Here are some quick updates on what’s happening in politics and government this week:
- Do you enjoy mazes? Fall corn mazes are awesome. The one maze campaign professionals do not love is the L.A. County Registrar of Voters’ website. It is a maze that one must navigate in order to find campaign finance disclosure information. When you reach the end, you will not find the information you need. Currently the “Campaign Finance Reports: Election Index” page lists a lot of elections, but the most current is “June 7, 2022”. The “Campaign Finance Reports: Measure Index” page does not list any committees more recent than 2020 even though there are measures on the county’s November ballot. Seriously?!
- Stonewall Democratic Club, one of the largest clubs in California, is in the midst of upheaval just weeks before election day. Immediately following the August meeting, the entire Political Action Team resigned to protest actions taken by President Alex Mohajer and his supporters. An “Acting” Political VP has been appointed to keep things moving until a special election can be held at the September meeting. Wehoville,com was kind enough to print the entire resignation letter and provide additional background on the situation.
- Ballot statements are an effective way for candidates and propositions to get a message directly to the voters. Ballot statements are included in official voter guides mailed to registered voters and posted online. Why not submit a ballot statement? Maybe a candidate is busy poking at Governors in other states and forgot? Calpeek is trying to think of reasons why the Governor and candidate for re-election Gavin Newsom would not have submitted his. Newsom’s opponent, Brian Dahle, submitted a ballot statement (although we do wonder if he intended to submit the picture that accompanies the statement). You can read the Official Voter Information Guide here.
- In order to preserve harmony around the water cooler, it was agreed to not engage in discussions about our state’s many sports teams, but there is always an exception to the rules. In this case, some mocking occurred when the S.F. Chronicle wrote about baseball and wine. “The Giants are the first U.S. professional sports team to hire a master sommelier to oversee and expand its wine programming”. Wine programming? Well, if my team played the way the Giants have this year, I would whine too.