sows from squishing or eating their piglets. I've also heard it would limit the number of chickens per cage so drastically that commercial poultry production would go out of state (The Major's colleague's point) which isn't a great idea - especially if you're a locavore (local-eater).