The Winships’ Republican Primary Picks

You sit and contemplate what to do on June 5th.  Who should you vote for?  Do you waste your vote and throw it away in an abject attempt to voice a protest?  Do write in Mickey Mouse for all the major political seats?  Do you complain bitterly that no one on the ballot is worthy of even thinking about?  The new form for casting your vote in the Open Modified Primary at first is quite confusing.  OK, you get your Republican Ballot…..which is on the following page after the Democratic Ballot in your Orange County Sample Ballot publication.

As you stare blindly onto the Presidential selections which only includes Republicans, your eyes may dart between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.  Rick Santorum dulls the senses….at this point.   Some guy named Fred Karger sits in the third position in the list of Presidential Republican Candidates.  They even have Newt Gingrich on the list….right above the Write in area.  We have no clue of how many candidates have qualified to be Write in Candidates.  If they are not a Qualified Write In Candidate…their vote will be considered an UnderVote and will not be counted.  So, if you want to know how many votes Mickey Mouse got….well, you are out of luck – Mickey failed to qualify for the June 5th election.

The next group on the Republican ballot is the list of possible 74th Assembly District – County Central Committee members to chose from.  You get to pick out your six favorites out of the sixteen listed candidates.  The following people we do not know and there for did not vote for:  Jon Aiken, Bill Dunlap, John Draper, John Warner, Jeff Mattews, Daniel Marshall, Gary Morse and Richard “Dick” Palmer.  Two folks we felt badly about not voting for included Scott “Scotty” Peotter and stalwart Repbuplican volunteer Emily Sanford.  Both are very nice folks, but we had to make our minds up based on the best available and productive  when it would come to Republican Central Committee duties:  Rhonda Rhorabacher, Christina L. Shea, Don Hansen, Thomas A. “T.J.” Fuentes Jr., Allan Bartlett and The Big Meany:  Scott Baugh!  It was odd that there were six open write in spots and no one listed as Qualifed to be included.

For  U.S. Senator you get a choice of 24 Candidates and one write in spot.  Still don’t know who is Qualified to run as a write in for U.S. Senator.  Of the thirteen Republicans listed……the only one that caught our eye was Nachum Shifren…..whoever he is.  Interesting name but we were still pulling for Kabiruddin Karim Ali…who is a Peace and Freedom Candidate.  An even more interesting name …we thought.    Perinneal Libertarian Candidate Gail K. Lightfoot has always been our back up protest vote, but this year we just had to bite the bullet and vote for the Incumbent  Dianne Feinstein.  Oh, we know that everyone we like has been pushing Dan Hughes….but come on folks…..who is Dan Hughes?  We are sure he is a wonderful guy and all…but…what has he done to give us hope that the United States Senate will be getting another Scott Brown.  Since we support Elizabeth Warren over Scott Brown….well….we just had to go with Dianne.

In the 48th Congressional District, it was great to see John Campbell missing and Dana Rohrabacher right there!  Hey, we finally have those warm and fuzzy feelings again.  The last time we felt this good about our Congressman was when Chris Cox was there.  Some guy named Ron Varasteh is the Democrate running against him and since Ron never called us –  Sorry Ron…..Dana gets our vote – hands down!

In the 74th Assembly race, we have a real funny one going on there.  Alan Mansoor, who we gave a few bucks to the first time he ran and then never answered any of our e-mails is being supported by the hardcore Republican cadry including “Big Meany” Scott Baugh – who we already voted for.  Bob Rush is a great guy that has been fighting city hall for several years about the Rehab home invasion and did a pretty good job of bringing the issues to the public.  Bob however is running as a UnEndorsed Democrat Party representative.  His positions are a little hazy but he is doing a pretty good job for his first time out into the arena.  Well, that leaves the stoic, quixotic, pragmatist Newport Beach City Council member Leslie Daigle.  Leslie has a few well positioned and powerful moneyed folks that are fighting against the tide of massive resistance that speaks Republican Central Committee talk…right now.  In a series of hit pieces from the Big Bad Meanies…….( 4 so far!) they have accused her of everything under the sun including robbing a liquor store when she was 10 years old.  Just kidding….. Anyway, we voted without doubt or trepidation….. for Leslie.  When the party uses this much muscle and money against someone….there is every chance that Daigle is probably….. just fine to represent the 74th Assembly District.

For the 37th State Senate seat….what a joke!  We have Mimi Walters against year in year out candidate Democrat Steve Young.  Steve is funny as a crutch but seldom gets enough donations to fund his Christmas Card list.  Mimi is currently being accused of using her position to make sure her husband got some State Government Contract.  Are the charges true?  Who cares….they are all dirty…aren’t they?  Hilarious, don’t you think?  Well, we voted for Mimi.  She refuses to answer our e-mails…but she does talk to us about how bad our good friend Eddie Rose is…..every chance she gets.  Mimi doesn’t talk real issues much.  But then Steve doesn’t talk issues much either.   Mimi is just one of those folks that got lucky, is cute enough and… she tries to stay low key.  We hope Mimi will at least answer one or two of our e-mails after she is re-elected.  Hope-a-hope!

For Judge Superior Court #1 –  Hey, we just did what we were told and voted for Deb Chuang.  Hope we never have to come before any judges…cause we know nothing about most of them.  At least she is running against someone….which is refreshing!

We voted YES on Prop. 28…just because we don’t like being told what to do…so much.  If we don’t like it later…we can always do another Initiative right?

We voted NO on Prop. 29…just because we don’t like being told what to do….so much.  If we are wrong…..we can always do another Initiative…right?

The County Issues:

We voted  No on Proposition A

We voted Yes on Proposition B

*We figured if we voted for ONE of the TWO….we couldn’t go too wrong.

OK, we did our voting early at the Registraf of Voters today.  It was fun not to fight any crowds, find quick parking and get our voting done, well in advance of June 5th.  You do have to bring your Sample Ballot to the ROV if you want to cast your ballot early.  Actually, it amounts to filing by mail, except that you cast your ballot on sight and you don’t have to sign up for VBM (Vote by Mail)….which means that the ROV sends you your ballot in the mail for the following elections.  We prefer to leave our options open.  Vote on Election Day if we want or Vote early… when we want.

So, folks…..in two weeks the election will be over and we can all look back and determine how many we got right and how many we got wrong.  This is the great American Election Cycle and we have already participated.  Hopefully, you will participate as well –  every vote does count, unless of course you attempt to write in a Candidate that is not qualified to run as a write in.  Good luck to all your friends and those you want to find in office.

The Republican Ballot…..for June 5th, 2012……..breaking new ground as usual.