Hold Your Nose and Vote

It’s not exactly an inspiring election day. There six measures on the ballot, and not one of them deserves to be there. They are ugly comprimises dreamed up by a dysfunctional legislature.

So, Californians, probably very few of us, trudged to the voting booth, and not very enthusiastically.

I voted yes on all ballot measures. Why? Not because the legislation proposed represented competent lawmaking, but because they were the best on offer for a bad situation.

I have no doubt that the measures will go down in flames. They were written by an unpopular legislature and supported by an unpopular governor. 

Furthermore, the few who cast their ballots today were probably predominately out-of-sorts voters fed up with bailouts and recession, not willing to spend a dime. You know, the tea party types.

California voters are a fickle lot: we want all our services, but don’t want to pay for them. Republicans block raising taxes, but are unwilling to make unpopular cuts.

So I voted today in what must have been the most uninspiring election day of a lifetime. Quite a downer compared with November.

And what will tomorrow bring? A huge deficit, and more bad budgetary news.

We Californians must fix our budget, and we should start with reform of the state’s government. We should remove the gerrymandering that elects extremists from both parties. We should remove the absurd two-thirds requirement to pass budgets and the requirement for a two-thirds vote to raise taxes.

The time for reform is now, while the dust is settling. Maybe we won’t have to hold our noses for the next election.

This Week in Conejo Valley Politics, March 29, 2009

It was wrong of you to fire Geoff Dean, said the Civil Service Commission to Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks. The sheriff fired Dean for preparing to run for Brooks’s office when Brooks retires in 2010. Dean gets back pay and is the apparent frontrunner in the race.

There is a special election on May 19. It’s about the California budget. Most people don’t like the ballot measures and will vote against them according to a recent poll. This will disappoint the governor.

Californians are not happy: 77% said the state was headed in the wrong direction, 80% disapprove of the legislature’s performance, and 57% disapprove of Governor Schwarzenegger’s performance. Perhaps this is why 81% of people support Proposition 1F, limiting legislative pay during deficits. It’s the economy, stupid.

In a completely unrelated story, Governor Schwarzenegger said he would not run for political office again, since the Constitution forbids foreign-born presidents. Republicans were relieved.

Most drugs sold in Ventura County come from Mexico, say law enforcement officials. Perhaps Rush Limbaugh should buy a sombrero and move south, closer to his suppliers.

The Ventura County Supervisors graciously voted to accept $2.7 million of Barack Obama’s stimulus money this week. It will be used to buy up houses that have been foreclosed and sitting empty. They will be sold to lower-income and middle-class people. Thanks for help Ventura County, Mr. President.

Stimulus money might save police and firefighter jobs in Ventura, but only if they are still around. The Ventura City Council voted to use reserve funds to keep the officers and firefighters employed. Mayor Christy Weir, pinching pennies, voted against it.

Evangelical apocalypse enthusiasts infiltrated the military and George W. Bush’s White House, said filmmaker Michael Wilson during a screening of his movie Silhouette City in Thousand Oaks. They don’t like gays and want to “reclaim the nation for Christ.”