Well, Primary 2010 is finally over, and as usual, it had mixed results for progressives. Extremely low turn-out for out San Diego County – 25% – Geez!
Here are some victories:
- The biggest news is that Prop 16 – bankrolled by PG&E – LOST! (16 would have forced two-thirds votes for any municipality that wanted to set up its own utility.)
- Prop 17 – bankrolled by Mercury Insurance also lost!
- Both County Supervisors Ron Roberts and Bill Horn have to go the run-offs in November!
- Term limits for the County Board of Supes is now law. This was a victory for the labor union (SEIU L.221) that got it on the ballot in the first place.
- None of the ultra-right-wing candidates for judges won!
And did you know that if you tally up all the votes for the Democratic Party Senate race (Barbara Boxer, etc), and compare that total with all the votes for the Republican candidates, the Dems had about 90,000 more! And it was a low-turn-out for Dems, and the GOP voters came out in droves. So, Carly, take note.
ON a side issue: if we keep getting these low turn-outs of voters, why don’t we make it easier to vote? Like hold the voting over two days, with drive-through balloting, … and other measures to encourage our citizens to vote – as they do in other countries.
Now, maybe we can all get back to “normal” for a few weeks before the General Election campaigning begins.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
The local results are predictably depressing –
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/voters/results/phone.htm
Although it’s true that Primary voters tend to skew more conservatively (older) last night’s results were hardly the thumping victory for the right that some local media outlets were trumpeting. Two blatant attempts to write language into the State Constitution that favored specific industries and corporations (Props 16 & 17) were defeated. (Sadly, both won in San Diego, but lost statewide).
Locally, corporations and developers were cheering as Mayor Saunders went on TV to declare that the City’s big ticket projects like the Stadium were now on track thanks to Prop D, even as the Grand Jury issued a report detailing just how bad the City’s finances really are.
The quote of the day–a day late- goes to Scott Lewis over at Voice of San Diego on Mayor Saunders and Proposition D:
It’s like we’re standing on the pier, watching our giant ship slowly sink and joking about it with the captain. Every once in a while he reminds us of his plans to put a new main library, stadium and convention center on top of our beautiful ship. And then we pause, try to picture those in our head and watch the big boat slip further.
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/opinion/slop/article_b2eca104-740b-11df-bffa-001cc4c03286.html
yes, I should have acknowledged that there was some good news, sorry Mr. Porter.
The Open Primary passed and that is a mistake in my opinion. People don’t understand the concept: I can go to the primary and vote for the weak person to run against the candidate I really want to be in office? We used to have open primaries so I played that trick all the time.
Many so called independants “decline to state” a party affiliation when they register to vote because they want to appear to vote for the person, not the Party. That’s okay, but they want to vote in my Party’s primary and I don’t like that.
Thoughtful, respectful, reasoned opinions are welcome. See you you can change my opinion.
Correction to my last sentence “See if you can, etc.”