So we voted today and for the curious here is how I voted on my Massachusetts-Essex County-Salem ballot.
- For governor and lieutenant governor: Kerry Healey and Reed Hillman. Not much choice here and I decided that I disliked Deval Patrick’s extreme liberalism more than I disliked Healey liberal Republicanism.
- For US Senate: Kenneth Chase, Republican. I’ll leave the ballot blank before I’ll vote for one of the Kennedy mafia.
- For attorney general: Larry Frisoli, Republican. Don’t know much about him except he’s not Martha Coakley, who’s as much of a grandstander as her predecessor as Suffolk DA, the present AG Tom Reilly.
- For Secretary of State: Blank. The choice is either liberal Democrat Bill Galvin or radical liberal Green Jill Stein. I’ll pass.
- For treasurer: Blank. See “Secretary of State”. The choice was Tim Cahill, Democrat, or James O’Keefe, Green. I might be able to vote for a conservative Democrat theoretically, but no warmed over Socialist is ever going to get it.
- For auditor: Blank. The choice is perennial incumbent Joe DeNucci, Democrat, or Rand Wilson, representing something called “Working Families.” Don’t know and I’m not taking the chance.
- For US representative: Richard Barton, Republican. Incumbent Democrat John Tierney is just another blue-state liberal.
- For governor’s councilor: Timothy Houten, independent. Probably should have left it blank, but this was an anti-incumbency vote. I favor casting incumbent Democrats out.
- For state senator, state representative, district attorney, clerk of the courts, and register of deeds: All blank. All are incumbent Democrats who ran unopposed. Gee, and we wonder why this is a one-party state. If you can’t field candidates for local elections, how will you win the bigger stuff?
- On ballot question #1 to allow the sale of wine in food stores: Yes. Everything I’ve seen in the No campaign has been a lot of baloney, pure “FUD”. We are warned darkly that allowing wine to be sold where food is sold will lead to massive drunk driving and underage drinking is ridiculous. Nearly every other state does it and they don’t have armageddon on the highways. In reality this is about ending a form of market protectionism. The main opponents are the operators of liquor stores that currently have a monopoly on liquor sales and they don’t want that to end. If they were just honest about it, I’d have more respect for them. It wouldn’t change my mind, but I’d have more respect.
- On ballot question #2 to allow a candidate for public office to be nominated for the same office by more than one party. I was torn on this, but voted No. I can see how that could help a small party, like the Conservative Party in New York, but I decided that in Massachusetts this is about helping liberal candidates by combining the power of the Greens with the Democrats.
- On ballot question #3 to allow licensed child care providers in private homes to unionize and bargain collectively with the state. What’s the point of this? The state doesn’t pay them, but it does regulate them. To my mind, this is only about letting the unions get their hands into another profession and soon enough “allowing” them to unionize will turn into “requiring” them to join the union. That’s a bad idea. Is there some law that prevents day care providers from gathering a free association and lobbying their legislators? If not, then what’s the point of this?
And that’s that. Unfortunately, living in Massachusetts as a conservative leaves me with little interest in local elections because there’s no one interested in my vote. Oh well. Hopefully 2008 will provide something more interesting.
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