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.
Technorati Tags:election, Massachusetts, voting
We had a tough choice for State Rep. in my area of MA.
Pro-Life/Anti-Marriage – Marian Walsh (D)
Pro-Marriage/Pro-Abortion – Doug Obey (R)
I chose Obey in a close prudential judgment call. I think he can help more in the Marriage effort then he will hurt in the Abortion fight – he can’t make things much worse … I hope. Considering the environment she operates in, Walsh has been a good supporter of Life, but its not likely she is going to be able to improve the situation.
Voted exactly the same as you, Dom. The difference is that I got to vote against Barney Fwank (left it blank) and a couple of more blanks against local incumbrents.
Tough to be a faithful Catholic in this state. It’s mostly a situation of voting for the lesser evil.
Voted similarly, but left with a sour feeling………do I dare even turn on the news?
The mom and pop places will survive by offering expertise and specialization. Supermarket shelf-stockers can’t tell you what wine to buy for your salmon. They’re also not going to stock a more obscure wine. You can bet there’s going to be a lot of Yellowtail at Shaw’s.
The beauty of the free market is that it offers an encouragement to the business to continually improve his offerings.
I know that when I’m looking to buy several bottles of wine, I’m going to my favorite wine retailers. But if I’m at the market buying the ingredients for a specific dish and I realize I don’t have any sauvignon blanc at home, for example, it will be nice not having to make yet another stop on the way home.
Pretty reasonable choices all the way, Dom. I opted for Christy Mihos, the former convenience-store magnate, for governor, as a protest vote against the whole corrupt system in Boston. The difference between what liberal Healey and liberalissimo Patrick would do didn’t seem enough to outweigh that.
I don’t know Frisoli personally, but I assume he’s part of the Cambridge family of that name, and it does include some committed Catholics.
On #1, a No vote, but my reasons may be a little ideosyncratic. Shopping is enough of a hassle already, without having the grocery stores devote another aisle (or two!) to stuff I’m not interested in.
#2: Yes; the Massachusetts laws that create extra burdens on minor parties are invidious.
#3: Do I want some labor union to be involved in defining standards, policies, and practices for child-care providers? No.
Part of the problem is that local elections are non-partisan by law, which means that you usually end up with two Democrats facing each other in selectman or mayoral races in November. It doesn’t give the Republicans a chance to develop candidates.
That’s not to take the state party off the hook. It’s an embarrassment when Republican incumbents endorse Democrat candidates over Republicans. It happens all the time.
There’s good news if you know where to find it: i.e., just think of the pro-abortion Republicans who lost: Kerry Healey, Charlie Bass, Mark Ehrlich (Gov of MD), Lincoln Chafee. Not a bad night.
By the way, Dcn. John, there is a Mass. Conservative Party, and also a Mass. Constitution Party. I believe Phil Lawler’s Senate campaign was with the former.
Larry Frisoli got my vote as he was the only pro-family, pro-life candidate on the entire ballot.
He is the brother of Mary Ann Harold who is working hard to get Catholic radio on the airwaves in Massachusetts.
Living in a town with 7 places to buy booze on one street (one half mile long street) I voted NO in question 1. I am glad it was defeated.
My votes:
1) Governor—Kerry Healey, with my nose held as the least (not by much) of four evils. What an awful slate!
2) Senator—Anyone but Fat Boy Murderer Ted Kennedy! Ken Chase is a good man, but he was doomed.
3) US Rep—I live in Ashland, so I am stuck with unopposed liberal CINO James McGovern (D – Worcester). Left it blank, but wanted to write in Ron Crews who ran against him in 2004, but didn’t know his address.
4) State Rep—Left it blank. Tom Sannicandro (D, unopposed) is a parishioner at my parish, but consistently votes pro-abortion, pro-sodomy marriage. My parish priests try to get him to see the truth, but to no avail.
5) State Sen—Left it blank. Karen Spilka (D, unopposed) consistently votes pro-culture of death. Don’t know if she’s nominally Catholic, don’t really care.
6) Auditor—Voted for DeNucci. I’ve been told he is an old-style pro-life Dem. I can live with that.
7) Sec of State—Voted for Galvin, mainly as least of two evils against Green-Rainnbow loopy loser.
8) Treasurer—Voted for Cahill.