Minnesota’s Secretary of State was kind enough to post my precinct’s ballot.
So here’s my “to-do” list for the day; my votes are in bold:
POTUS:
JOHN MCCAIN AND SARAH PALIN REPUBLICAN
BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR
CYNTHIA MCKINNEY AND ROSA CLEMENTE GREEN
ROGER CALERO AND ALYSON KENNEDY SOCIALIST WORKERS
RALPH NADER AND MATT GONZALEZ INDEPENDENT
BOB BARR AND WAYNE A. ROOT LIBERTARIAN
CHUCK BALDWIN AND DARRELL CASTLE CONSTITUTION
US Senate
DEAN BARKLEY INDEPENDENCE
NORM COLEMAN REPUBLICAN
AL FRANKEN DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR
CHARLES ALDRICH LIBERTARIAN
JAMES NIEMACKL CONSTITUTION
US Fourth Congressional District
ED MATTHEWS REPUBLICAN
BETTY MCCOLLUM DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR
Minnesota House District 66B
MARK A. ROOSEVELT REPUBLICAN
ALICE HAUSMAN DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR
Soil and Water, Districts 2, 3 and 5
I will follow Saint Paul’s endorsements to the letter. Whatever it was.
Judicial Elections
Well, I won’t be voting for either Howard Orenstein or Gail Chang-Bohr in the Second District Court race: as usual, I’ll be writing in my cat, Nosemarie Berg, for this office, partly as a protest against the paucity of acceptable candidates, partly (as noted in the past) because it’s my way of ensuring that my vote is in fact counted. Of course, I’m not the only one that votes for Nosemarie – she’s actually developed some traction over the years – so I’ll be writing in another pet for another one of the unopposed seats. Will it be Clu, the dog? Candy, the other cat? We don’t know.
Stay tuned.
For lower level offices, I just vote for the guy/gal whose last name is like:
Anderson
Johnson
Olson
Swenson
Larson
Olufson
Unless it is a hyphenated name. Such as Anderson-Pelosi.
Wish I’d had a chance to talk to you about Gail Chang-Bohr. She has one outstanding feature as a candidate, that I think makes her the clear choice in this race: she is not now, and has never been, Howard Orenstein.
For nonpartisan races I do the following:
1) Check to see if there was a party endorsement that doesn’t show up on the ballot (e.g. county commissioner)
2) Run the candidate’s name through http://www.newsmeat.com to see what political campaign contributions s/he has made. That usually gives a good sign of what their political leanings actually are.
3) For judges, I always vote against the incumbent as a protest against the way we do judge’s races in this State.
4) If there isn’t a second name on the ballot and I don’t have a reason to vote for the only candidate, I write in my dad’s name.
5) Except for judges, I write in my own name.
Hey Thorley, how come you never come around here anymore? Sure, you’re a right-wing kook. But you’re much more intelligent than the other wingnut commenters hereabouts.
Joel and Thorley,
This was the year I’d hoped to put some actual research time into the judge races. Alas, it was not to be. Too much stuff going on.
Next time.
Until then, Nosemarie Berg is also highly non-Orenstein.