Capitol Weekly's John Howard reports on the massive early voting in Califorina this year.
"Long before Election Day, millions of Californians
have cast their ballots, most of them by mailing them
in but some of them by dropping off ballots at clerks’ offices across the state. Seven days before the election,
about
two million ballots had been cast in advance in California’s 58 counties, and more were expected.
In tiny, mountainous
Alpine County, the entire electorate – all 814 of them – are voting by mail and a third of them have already
cast ballots.
What was once an Election Day jaunt to a neighborhood
precinct to cast a paper ballot has changed into an
exercise in electronics – 19 counties have electronic voting equipment – a trip to the mail box or a visit to an elections
office to drop off an early ballot.
California’s county election officials are scheduled to submit
their final registration figures, including absentee
and vote-by-mail numbers, to the secretary of state’s office this week. Although the final numbers
aren’t in, the trend is clear: People may not be voting often, but they are voting
early. And while election officials from the secretary
of state on down are loathe to describe the voting
in partisan terms, the pollsters aren’t so shy: Virtually every poll has Barack
Obama winning in California."
In fact, most predict Obama will win big. "Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is poised
to win
California by the biggest landslide in the history
of modern elections
- outweighing even Ronald Reagan's huge wins in his home state - thanks
to a crushing margin of support from young voters,
independents and
Latinos, a new Field Poll shows," reports the Chron's Carla Marinucci.
"Obama and his vice presidential running mate, Sen.
Joe Biden, now lead
Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Alaska
Gov. Sarah
Palin by a whopping 55-33 percent in the nation's most populous state,
according to the Field Poll of 966 likely voters conducted Oct. 18-28."
Meanwhile, the initiative wars are getting nasty, and personal , reports CW's Malcolm Maclachlan. "The battle over a clear-air initiative has degenerated into a sideshow
pitting
political consultants against each other in a heated
war of words, in one of this year’s most expensive initiative
campaigns. A leading spokesman
for the campaign against Proposition 10 says he is being “Swift-boated”
by the Yes on 10 group Californians for Energy Independence, while
Yes on 10 supporters claim the spokesman is a disgruntled consultant
who was rebuffed by the Yes campaign.
"The No on 10 spokesman, Anthony Rubenstein, says he has been unfairly
targeted by a Web site, tonytherube.com, in an effort
to discredit him and the No on 10 campaign.
"Spokespeople for the Yes on 10 campaign denied any connection to the “Tony the Rube” Web site.
"Rubenstein, an energy consultant who has been working
in an unpaid capacity for the No on 10 campaign, which they’ve dubbed
“the $10 Billion Lemon.” The site is tagged with the headline “Tony is
full of baloney” and depicts a man with an elongated Pinocchio nose.
"The site was launched by political consultant Patrick
Dorinson of PD Communi"cations, according to an Oct.
8 e-mail Dorinson sent to reporters. “Tony is like the bad penny of
California politics,” Dorinson wrote. The e-mail says Rubenstein
“offered to help the proponents of Proposition 10 small fee of $30,000
per month.” The e-mail included a PDF called “Tony Blog Announcement,”
which opens in a format written on a virtual version
of PD Communications stationary."
The Obama Golden State landslide may impact the outcome of Props. 4 and 8, says the LADN's Tony Castro. "Even as Barack Obama's
historic candidacy is expected to draw a record number
of Latinos and
African-Americans to the polls, those same voters could help
pass the
statewide measures that oppose gay marriage and abortions
for minors.
"Supporters of those two measures are making a strong
pitch
to Latino voters - especially immigrants who have become voting
citizens - many of them Roman Catholics who oppose abortion and
gay
marriage."
More than $8 million was spent on campaigns in California yesterday.
Electiontrack.com breaks down the big contributions:
No On 8, Equality For All: $2,663,442
Protectmarriage.com - Yes On 8, A Project Of California Renewal: $2,281,632
People Against The Proposition 5 Deception: $498,000
Democratic State Central Committee Of California: $230,100
Marty Block For State Assembly: $182,324
Yes
On 11 - Hold Politicians Accountable, A Coalition Of Consumer,
Senior,
Public Interest, Taxpayer, Community And Business Groups
And Leaders: $162,000
Friends Of Hannah Beth Jackson 2008: $123,215
Campaign For Teen Safety - No On 4 - A Project Of Planned Parenthood Affiliates Of California: $110,352
Eisenhut For Assembly 2008: $108,812
San Gabriel Valley For Better Health Care: $100,000
Meanwhile, voter registration has exploded in Nevada,
and that could mean victory there for Obama as well.
Capitol Weekly does some fuzzy math to predict exact
final vote totals for Obama and McCain in the Silver
State.
"
According to the final numbers of active voters
from the Nevada Secretary of State’s office, there are 1,207,423
registered voters in the state. If turn-out is identical to 2004, there
would be 935, 753 Nevadans casting ballots in this year’s election.
The
combined Democrat and DTS registration is 714,747. If those voters go
to the polls in the same numbers as 2004 voters, which is a big “If,”
and Obama pulls the same percentage of DTS and Democrat
votes that
Kerry did, Obama would receive 480,310 votes, or 51.3 percent of the
vote.
The combined Republican and DTS registration is
613,956. If we assume that John McCain will get the same percentage
of
the GOP and DTS vote, that would compute to 431,611 votes, or 46.1
percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, the state budget seems to be going as well as the state's McCain campaign. The Bee's Jim Sanders reports, "
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger characterized
the state's projected multibillion-dollar budget deficit Wednesday as a
"state of emergency" reflecting money woes worldwide, and he warned
that major public services will be affected.
"Since
everyone has to take a haircut here, it's natural that education gets
hit, law enforcement gets hit, prisons are going to
get hit, and also
health care is going to get hit," Schwarzenegger said. "So, it's just
the math, it's not me, it's mathematics that tell you that you have to
make cuts in those kind of different areas."
Hey, free haircuts!
Capitol Weekly reports the state's lingering budget crisis could mean goodbye again
for some part-time state employees. "
With the state’s budget crisis stretching into the new calendar year,
the fate of thousands of retired annuitants hangs in
the balance. Retired annuitants are employees who have
already opted to leave their full-time job and collect a pension. But under state law,
those workers can return to work on a part-time basis, and collect an hourly wage.
Unlike most state workers, who are unionized employees,
retired annuitants do not have many of the same protections
that full-time and other state workers have. So last summer,
when the governor ordered every state department to
reduce its costs, many retired annuitants were out
of a job."
And finally, some good news for John McCain. "In a shocking reversal, the Alien has switched his endorsement from Barack
Obama to John McCain.
"With major implications for the U.S.
presidential election, political kingmaker the Alien
has changed his
endorsement amid furor. Both political camps are buzzing
about the
implications, as the Alien has correctly predicted the winning
president in every election for the past 28 years.
Ongoing investigation points to Cindy McCain as being
the cause for this historic shift in allegiances.
"Uncovered photos suggest that in a last
ditch effort to help her husband’s failing campaign, Cindy McCain
seduced and then blackmailed the Alien for his endorsement."
Eeeeeewwww...
