Showing posts with label voting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label voting. Show all posts

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Time to Vote!

Again, here are the much coveted Helpy-Chalk endorsements. This election we are also pushing early voting. By voting now you can save the Dems much needed money on turning out other voters later.

Also, this esteemed blog is recommending judge4yourself.com for information on the down-ticket judicial races no one ever seems to know about.

And now the endorsements: For every state and national level office & the county council race: The Democrat.

For Cuyahoga County Executive: Tim McCormack. He's a longtime Dem running as an independent because of the corruption of the local party. He sounded very good in his WCPN interview.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Eric Brown (over Maureen O'Conner). This is a race between two sitting judges to see who will be chief justice. The court itself is an embarrassment, that frequently rules in favor of large corporate donors to the campaigns of the judges. The very fact that judges are allowed to rule on cases involving donors is a disgrace that has been featured in the New York Times.

For a long time before Brown was appointed, the court has been all Republican. Brown was appointed by Strickland after the former Chief justice died. He has been endorsed by the Plain Dealer and Call and Post and gets higher ratings from the local bar associations. I'm just hoping that as an outsider to the court appointed by a Democrat, he is more likely to push against the corruption.

Justice of the Supreme Court: Mary Jane Trapp (over Judith Lanzinger) See above for the background. Lanzinger is the incumbent in this bad system. Trap gets better ratings from the bar associations and has the recommendation of the Call and Post. The PD went with Lanzinger, but I distrust their endorsements.

8th district court of appeals: Kathleen Ann Keough and Eileen Gallagher, based on judge4yourself rating.

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas Lance Timothy Mason (over Baker), on judge4yourself ratings

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas Dick Ambrose (over Hall), This is one of those places where the judge4yourself ratings are very helpful. Ambrose's opponent received a "not recommended" from all four local bar associations, a sign of serious incompetence or corruption.

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas McClelland (over Clancy). McClelland has all excellent ratings from the local bars, but the newspapers went with Clancy. I decided to trust the bars, on the grounds that at this level simple legal competence is more important than political connections. Also, the bar associations listed include the associations for women, African Americans, and defense lawyers, so I feel the less powerful are represented.

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas Michael Astrab. His opponent, Bridget McCafferty has been indicted in the corruption arrests that have swept the county but still might when the election because women with Irish last names do well around here.

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas Rosemary Grdina Gold (over Marshall). Marshall's ratings are so bad it is natural to suspect incompetence or corruption.

Issue 1: Money for the public schools: YES. Always vote for the schools.

Issue 2: Allow attached housing in some business districts Yes. Sounds like it would be good for walkability.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

The Much Coveted Helpy-Chalk Endorsements, Nov 2008 Edition.

The national offices are easy: Barack! Dennis!

State offices

Attorney General: Richard Cordray (D)

Current state treasurer. Five time Jeopardy! champion. Website full of platitudes. But I'm voting party line here. Also has union endorsements and Strickland's backing.

State Senator, 24th district: Gary Kucinich (D)

Brother of Dennis. Webpage says "Coming Soon". Leading hits for him include nearly empty entries at Dkosopedia, VoteSmart, and Political Base.

Another party line vote.

State Representative: Jennifer Brady

We get fliers about this race delivered to our door almost every day. Most are attacks on Brady's opponent, Nan Baker, using hot button accusations like "She voted for tax people for ambulance rides!" The political attacks were so generic that the only way I could figure out who was the Democrat and who was the Republican in the race was by looking at the fine print on the sponsorship of the anti-Baker fliers. Turns out they were from the SIEU, so they are on our side. The Obama campaign has also been asking us volunteers to give little shout outs to Brady. So basically Brady wins on these and other endorsements.

But what are the issues here? Brady has been behind a lot of the educational initiatives that have been shaping my worklife, including the Seniors to Sophomores program and the state tuition freeze. I have mixed feeling about those. The intent is good, but they do require my institution to do more work for less money. Quick google searches are not getting me to the bottom of the ambulance tax story.

County Level Elections

I'm going to vote party line on these. Given the paucity of quick information to be found on the statewide candidates, I don't think I'm going to do well here either.

Now for the nonpartisan offices

State board of education: Richard Javorek

Endorsed by teachers unions and the Progressive Majority. Denounces overemphasis on testing on his website. The other candidate Robin C. Hovis is an "investment representative" originally appointed to the Board of Educaiton by Republican Governor Bob Taft.

State Supreme Court Justice, race 1: Joseph Russo

Check out the issue in this race. Russo, the Democrat,
proposes that judges be required to recuse themselves from cases involving people who donated to their campaign. What, this isn't required now? Nope. Not only that, but Russo's Republican opponent is against the recusal rule. The only justification she gives for her opposition in the article sited is that such measures have not passed in other states. The NYT has reported that the entirely Republican state Supreme Court generally sides with campaign donors.

State Supreme Court Justice race 2: Peter M. Sikora

The issue here is the same as in the race above. The Republican in this race, Evelyn Stratton, is quoted in the NYT article above as saying donations from business interests are there to counterbalance the big influence of trial lawyers. She also attended more that 50 fundraisers in her last campaign. This is a judicial system? Christ electing judges is a dumb idea.

Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals: Sean Gallagher, Larry Jones, Patricia Blackmon, Kenneth Rocco.

Party line vote.

Court of Common Pleas: Micheal Russo, Nancy Fuerst, Nancy McDonnell, Brenden Sheehan, Eileen Gallagher, Nancy Russo, Timothy Flanagan, Leslie Celebreze, Anthony Russo.

These are all Democratic candidates in uncontested elections. I voted against Sheehan, Jones, and Celebreze in the primary election, that
I previously liveblogged
.

The website that I used for the primary judicial elections does not have guides to the general election yet. Am I voting too early?

Ok, the contested Court of Common Pleas elections

Court of Common Pleas, contested race 1: Steven J. Terry

Terry is the Democrat and gets a nice write up from the Plain Dealer.

Court of Common Pleas, contested race 2, 3,4: Lynn McClaughlin Murray, Deena R. Calabrese, and Laura J. Gallagher

Party line votes. I went against Calabrese in the primary. Looking at my decisions for these two elections, I wonder if I depend too much on endorsements for downticket races. But what other resources do I have?

Court of Common Pleas, contested race 3: Lance Mason

Mason is currently a state senator, so there is a lot of information about him out there. He gets a 100% rating for his votes the past few years from from NARAL, Ohio Conservation Voters, and PIRG. He gets an F from the NRA. A few years back the Sierra Club only gave him a 50%. His ratings from business groups vary from 42 to 100%. He used to work for Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. Meh.

Ballot initiative #1: A constitutional amendment tightening rules on getting initiatives on the ballot: Yes

This was placed on the ballot by a democratic state representative, who said he was motivated by problems the elections board had verifying signatures. Can't find much else on this. The ability of citizens to put issues on the ballot is great when handled well (Oregon) and terrible when handled badly (California). Lets go with yes.

Ballot Initiative 2: Issue bonds to conserve and revitalize lands: Yes. Ohio needs more green space.

Ballot Initiative 3: Introduce language enshrining property rights in the constitution, specifically giving landowners more control over groundwater and access to adjoining waterways: No.

As a dirty fucking hippie, I am always wary of increasing property rights. Turns out Ohio Republicans introduced this amendment in exchange for support for the Great Lakes Compact. The Great Lakes Compact is a deal between all the states and provinces around the Great Lakes not to tap any of the lakes and sell the water to Southern California or Arizona, or other uninhabitable desert when the residents there realize that whole cities are not environmentally sustainable.

In any case, property rights over groundwater usually involves someone's right to shit in the drinking supply. No to this one.

Initiative 5: To shut down the slavemaster ghetto banks payday lenders. Yes.

Initiative 6: Build a casino: No

Casino economies generate cash quick, but they aren't equitable or sustainable.

Initiative 127: Bonds for the Library: Yes.

Ta da! Democracy.

Friday, February 22, 2008

The much coveted helpy-chalk endorsements!

Actually, mostly what I am doing here is liveblogging the process of filling out my mail in ballot for the Ohio primary election. In that spirit I will first note that the instructions explain how you can write in a candidate in the appropriate line, but the ballot itself does not have the line described in the instructions. This has been my experience with every ballot I have ever filled out.

And now the endorsements:

FOR DELEGATE AND ALTERNATE TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION (10TH DISTRICT)

Barak Obama!

When I was imagining writing this post, I pictures giving a detailed explanation of the vote, including links to position papers on the candidate's websites. Instead, I'll just give this little chart

Best on War Issues: Obama
Most Electable: Obama
Best on Health Care: Clinton.

Advantage: Obama.

FOR REPRESENTATIVE TO CONGRESS (10th DISTRCIT)

Dennis J. Kucinich.

Every morning, you hear stories from the national news media about the need to cut back on pork barrel spending and earmarks. Then the local news come on and everyone complains that our local representative hasn't been bringing home enough pork barrel spending and earmarked money. I don't buy this double standard. If pork barrel spending is bad, its bad when it benefits us. I, for one, am glad to have a representative who thinks globally.

Next comes three elections where people are running unopposed (two state supreme court vacancies and one appeals court spot.)

FOR JUDGE OF THE COURT OF APPEALS (8th DISTRICT)

Stuart A. Friedman.

I assume that the congressional districts don't match the judicial districts, so I'm supposed to be able to vote in the 10th congressional district and the 8th judicial district. Why else would this be on my ballot?

This is a nice case where voting by mail leads to better judgment. Were I stuck in a voting booth, I'd say "fuck, I dunno," and vote for the woman in the race (Margaret M. Gardener) But since I am in the comfort of my office I can go online to this unbiased judicial rating site and see that Friedman gets the highest rating from the Cleveland Bar Association, the Cuyahoga County Bar Association, the Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Norman S. Minor Bar Association, the Ohio Women's Bar Association, and the Plain Dealer.

What is the Norman S. Minor Bar Association? Apparently it is a group of African American Lawyers. Ok, I think I've done my due diligence here.


Ok, two more unopposed judicial elections. Then they're these:

MEMBER OF STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE, MAN

and

MEMBER OF STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE, WOMAN

What the hell am I voting for, here. Why is there one list of male candidates and one list of female candidates?

The first candidate on the MAN list is Jimmy Cotner, whose presence on the internet is limited to his repeated mention in the Newsletter for the North Olmstead Democratic Club as their Sargent at Arms. (The North Olmstead Democratic Club looks like good people.)

The next candidate, Michael Gareau shows as a North Olmstead lawyer. Am I allowed to vote in this one? Well one of the candidates on the women's side is on the city council of Olmstead Falls.

Fuck, I was supposed to be home by now. I'm going to skip this one and try to figure it out tomorrow. I'll just wrap things up by doing the easy elections.


Six more unopposed elections then:

JUDGE OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS GENERAL DIVISION

Ann Mannen

Here again I return to the judge rating site and I find two candidates get good reviews from the various bar associations and two get very poor reviews. Of the two who are positively reviewed, one Brendan Sheehan, is supported by the Cleveland Bar, the Plain Dealer and the Call and Post, which appears to be an African American Newspaper. The other candidate is backed by the Women's bar, the African American Bar and the Defense Attorneys. We'll go with her.

More opposed elections, many with the same title as the one I just voted in: Judge of the Court of Common Plees, General division. Then we get another

JUDGE OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS GENERAL DIVISION

James W. Satola

One of oudemia's kinfolk appears to be running here, but I'm going with the candidate with more endorsements.

JUDGE OF THE COURT OF COMMON PEAS, DOMESTIC RELATIONS

Pat Kelly

The judicial rating site makes everyone out in this election to be real losers. Kelly at least was given an "adequate" rating by some associations. The local democratic party endorsed another candidate with the last name Calabrese (this time spelled Calabrezze) but she received a "not recommended" from every bar association, so I'll pass. Also there is another election for a position with the same title that is not covered by the judicial rating site. I'll investigate that later.

COMMON PLEAS, PROBATE

Lillian Greene

I filled this in based on the Judge4yourself ratings, but the democratic party has endorsed her opponent, who also is well qualified. I might have voted wrong here. I'm not going to sweat it.

COMMON PLEAS, PROBATE

Kathleen Ann Keough

SHERIFF

Gerald McFaul

COUNTY RECORDER

Patrick O'Mally

COUNTY TREASURER

Jim Rokakis

the last three are because the flier received said he was endorsed by the democrats

Ok, I still need to figure out the state central committee votes. There are also two tax levy's that I'm pretty sure I favor, but I don't understand the wording of. That's all for now.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

The satisfying "kerchunk" of democracy

Have you voted today? Molly and I voted this morning, and did you know? Here in the North Country we are still using the old fashioned mechanical lever machines. I know optical scan combines a paper trail with great accessibility, but I just love the satisfying "kerchunk" of democracy.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Information on Absentee Voting

MTV's rock the vote has a list of webpages where you can get information about absentee voting in your state. Unfortuntately, their page doesn't load right, so I am reprinting it here. We will be promoting this information as at SLU as a part of our Save Our Constitution actions.

Alabama (800) 274-VOTE http://www.sos.state.al.us/election

Alaska (907) 465-4611 http://www.gov.state.ak.us/ltgov/elections/

Arizona (877) 843-8683 http://www.sosaz.com/election/

Arkansas (501) 682-3526 http://www.sosweb.state.ar.us/elect.html

California (800) 345-VOTE http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections.htm

Colorado (303) 894-2200 http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/main1.htm

Connecticut (800) 540-3764 http://www.sots.state.ct.us/

Delaware (302) 739-4277 http://www.state.de.us/election/

District of
Columbia (202) 727-2525 http://www.dcboee.org/

Florida (850) 245-6200 http://election.dos.state.fl.us/

Georgia (404) 656-2871 http://www.sos.state.ga.us/elections/

Hawaii (808) 453-8683 http://www.state.hi.us/elections

Idaho (208) 334-2300 http://www.idsos.state.id.us

Illinois (217) 782-4141 http://www.elections.state.il.us

Indiana (317) 232-3939 http://www.in.gov/sos/elections

Iowa (888) 767-8683 http://www.sos.state.ia.us

Kansas (785) 796-4564 http://www.kssos.org/election/elewelc.html

Kentucky (502) 573-7100 http://www.kysos.com/index/main/elecdiv.asp

Louisiana (225) 342-4970 http://www.sec.state.la.us/elections/elections-index.htm

Maine (207) 642-7736 http://www.state.me.us/sos/cec/elec/elec.htm

Maryland (800) 222-VOTE http://www.elections.state.md.us/

Massachusetts (800) 462-VOTE http://www.state.ma.us/sec/ele/

Michigan (517) 373-2540 http://www.michigan.gov/sos

Minnesota (651) 215-1440 http://www.sos.state.mn.us/

Mississippi (800) 829-6786 http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/elections.asp

Missouri (573) 751-2301 http://www.sos.state.mo.us/elections/

Montana (406) 444-4732 http://sos.state.mt.us/css/index.asp

Nebraska (402) 471-3229 http://www.sos.state.ne.us/Elections/election.htm

Nevada (775) 684-5705 http://sos.state.nv.us/nvelection/

New Hampshire (603) 271-3242 http://www.state.nh.us/sos/electionsnew.htm

New Jersey (609) 292-3760 http://www.state.nj.us/lps/elections/electionshome.html

New Mexico (800) 477-3632 http://web.state.nm.us/elect.htm

New York (800) FOR-VOTE http://www.elections.state.ny.us/

North Carolina (919) 733-7173 http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/

North Dakota (800) 352-0867
ext. 8-4146 http://www.state.nd.us/sec/

Ohio (614) 466-2585 http://www.state.oh.us/sos/

Oklahoma (405) 521-2391 http://www.elections.state.ok.us/

Oregon (503) 986-1518 http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/elechp.htm

Pennsylvania (717) 787-5280 http://www.dos.state.pa.us/bcel/site/default.asp

Rhode Island (401) 222-2345 http://www.elections.state.ri.us/

South Carolina (803) 734-9060 http://www.state.sc.us/scsec/

South Dakota (605) 773-3537 http://www.state.sd.us/sos/sos.htm

Tennessee (615) 741-7956 http://www.state.tn.us/sos/election.htm

Texas (800) 252-VOTE http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/index.shtml

Utah (800) 995-VOTE http://elections.utah.gov/

Vermont (800) 439-8683 http://vermont-elections.org/soshome.htm

Virginia (804) 786-6551 http://www.sbe.state.va.us/

Washington (360) 586-0400 http://secstate.wa.gov/elections/

West Virginia (304) 558-6000 http://wvsos.com/elections/main.htm

Wisconsin (608) 266-8005 http://elections.state.wi.us/

Wyoming (307) 777-7378 http://soswy.state.wy.us/election/election.htm