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November 1, 2006

Down the Ballot

So the election is in 6 days, and I am totally unprepared. I have only been in Michigan, where I will vote this year, for a short time, and the local issues and candidates are only slightly known to me. Time to get educated. In the process, I'll probably rant a bit, and lecture a bit, because I'm like that. I'll also do it online, because I know Steph wants to see my thoughts on the election because she's in the same spot I am. Courtesy of the Secretary of State, I can find my ballot online.

STRAIGHT PARTY VOTING: I like the fact that this includes more than just the Republican and Democratic parties, I dislike the fact that they make it so easy to violate my obligation as a citizen to cast an informed vote. Frankly, I think that people who vote a straight party ticket — for any party — should not bother to vote at all.

GOVERNOR & LT GOVERNOR: In Michigan, it's a joint ticket, just like President/Vice-President. I don't know anything about the Lt Governor candidates, and they frankly don't factor in to my decision making here. The choices are:

Dick DeVos, R: Like many challengers, DeVos focuses far too much on what's wrong and far too little on what to do about it. He's pretty obviously a social conservative, which is a definite negative for me. He's pro-gun rights, which is a definite plus. It's kind of hard to dig through the platitudes on his site, the obfuscation in media articles, and the various hit sites on him to get a good feel of his actual positions, but I get the feeling he's a nanny-state conservative, pretty willing to abrogate my rights if it serves his interests. I prefer nanny-state conservatives to nanny-state liberals, because of the different mix of issues where they want to step on me, but I frankly don't want either one. For example, his turnaround plan begins with the statement that the governor's job is jobs. I disagree: the governor's job is to protect (or reestablish where necessary) the free economy necessary for jobs to come about, not to create regulations to push job creation where it is not economically sustainable without subsidy, as well as protecting our freedom of choice in other ways, such as not interfering in who our marriage partners are. The Daily Kos is against him (a plus) in part because he supports homeschooling (a plus).

Jennifer Granholm, D: The current governor, Granholm has hardly impressed me with her handling of the state's economy, particularly her stand on keeping the small business tax, which is charged on revenue instead of profits, as well as her insistence on maintaining the tax on heavy equipment, which is slowly driving heavy manufacturing out of the state. Moreover, she's a nanny-state type, with proposal after proposal for spending more money on one initiative or another, with the constant theme being increasing the size and reach of government at the expense of private choice; essentially she wants us to pay to reduce our own freedom. On the other hand, she's a competent governor, and takes care of the actual functions of state government well; I just dislike her from a policy perspective.

Douglas Campbell, Green: His "Imagine" bit on the front page of his site really turned me off from a fingertip-feel perspective, and I see why just looking at the top link on his page, about why he is running. I admire the fact that he's not content to let the issues he cares about get ignored by the major parties, and wants to do something to fix that. I disagree with pretty much every position he takes, though, starting with his first position statement: "We must challenge our corrupt and dysfunctional federal government, which is a cause of so many global problems". Um, no, not even close.

Bhagwan Dashairya, US Taxpayers: He seems to be associated with the Constitution Party as well. Unfortunately, his campaign web page doesn't list his positions, just pointing to the party's positions. I generally like the party positions, except that they seem to be heavily social conservative. I like his idea of budgeting by percentage of tax revenue ("indexed budget") rather than by dollar amounts; it's hard to game that system behind the scenes, because budget and revenue are inextricably tied. I could not find much information about Dashairya on the web, so I emailed him. I'll update this if I hear back from him.

Gregory Creswell, Libertarian: Creswell supports ending affirmative action, which I also support. He supports cutting the size of government (for example, ending the single business tax and replacing it not with another tax, but with shrinking the state's budget). He is an unabashed free-market supporter. In fact, judging from his web site alone, I support every position he noted, at least in principle. I wouldn't vote for a Libertarian for national office while we are at war and they oppose fighting the war, but that doesn't matter at the state level.

Unfortunately, it's very difficult to get information about minor-party candidates, because the media does not let their message be easily heard. For example, the governor candidates' debate only included the Republican and Democratic nominees, despite there being five candidates on the ballot. For shame!

My vote for governor: Gregory Creswell.

SECRETARY OF STATE:

Terri Lynn Land, R: The Democrats have vociferously complained about everything about the current Secretary of State for Michigan except that her name is on the ballot. (Today I heard them complaining on the local NPR affiliate that her name is on certain information posted at polling places. Unfortunately for their position, Federal law requires that she do so, as current Secretary of State.) My dealings with the SOS office (two drivers' license changes and two registrations to vote) have been efficient and straightforward, so I've got no complaints on that score. She seems to have made a lot of improvements in efficiency and effectiveness of the office, which is a good thing. While the Democrats complain about election fraud (talk to me about elections in Oklahoma when the Democrats were in charge!), Michigan is one of only three states that use electronic voting machines and have required that the source code be escrowed (a vital and basic precaution against fraud). Michigan is not, it must be noted, known for voter fraud (in the recent past, at least).

Carmella Sabaugh, D: Currently Macomb County Clerk, and apparently efficient and effective at it, from all reports I could find. Unfortunately, she seems to support a lot of measures (like unrestricted absentee and by-mail voting, same-day registration) that would in practice increase voter fraud. It's hard to find objective information about Sabaugh, but she doesn't seem to be excessively good or bad, leaning slightly negative because of the measures she supports which would lend themselves to increased voter fraud.

Lynn Meadows, Green: I could be argued into supporting instant runoff voting, as Meadows does, but not universal registration or public funding of campaigns. And citing truthout is a reason to vote against her right there.

My vote: Terri Lynn Land.

ATTORNEY GENERAL:

Mike Cox, R: Currently Attorney General, Cox has gone after spammers, a topic near to my heart. He seems to be big on collecting child support, strong legal enforcement in general, and in particular upholding consumer protection laws. Now, in general, I disagree with some of those laws, but that's not the AG's job; his job is to enforce the law. As such, I cannot complain about Cox on that score. In fact, I really can't find any good reason to fault Cox's performance in office, generally.

Amos Williams, D: OK, to be blunt, he lost me here. That's the kind of language (and issue choice) designed to inflame the passions of the ignorant. I disagree with all attempts at mob rule tactics, period.

Charles F Conces, US Taxpayers: I can't really disagree with his issues, which largely involve finding places where the government has gone beyond the law and reigning them in. Good so far. On the other hand, I do require that AG candidates be willing to follow the law, even laws they disagree with. This looks like a typical activist who cannot govern in any pragmatic way, because he's too stuck on his ideology to realize that not everyone shares it.

Bill Hall, Libertarian: I like his position on using the AG's office as a watchdog against big government, but that's not really what the office is for. Most importantly, the office has nothing to do with marijuana legalization (a constant stalking horse for many Libertarians), as that is the legislature's job.

My vote: Mike Cox, more or less by default

UNITED STATES SENATOR

Michael Bouchard, R: OK, I think that lawsuit's like California's that try to hold automakers responsible for global warming, and similar stunts, are stupid. But Bouchard's take on the issue is to use the Federal government to remove this from the hands of the states, with extreme prejudice. A federalist he is not. Picking on sexual offenders further by collecting their IP addresses is just dumb: IP addresses change frequently and are hardly a reliable indicator of anything. Trying to blame the Democrats for out-of-control Federal spending is disingenuous: while the Democrats would undoubtedly not improve on the Republicans' dismal record, is is the Republicans' record at this point. He's for earmark reform and a line item veto, both good items. He's against the move to abolish racial preferences in Michigan, which I support. He's virulently anti-abortion. His stand on the war is that we cannot leave Iraq if it would create a vacuum, and he doesn't seem to have a problem with preemptive war.

Debbie Stabenow, D: I cannot vote for a Democrat for national office so long as we are at war and the Democrats generally support measures that would lead to weakening our position in that war. The exception would be for people like Zell Miller or Joe Lieberman, who support fighting the war aggressively. Stabenow is not such a one. (In fact, she voted against the invasion in the first place. At least I can disagree with her consistently: she can be trusted to always do the wrong thing, apparently, on the issues I care about.) Her strong point: she's not Carl Levin. Some endorsement.

David Sole, Green: I didn't even get past his URL. No, no, no, no, no!

W. Dennis FitzSimons, US Taxpayers: I didn't get past his single-page home page, which is basically all quotes about how we're a Christian nation and Bible quotes and such. Uh, no thanks. Just on the ambience I'm getting the ooks.

Leonard Schwartz, Libertarian: I cannot vote for a Libertarian for national office so long as we are at war and the Libertarians generally support measures that would lead to weakening our position in that war. The exception would be for people who support fighting the war aggressively. Schwartz is not such a one. (In fact, he's of the "Bush lied" school, which is a kind of combined intelligence/partisanship test for me.)

My vote: Bouchard, holding my nose the whole way and seriously thinking about not voting at all, if winning the war weren't so damned important.

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS:

Joe Knollenberg, R: For aggressively waging the war. Otherwise a grab-bag of middle-of-the-road Republican positions focused on his district, which is a generally unoffensive thing for a Representative. Frankly, my distaste for the obvious views of those opposed to him gives me more hope for him than anything else. He seems the typical district-focused type, and hasn't made a big impact outside of voting on issues, so far as I can see.

Nancy Skinner, D: I cannot vote for a Democrat for national office so long as we are at war and the Democrats generally support measures that would lead to weakening our position in that war. The exception would be for people like Zell Miller or Joe Lieberman, who support fighting the war aggressively. Skinner is not such a one. (In fact, she "strongly support[s] Rep. John P. Murtha’s four-point plan", which is a transparent way to lose the war, and I don't just mean in Iraq.)

Matthew R. Abel, Green: I'll just quote his site: "Violence is morally wrong and logistically ineffective, because it treats the symptoms of problems, not the root causes. The Bush regime has led our nation on a path to permanent war – and the Democrats have been complicit every step of the way. 9-11 is no reason to support Israel’s crimes against Palestinian humanity; no reason to fight a war for oil in the name of a war on terror; no reason to abandon our own civil rights and the protections of due process in the name of national security." And so, another strong, revolted no for the Green Party candidate.

Adam Goodman, Libertarian: I cannot vote for a Libertarian for national office so long as we are at war and the Libertarians generally support measures that would lead to weakening our position in that war. The exception would be for people who support fighting the war aggressively. Is Adam Goodman such a one? Who knows? Getting on the ballot needs to be followed by something, and I couldn't find any useful information on Goodman at all.

My vote: Knollenberg, by default.

I'm going to end this with the proposals, and come back to the more local races later, because there are a lot of races and candidates, and the people and offices are obscure enough I'll have to do some digging.

PROPOSAL 06-1: Establishes conservation and recreation funds as state constitutional mandates.

My vote: No - I have no objections to such funds, but they should be funded by the legislature, rather than being placed beyond debate by constitutional mandate.

PROPOSAL 06-2: Constitutionally bans, at the state level, affirmative action based on the same criteria in the US Constitution.

My vote: Yes - I am against racial, gender or ethnic discrimination of any kind. The government should be blind to these things. How the US Constitution's ban on this gets interpreted to allow it, just not the way we did it in the past, is beyond me. Then again, much of the interpretation of the Constitution is beyond me, since it makes no sense given the plain meanings of the word. I only figure there's a fifty-fifty chance that this amendment to the state constitution would survive modern court interpretation, but it's better than the chances we have now.

PROPOSAL 06-3: Establishes a hunting season for mourning doves.

My vote: No - I won't vote in favor of something I don't understand. Apparently this was passed into law, so why is there a proposal to pass this into law? Doesn't make sense to me.

PROPOSAL 06-4: Restricts the state's power of eminent domain.

My vote: Yes, yes, yes. Not only is the limitation on takings to give to private entities (individuals or businesses) inherently the right thing to do, it establishes higher standards of proof for takings of property that is "blighted" (which term has often been abused in the past to justify very questionable takings) and compels the government to pay above market value, in fact 125% of market value, for property seized.

PROPOSAL 06-5: Mandate funding (in fact, funding at higher than present levels) for education, including mandatory increases indexed to inflation and shifting massive amounts of local spending to the state.

My vote: NO!!!! This is a classic way of taking someone's policy preferences on education funding and mandating them into a law in such a way that they will always increase, and can never (politically) be fixed, no matter how outrageous they are. If you don't like what the legislature is doing on state budgeting (this goes for Federal budgeting, too), vote them out. But in no way should budgets be compelled by this kind of claptrap.

LOCAL PROPOSAL: Increase the millage above the Waterford Township's Charter limitations to fund parks and recreation.

My vote: Yes. This is actually a hard one. On the one hand, I generally like the way that the parks and recreation systems work here; they provide amazing parks and facilities. On the other hand, I think that there is a reason for this kind of limitation in the first place: to prevent the local government from growing to large. On the third hand, I haven't exactly noticed the creeping tyranny of the Waterford Town Council. On balance, I'd pay the extra tax to get better parks, though I wish I had a better idea of what else the ad valorem taxes are being used for.

That's it for now. I'll have to come back to the other races on the ballot.

Posted by jeff at November 1, 2006 11:54 PM

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Comments

Posted by: Candace at November 7, 2006 1:23 AM

Posted by: Jeff Medcalf at November 7, 2006 1:40 AM