[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Randy Bayne
The Bayne of Blog's California Notes

My sample ballot came in the mail the other day, and though I knew it would be light it was still a bit of a shock to see just how light. Couple this with a forum post I saw today and I feel like coining a new word — Junapathy.

On June 3, I will be responsible for two choices on my ballot. One on the two propositions, 98 and 99, and the other on an Assembly race. The other two items, a Senate seat and a County Supervisor, have a single candidate running, leaving no choice to make. It’s more like a ratification. Until I received my sample ballot, I didn’t even know there was anyone running for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Senate District. For the record, his name is Anselmo Chavez.

by SweetMelissa [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Constant Readers,

It has been a banner few days for Congressional District 12 candidate Jackie Speier in blogland. And it's all just in time for today's special election. Aside from my sycophantic posts about meeting Jackie and staging a protest because I can't vote in the D12 election, there were two enthusiastic posts by Greg Dewar, the author of both the NJudah Chronicles and Disinformation Rehab. Greg actually lives in Jackie's district, lucky dog!

Greg reminds us all that his district will go unrepresented for several more months unless Jackie gets 50%+1 of of the votes cast today.

Robert Solis gave a message that everyone should be out voting in full force since special elections tend to have a low voter turnout.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

George Skelton at the LA Times comes down hard against the Republican electoral college rigging scheme, but sees a potential hidden benefit for Dems: "Whatever this is, it's brazen -- a strategy based on the assumption of a low voter turnout that leans Republican while the electoral college measure slips under the Democratic radar," Skelton writes. "But I can envision just the opposite. I can see this initiative drawing a lot of media attention that awakens Democratic voters."

On the California Progress Report, former Assemblymember Hannah Beth Jackson provides an update on the status of some of the more significant initiatives on tap for the 2008 election.

Just in time for Labor Day, CPR also hosts a piece by Sam Gold, an injured work, that provides a crash course on recent Capitol activity impacting workers compensation.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

There is no reason for a well-informed Californian not to know about the Dirty Tricks initiative to steal the 2008 election by changing the way the state apportions its electoral votes.  By now practically every newspaper in the state has written an editorial against it.  And now one of the deans of Sacramento, George Skelton, bluntly criticizes the maneuver.

The chutzpah award for this summer has a runaway winner. It's the small team of Republican operatives trying to rig the 2008 presidential race.

"Rig" means tilting the playing field to assure continued Republican occupancy of the White House -- perhaps for a very long time.

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