06.03.10
Kevin’s June 2010 OC Voter Guide
So this is my voting guide for June 2010. It’s specific to republican registered voters in orange county, ca. Those outside of orange county can disregard the OC-specific stuff. I justified my decisions in detail for the larger of the candidates and measures. Overall, I focused on policies and candidates which are anti-illegal immigration, business friendly and promoting less taxes.
Prop 13: YES
This promotes upgrading buildings to be earthquake safe because the owner is not required to reassess the cost of the building (to pay higher taxes). The building is reassessed if the owner sells it.
Prop 14: YES
Creates an open primary where voters can vote for any candidate regardless of their stated party preference.
Prop 15: NO
Allocates public funds for the purpose of secretary of state campaigning. California has very little funds as it is, we dont need to use our resources for campaign advertising.
Prop 16: NO
This one is VERY misleading. The private electricity companies like PG&E and Edison are worried that public utilities are going to take over. Typically, public utility rates are much cheaper for the customer. The purpose of this proposition is to add another roadblock in the way of creating a public utility company. By adding a 2/3 vote, they give themselves an extra chance to lobby and advertise to sway voters from getting a public utility.
Prop 17: NO
This one is also misleading. The advertisements by the insurance companies make it sound like they just want to give you a discount if you switch insurance companies. But the wording specifically allows them to RAISE or lower your rates based on your history of insurance coverage. So, people with a gap in coverage or lack of coverage (new drivers) can actually have higher rates.
Governor (Republican Primary): Steve Poizner
Steve is against illegal immigration, supports Arizona’s SB1070 law, preventing employers from hiring illegal immigrants, against amnesty and securing the borders. Negative ads that he supported removing prop 13 are misleading. Poizner attempted to raise property taxes to fund repair of aging schools. Other negative ads say he supports abortion, which is true and something I support. Finally, there are negative ads that say he increased insurance agency budget. This is not true — they’re comparing budgets that started before he was in office and most of which he didn’t have control of. If you look at the specific part of the budget that he had control of, it went down by over 13%.
The only other real competitor for this republican primary is Meg Whitman. There are a couple reasons why I don’t like her as a candidate. First, she did eBay a disservice as CEO in the last 5 years. eBay is famous for horrible customer service and alienating its customers. They also made some bad acquisitions (e.g. skype), further hurting their image. This is all due to poor management at the executive level, of which Meg was at the helm. Good executive decisions are the most important thing to have in a governor. Second, Meg openly opposes SB1070 and in the past has supported Boxer — someone who has consistently blocked anti-illegal immigration legislation for California.
Senate (Republican Primary): Chuck DeVore
Chuck is anti-illegal immigration, against amnesty and supports SB1070. He is against sanctuary cities and supports e-verify to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants.
Chuck’s closest republican opponent is Carly Fiorina who is not as strong in the anti-illegal immigration arena. Additionally, she was fired from her post as CEO of HP. During her time as CEO, HP struggled significantly which shows poor leadership qualities.
Lieutenant Governor (Republican Primary): Scott Levitt
There’s not a lot of info on the lt. candidates for some reason. Probably because they have a limited role. I could only find info on 3 candidates and of those there were only 2 candidates which listed where they stood on the issues. Scott came out ahead for me because the lt. gov’s job is to sit on the CSU and UC college boards and he is for anti-illegal immigration legislation. State-funded education is an enormous component of our overall state resources and it’s important to only dedicate those resources to citizens.
Secretary of State: Damon Dunn
Damon supports IDs at the voting polls and advocates a business climate that will bring businesses back to California.
Superior Court Judge 16: Gerald Klein
Superior Court Judge 50: Julian Bailey
Board of Education 2: Alexandria Coronado
Board of Equalization: Michelle Steel
Controller: David Evans
Assessor: Claude Parish
County Clerk: Tom Daly
Public Admin: Colleen Callahan
Sheriff-Coroner: Sandra Hutchens
Treasurer-Tax Collector: Keith Rodenhuis
Attorney General: John Eastman
Insurance Commissioner: Brian Fitzgerald
Superintendent Public Instruction: Karen Blake