California Primary Election Guide - June 7th, 2022
By request, the Centrist Party is being pulled out of mothballs to publish a guide to the key races in Tuesday's primary election. For those who are not familiar with the Centrist Party, I created it years ago. I'm the only member currently and all endorsements are mine and mine alone.
United States Senate - Full Term and Short Term
There are two elections for the U.S. Senate on the June ballot. One is for the remainder of the term of Vice-President Kamala Harris. Governor Newsom appointed Alex Padilla to that seat. This short-term election is for the remainder of that term, which ends on 1/3/2023. There are 8 candidates in that race. All 8 of whom are also on the ballot for the full term in the U.S. Senate that will begin on 1/3/2023. The difference is that there are 15 additional candidates on the full-term ballot.
Incumbent Alex Padilla was appointed to replace Vice-President Harris and he has done a good job. He will undoubtedly be one of the two candidates who will advance to the general election. I'd like to see him face another Democrat in the general election and that is why I'm going to vote for Dan O'Dowd in the election for the full Senate term. I will vote for Alex Padilla in the short term election. I will admit I will almost certainly vote for Senator Padilla in the general election for the full term. I just don't want Republican Mark Meuser to be the general election opponent of Senator Padilla. It will make the race far more expensive than it needs to be, and our political capital should be used in other, more critical races for control of the Senate across the country.
California Governor
Gavin Newsom will almost certainly be reelected as our state's Governor. He has made serious missteps along the way. The French Laundry restaurant fiasco comes to mind. I do not like his "rules don't apply to me and other elites". I'm a firm believer that leadership is about setting an example rather than following the "do as I say, not as I do" dictum.
That being said, he is the only good choice in this race.
Los Angeles Mayor
There were a number of candidates vying to replace outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti. It is now a two-person contest, with other candidates having become irrelevant. Billionaire developer Rick Caruso and Congresswoman Karen Bass. I live in the district represented by Karen Bass. She has done a fine job in Congress. The negative ads being run by Caruso and the police union that strongly supports him are filled with hypocrisy. They take issue with Ms Bass having missed 562 votes while in Congress. That turns out to be le less than 9% of all votes she could have participated in. Meanwhile Caruso was absent from 38% of Los Angeles Police Commission meetings while he was a member of that group. The ads accuse Ms Bass of taking money from "sleazy" special interest groups and try to link her by association with indicted members of the L.A. City Council. There is no linkage between Ms Bass and the corruption of those who were indicted. Meanwhile, Caruso is guilty of using funding from another special interest group that I consider to be sleazy, that being commercial real estate developers.
Karen Bass is the only good choice here.
United States Senate - Full Term and Short Term
There are two elections for the U.S. Senate on the June ballot. One is for the remainder of the term of Vice-President Kamala Harris. Governor Newsom appointed Alex Padilla to that seat. This short-term election is for the remainder of that term, which ends on 1/3/2023. There are 8 candidates in that race. All 8 of whom are also on the ballot for the full term in the U.S. Senate that will begin on 1/3/2023. The difference is that there are 15 additional candidates on the full-term ballot.
Incumbent Alex Padilla was appointed to replace Vice-President Harris and he has done a good job. He will undoubtedly be one of the two candidates who will advance to the general election. I'd like to see him face another Democrat in the general election and that is why I'm going to vote for Dan O'Dowd in the election for the full Senate term. I will vote for Alex Padilla in the short term election. I will admit I will almost certainly vote for Senator Padilla in the general election for the full term. I just don't want Republican Mark Meuser to be the general election opponent of Senator Padilla. It will make the race far more expensive than it needs to be, and our political capital should be used in other, more critical races for control of the Senate across the country.
California Governor
Gavin Newsom will almost certainly be reelected as our state's Governor. He has made serious missteps along the way. The French Laundry restaurant fiasco comes to mind. I do not like his "rules don't apply to me and other elites". I'm a firm believer that leadership is about setting an example rather than following the "do as I say, not as I do" dictum.
That being said, he is the only good choice in this race.
Los Angeles Mayor
There were a number of candidates vying to replace outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti. It is now a two-person contest, with other candidates having become irrelevant. Billionaire developer Rick Caruso and Congresswoman Karen Bass. I live in the district represented by Karen Bass. She has done a fine job in Congress. The negative ads being run by Caruso and the police union that strongly supports him are filled with hypocrisy. They take issue with Ms Bass having missed 562 votes while in Congress. That turns out to be le less than 9% of all votes she could have participated in. Meanwhile Caruso was absent from 38% of Los Angeles Police Commission meetings while he was a member of that group. The ads accuse Ms Bass of taking money from "sleazy" special interest groups and try to link her by association with indicted members of the L.A. City Council. There is no linkage between Ms Bass and the corruption of those who were indicted. Meanwhile, Caruso is guilty of using funding from another special interest group that I consider to be sleazy, that being commercial real estate developers.
Karen Bass is the only good choice here.
posted by me at 6:46 AM
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