Boating Day!

Er, uh, I mean, Voting Day! But I went boating instead along the Sacramento River with some oppo researchers who are near and dear to my heart, since I already cast my absentee ballot last week.And because thiselection is so utterly boring.

Greg Lucas, who reports for the San Francisco Chronicle, has this to say on the SF Chron blog about absentee ballots.

How low can we go? Absentee ballot returns down The prediction is for a record low turnout today, and judging from the return of absentee ballots so far that forecast may turn out to be dead on.

Though Monday, 4.3 million voters received absentee ballots — nearly 29 percent of California’s 15 million eligible voters. More than 2.6 million voters received ballots automatically by asking their county to designate them permanent absentee voters.

In some counties, more than half the eligible voters received ballots in the mail. Sonoma County mailed ballots to 55 percent of its voters. Alameda mailed to 41 percent of its voters. San Francisco 32 percent.

However return rates have been low.

Statewide,… Read More

There are loads of hot races here in Orange County, and with our 21st Century Registrar of Voters doing his utmost to feed our appetite for results it shouldn’t be too late an election night (barring another Diane Harkey/Tom Harman-esque squeaker).

I’m running the traditional predictions contest on OC Blog, but I’ll post my own prognostications on the competitive races here:

2nd Supervisor District: OC Treasurer John Moorlach trounces government union proxy Dave Shawver by 20 points.

5th Supervisor District: Pat Bates edges Cassie DeYoung out for first place (both in the low 40s), but it goes to a November run-off.

67th… Read More

Oakland voters go to the polls today to choose their new mayor. I’m betting that it will be a run-off between City Council President Ignacio DeLaFuente and former Congressman Ron Dellums. I’d love to see DeLaFuente get enough votes to prevent a run off, but I’m guessing that there are enough wackos in my city to help Dellums make it into a November run off.

In the last days of the campaign, I received several phone calls in support of DeLaFuente, including one from the current mayor, Jerry Brown. But the most fascinating political marketing call I received was this message left on my phone over the weekend. It was a woman’s voice reading the following script:

“Ron Dellums left office 8 years ago to become a… Read More

Deal or No Deal?… I said I would get some flak for blogging the Horn-Thompson Supe Survey a few days ago. John Nienstedt, of the very credible (unlike, perhaps, the anon numbers I posted) Competitive Edge Research & Communication, sends alongthis appropo missive:

Barry, Barry, Barry: Yeah I’ll give you some flak. Last I checkedThompson’s employment designation isn’t "businessman," its "regionalbusiness administrator." Why does that matter? Because no self-respectingpollster (or pollster who deserves respect) would screw that up.

So bear with me now: backing the unsures out of Q3, this poll is sayingthat Thompson should win with 65% of the vote. Now, the margin of samplingerror on that question for a sample size of 377 (taking into account thatwe’re backing out the unsures) is plus or minus 4.8%. That means that, if Thompson gets less than 60% of the… Read More

It’s overcast and starting to rain in San Diego County, at least downtown. Not too many rainy days in the year here. If the rain picks up, expect turnout to drop. And more pile ups on the freeways, of course.… Read More

I know everyone can hardly wait to see if Keith Richman or Claude Parrishbecomes the GOPTreasurer nominee.

But in LA County We got other stuff going on.

Judges: Everyone has trouble figuring out judges. Below are Conservative LA County Sup Mike Antonovich’s picks. Other sources are LA GOP DA Steve Cooleyor Robyn Nordell’s great site.

Long Beach: Is picking a Mayor. Look like the Dems will pick this one up. You can read the most recent article on the race here.People have to vote twice!See my last post with links here. Torrance: Will Dan Walker survive? this is a hotly contested race. My takes are here.Vote Rod Guyton for Council.

Sheriff: Lee Baca needs to… Read More

My, my…someone in the governor’s office has been a busy little beaver. Why, it would appear that Gov. Schwarzenegger’s "Special Assistant" Terry Tamminen has written a book that lays out a strategy for filing class action lawsuits against oil and auto companies.

Listen up Chamber of Commerce. If ever there was a reason to elect Chuck Poochigian as the next Attorney General of California, this is it. If Jerry Brown is the state’s next lawyer, get ready for a litigious four — or heaven forbid, eight — years in office.

Governor Schwarzenegger has some explaining to do. Perhaps he’ll enlighten us on his bus trip, starting tomorrow.

The following book description is from Amazon.com. The book is entitled, "Lives per gallon: The true cost of our oil addiction" by Terry Tamminen. This book has not yet been released. "How much would you pay for a gallon of gas? $2.50? $10.00? Would you pay with the health of your lungs or with years taken from your… Read More

RC’s ace reporter on things going on out here in the West penned this piece in today’s Roll Call Newspaper: Parties on Edge in California By David M. Drucker Roll Call Staff The wild special election to replace former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R) in California’s 50th district comes to a head today, and the outcome will have broad implications in the battle for the House and on the role issues such as illegal immigration and ethics might play in the fall.… Read More