Voting Continues As Money Flows and Maniacs Melt Down Over Cat Litter
Plus: How Not to Vote for Judges
There are three weeks until election day. People whose minds were largely made up have already voted. What people with strong convictions fear the most at this point is voter apathy; it is the midterms, after all, and with the top of the ticket out of the question, many potential voters haven’t paid attention.
Having published my own voter guide, today I’ll share one that takes on some of the imponderable contests and can serve as a better “who not to vote for” guide than the Republican Party’s endorsement list.
Three things are happening now that persuadable voters are the target market.
Tons–and I mean tons– of cash is flowing into races from so-called independent expenditure committees.
Extremists (mostly of the far right persuasion) are now focused on motivating their hard core supporters.
And contradictory polls are getting disproportionate media coverage because they drive “traffic.”
It’s money time. From Politico:
Nothing signifies the climax of campaign season quite like the inevitable surge of independent expenditures. Unencumbered by the individual donation limits that apply to candidates’ campaign accounts, a constellation of committees funded by a cross-section of Sacramento interest groups have uncorked millions in the last month to shape the contents of the next Legislature. By our count on Friday afternoon, they have spent roughly $17 million since September. About a third of that emerged in the last week.
I get a weekly report from the San Diego City Clerk on political donations. Here’s a peek at what caught my eye yesterday.
(As always, I urge readers not to put too much stock in any one transaction. It’s the cumulative amount from an industry that counts towards appreciating a candidate’s leanings. Unfortunately, the way things work for now is that a decent analysis of overall funding isn’t possible until after most people have vote)
Among City Council contests in this week’s report, the District 6 effort tops the list.
D6’s Kent Lee is obviously the consensus candidate among big donors giving to non-candidate control committees: Chamber of Commerce $26,335.47, $9300 SD Police Officers Association
D6’s Tommy Hough funded his own campaign to the tune of $19,000.
City Council member Sean Elo-Rivera’s Yes on B & C took in $100,000 from SD Employees Association, $5000 from County Democratic Party, $2500 from the YIMBY Democratic Club.
City Council member Chris Cate’s Yes on C received $12,763.50 from Community Voices.(Building Industry Vessel for Money)
The campaign over whether or not the City of San Diego should consider Project Labor Agreements (Measure D) has attracted large amounts of campaign money over the past few months. I’d say it’s the marquee battle among local measures.
YES on D received $5,000 from SD Electrical Contractors, $10,000 from Vargas for Congress, $5000 from Re-elect Atkins 2020, $5000 from Monarch Housing & $3001 from Scott Peters’ PAC.
(While there was no reported action from No on D, previous reports show substantial donations from developers and builders.)
Note: Both State and local reports from committees show interest in State Senator Brian Jones’ (D40) re-election effort. Democrat Joseph Rocha has Republicans scared.
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Meanwhile, out on the margins of reality…
On a national level, forces seeking to undermine democracy are poised to strike at various institutions to weaken, discredit, or destroy them. Everything from judges to libraries to schools, to election officials, to public safety is to be retooled to prevent the scourge of “wokeness.”
You don’t have to look very hard to find the connections between Mr. Pillow’s Big Lie crusade and the fear mongering recently aimed (see below) at the Encinitas School Board. It’s the same people, many of whom locally are hiding behind a pulpit flanked by rock guitars and a prosperity gospel.
I’m hesitant to give too much oxygen to the wackos of the right, mainly because I don’t want to make the mistake of repeating falsehoods–which is what they’d like us to do. But the Cat Litter campaign is so over the top that I can’t ignore it.
Gender bending Litter Boxes! Oh, my!
GOP candidates across several states are telling tales of woe about schools putting cat litter pans in bathrooms for children who identify as cats. This is a definite escalation from the “trans kids going to the bathroom” fear mongering common in past years.
From NBC:
The week before, on Sept. 29, Minnesota GOP gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen asked during a campaign stop, "Why do we have litter boxes in some of the school districts so kids can pee in them, because they identify as a furry?"
And during a legislative hearing last month in Tennessee, two Republican state lawmakers discussed the "growing crisis" of public schools providing litter boxes for children who identify as cats, and claimed it's happening across the state.
At least 20 conservative candidates and elected officials have claimed this year that K-12 schools are placing litter boxes on campus or making other accommodations for students who identify as cats, according to an NBC News review of public statements.
Every school district that has been named by those 20 politicians said either to NBC News or in public statements that these claims are untrue. There is no evidence that any school has deployed litter boxes for students to use because they identify as cats.
Locally, the politician action wing of the Awaken Church has decided (with KUSI’s help) that the Encinitas School District is endorsing a Hillcrest “Family Friendly” drag show on October 29. That’s not really quite the story; a pamphlet got shared and now it’s part of The Conspiracy to make children use cat litter.
In fact, while I’m at it, let me give a nod to that group’s voting guide. It’s mostly of the we support Republicans flavor (what’s with endorsement of David Alvarez?), but one thing it’s useful for are ratings on Judicial Races.
I figure if these judges have pissed off the macho man version of San Diego’s church ladies, you should probably vote for them.
Other Pages of this do-not-vote-for guide.
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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com