[How I, a registered democrat, am voting for the environment in the June 6, 2006 primaries in California. I’m stuck voting at my old address at zip 90035. Here’s my current voting list.]

My vote for CA Governor: Phil Angelides.

What does the CA Governor do?: The Governor’s the head of the Executive branch of CA state govt. This means he / she’s in charge of carrying out state laws, and picks the people to take charge of state departments, agencies, boards, commissions and councils to carry those laws out.

The governor’s also commander-in-chief of CA’s military forces, activating CA’s National Guard if necessary and directing all state agencies in state emergencies.
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If you’re disillusioned about politics, the dems running for CA Governor won’t help you. AT ALL.

The diff between the 2 top candidates for the Dems, Phil Angelides and Steve Westly? Most can’t say.

What’s clear is that — in light of the gross negative ads run by both sides — Angelides and Westley aren’t afraid to sling mud at each other. And they both have serious moolah — enough that all this mudslinging happens on TV. Constantly.

Angelides gets his money from the wealthy Sacramento developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos, who “recently gave $3.75 million to a firefighter and law enforcement campaign committee that began airing television commercials on Angelides’ behalf.”

Westly, former eBay exec and current state controller, has his own money — $22.5 million of which he put into his campaign ads.

The problem with those ads: They were negative ones, falsely accusing Angelides of favoring policies that taxed the middle class. The ads were especially heinous, considering that Westly said he’d run a “positive campaign” with no attack television commercials against Angelides.

So then Angelides ran some negative ads against Westly — for running negative ads.

These aren’t the first negative ads Angelides has run. This wealthy developer was behind a super negative ad back in 1994, when he was running for treasurer against David Roberti. Angelides’ ad falsely linked Roberti to abortion clinic bombings.

Which is why The LA Weekly endorses Westly; the news mag says Westly shows “more signs of possessing a soul.”

Angelides, however, clearly has the bulk of endorsements. The 2-term treasurer and ex-party chairman’s got Senators DiFi and Boxer, California Teachers Association, LACYD, as well as the major labor unions, rooting for him.

On the upside, both candidates have made the environment a part of their platform. According to the Sierra Club, “Angelides has guided California’s huge pension funds, CALPERS and CALSTRS, into green investments in smart growth and clean technology. Westly has taken on the auto companies on global warming and the power plants on marine life protection.”

I’m voting for Angelides because he seems marginally more enviro-progressive. Both candidates have the Sierra Club’s endorsement, but only Angelides has the California League of Conservation Voters‘.

I s’pose that, whoever wins, the environment will do okay. But though I’m not following LA Weekly’s endorsement, I agree with its sentiment: “No more of the filthy campaigning that alienates a third of the populace.”

The other dems running are: Joe Brouillette, Vibert Greene, Barbara Becnel, Michael Strimling, Jerald Robert Gerst, and Frank A. Macaluso, Jr. They’re not expected to win. I could, however, be convinced to vote for a progressive rogue candidate, if for no other reason than to protest all these negative ads –

Tags: california, governor, stevewestly, westly, philangelides, angelides, environment, democrat, vote, voting

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