(no subject)

[the_rck]

Just looked at the ballot for the August election. Most of it is candidates running unopposed, and for most county and city level positions, the Republicans aren’t bothering to run anyone at all. The only county level position that has a Republican running is sheriff. There are three Democratic candidates (and no Republicans) for city council. There are also three Democratic candidates (and no Republicans) for the county convention (I need to look up exactly what that involves), but it’s a vote for three situation, so…

I suppose I’d better research the city council candidates. I’ve met two of them, very briefly, one because she’s the incumbent and came to our neighborhood potluck one year and the other because he was going door to door to get people to sign the petition to get him on the ballot. I signed his petition on the theory that anyone ought to be able to run and that he was the first person to ask me this time around (one can only legally sign one such petition per office around here). My main impression of him was that he was very, very young. Scott has pointed out that, given that I’m nearly fifty, a considerable chunk of the population is going to seem that way, but if the guy is over twenty five, I’ll be very surprised. The third candidate is probably male (just going by the name 'Jason').

If I don’t find out something horrible about her or something spectacular about her opponents, I’ll probably vote for the incumbent. She’s a woman of color and, I think, mostly based on her accent, an immigrant, and I think that having that perspective on city council is pretty essential.

There are two proposals on the ballot, one for funding the local community college and one funding for street, bridge, and sidewalk repair in the city. Both proposals are renewals rather than new millages. I would favor them either way as I’m quite well aware that we need to pay for things like that, one way or another.

So I guess I’ll be making the trek to vote entirely for city council and for the ballot proposals. Everything else, my input won’t matter.

Comments

[the_rck]

What it really means is that people who favor more traditionally Republican policies run as Democrats. That means that voters need to pay close attention to what candidates say and do before the primary. Anyone who puts a heavy emphasis on encouraging business over other concerns is probably someone who, in a different town, would be a Republican.