I've been remiss in blogging about the initiatives, but stuff has been happening in my real life, so ... sorry about that.
Let me wrap up some concise arguments on the remaining initiatives, and remind you that regardless of whether you're voting right (like me!) or wrong, get out and vote tomorrow.
Mostly, vote for Prop 77, the anti-gerrymandering bill.
Prop 76 sets out a complex set of caps on state government spending, and moves a significant amount of budgetary power to the executive.
I'm wrestling a bit with this one, because of there was ever a proposition that had "Unintended Consequences" spelled out in big red letters, this is the one. The notion of a mechanical set of limits on state policy (limiting spending is in fact limiting policy) kind of creeps me out.
But I'm more creeped out by the flat inability of multiple generations of state politicians to manage the budget.
So I'm a reluctant "yes" on this one. Even the Governor of Colorado - which recently modified a similar spending cap in an election last month - came out in support of it.
Prop 77 is to me the big one. I've railed for years about the habit politicians have of choosing their voters, and this is the first and best chance we have to make a change in this.
It's not perfect, I'm sure that given an infinite amount of time we could do better, but the Democrats had a chance to work out a compromise with the Governator on this and failed, had a chance to mount their own competing vision for redistricting and failed.
This is the one to vote for if you don't vote for anything else. Lots of reasonable people have come out against it because "it hurts Democrats." I'm a Democrat (believe it or not) but I'm an American and a Californian first, and the notion that someone would suggest that doing something bad for my state or country is a good thing because it will help my party is flatly offensive to me.
Props 78 and 79 are Big Pharma's and Big Law's competing versions of how they will get the cost of drugs under control. Not an issue worth an initiative, and both are too badly flawed. No on both of them.
Prop 80 is an effort to have amateurs reregulate the electrical markets for the state. Nein, danke. That's a big "no, thanks."
So to recap:
Yes on 77. yes on 77, and yes on 77.
Yes on 76.
Yes on 75.
Yes on 74.
No on 73, 78, 79, and 80.
Why no on 73?
In a state where my teenage kids can't have any other medical treatment or participate in any school sport without my permission, they can have an abortion.
I heard a talkradio host today say he had issues about the constitutional rights of teens as his reason for not supporting 73.
Since when was the constitution at odds with parents?
ps. agree with you on all the others.
Alan: AL went into his reasoning behind his vote on 73 here
For another perspective, a friend of mine outlined his thinking on the initiatives, especially an extremely strong "no" on 77, here.
I voted for Arnold over Davis because of A's reform platform, and I see his initiatives in this election as a continuation of that platform, so that's how I'll be voting.
Thanks Tagryn...