Today is election day! Have you remembered to vote? I’m going to go vote right after I finish up this commentary.
There is a practice within the main stream media to pretty much stop election coverage in the final couple of days before the election, with some notable exceptions. I think that the idea behind this is that at a certain point, it becomes too late for anyone to contest or disagree with the analysis of a newspaper or a TV station, and that it may just seem a bit unfair to weigh into races in the final days/hours. That said, there are a few stories on the main page worth a read, on individual races.
Today we have featured a column from Sacramento Bee ace columnist Dan Weintraub, who pens a piece on what the various ‘hot spots’ are around the state, providing a ‘guide’ to follow election day results. Definitely worth a read.
In the "Golden Pen" today is a must-read column from the Wall Street Journal’s Brendan Miniter on the lessons of the Congressional District 50 special election. An excerpt:
By all accounts Mr. Bilbray is an honest man with a clean political record. But he also retired from Congress in 2001 to become a lobbyist and is just as out of touch as the political elite he wants to rejoin. Instead of basing his campaign on rooting out corruption, he is–bless him–pinning his hopes of winning the race on a promise to get tough on illegal immigration. If he succeeds at changing the subject and firing up Republican voters, he may just squeak out a victory. But the party remains divided, as Mr. Bilbray also must contend in today’s primary for the election in November.
Be sure to check out the entire piece. National Republicans have already had to plow over FIVE MILLION DOLLARS into this race, and literally fly in 165 staffers and such from DC to get-out-the-vote. Which makes sense, as all of the candidates with real grassroots support in the district (you know, the ones who ran to CHANGE the direction of the Republican Congress) lost in a massively divided GOP primary, giving us Bilbray, a figurehead for the status quo. Then again, if the candidate moved to the district from the DC suburbs to run, it makes sense that his GOTV team also be from the beltway. Ridiculous.
Anyways, everyone is predicting a record low turnout in this election. Republican base voters are depressed over three issues — they want an exit strategy to the U.S. presence in Iraq, they want to see significant cuts in spending in D.C., and they want a hard line approach to dealing with the millions of illegal aliens that flaunted U.S. sovereignty and, in essence, invaded America. Democrats are depressed over their terrible choices available for Governor. Between Angelides and Westly, Dems may choose a de facto "neither" by not going to the polls.
Well, off to vote! I wish I lived a couple of miles West — I could go cast a vote for my good friend John Moorlach. Our conservative Orange County Treasurer is needed on the Board of Supervisors! I’ll certainly vote to re-elect my boss, Orange County’s great Sheriff Mike Carona.
Take care,
Jon
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