I’ve just finished reading the dozen or so newspapers I read every morning for the digest of news and commentary on this page, and while I see that these papers list their endorsements of candidates and ballot propositions, exhortations encouraging us to vote today appear to be missing. There’s more attention paid to why it may take so long to count the votes, what the polls say about how close some of the races will be, and dire predictions of a low turnout.
Politics is not a spectator sport. There’s a lot on the ballot and a lot at stake. All of the statewide offices are up for grabs and there are many important local races that will for all intents and purposes be decided today because the districts favor one party or another in June. The Attorney General—the state’s prosecutor and our attorney on all sorts of legal issues is on the ballot. There are only two state ballot propositions on the ballot, but they are important and speak to our future. The entire nation is watching us to see what we do in several, not just one Congressional race.
If nothing else grabs you, take another look at what the California League of Conservation Voters said in an article we ran a couple of weeks ago: The June Primary Will Decide the Environmental Balance In the Legislature.
As Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation put it:
During an interview today, I was asked why people should vote in this election. It’s a good question, given all the concerns that have been raised about election security, the negative campaigning, the short lineup of propositions. Why vote? It’s simple. We vote because politicians pay attention to the people who vote. When more of us vote, politicians are more likely to represent the interests of all of us, and not just a few.
Plain and simply, California is where one-eighth of the entire country lives. As a state, we are one of the largest economies of the world, dwarfing in size most countries. What we do here as a state affects other states as we frequently serve as the incubator of ideas and trends that are exported to other states, often for the betterment of the whole country. When the federal government, 3000 miles away and often controlled by the electoral votes of other states fails us, we have to step in and take care of ourselves.
Most importantly, this is where we live. What we allow to happen in Sacramento and elsewhere in this state affects our daily lives directly– our kids’ education from early years to college that is the basis for our future, the air we breathe, the jobs and careers we have, our health care, the fairness and justice of our courts and political system. The list of how state government affects our lives in the Golden State goes on as long as we can think about it.
If you need information on any of the races, check out the information we have assembled on all state and many local races and read what the press has had to say about the “down ticket races.”
If you need an editorial, consider the LA Daily News today :
At first glance, it may seem like there’s not much at stake in today’s election. But there is.
In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, voters will choose between moderate Steve Westly and partisan Phil Angelides. The outcome will have a profound effect on this fall’s campaign, as well as the next four years in California….
This is hardly an election to sit out. Of course, that’s what the professional politicians and their spinners would like you to do. They bank on the assumption that too few voters care enough to vote. It lets them happily do their special interests’ bidding.
So don’t be fooled into thinking this election doesn’t mean much. It means a lot, and one way or the other, we will feel its repercussions for years.
Prove the experts wrong, and vote today, as we did in record numbers in the “Special Election” last year. Ass Scoop Nisker used to say on the radio, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.”
