[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 Controller: John Chiang.

What does the CA Controller do?: The Controller’s basically in charge of CA’s money. She / he’s responsible for making sure our state budget’s spent properly and helps administer state pension funds. The Controller also serves on a number of state boards and commissions.

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Environmentally speaking, this one’s a close call. Both candidates running — Chiang and Joe Dunn — have the endorsements of both the Sierra Club AND the California League of Conservation Voters.

But Chiang — a tax lawyer out of Torrance — got the endorsement of another org I support: California NOW. This pro-choice guy’s even served on the board of Planned Parenthood, LA.

And as a girl who does the bulk of her research through the internet, I have to say I really found Chiang’s website much more informative, giving me the exact info I was looking for, including Chiang’s reasons for running.

Dunn’s black & white site, in contrast, reads like a slick film promo (Slogan: “The man who cracked Enron.” Sidebar: “Meet Joe Black.” Oh wait, I mean Dunn.), giving v. little actual info — I couldn’t find out what specific issues Dunn plans to address if elected Controller. And while this accomplished trial lawyer did lead an important state senate investigation of Enron, I’m not too keen on the website’s rather sensational portrayal of Dunn’s role there. I mean, “Scandal” tops the sidebar links.

Not saying Dunn’s a bad guy. The Enron thing WAS big, and I liked that Dunn played a part in CA’s lawsuit against the tobacco industry. But I think that politicians DO need to respect the voters by providing pertinant and important information about themselves and their platforms. Slogans are fine — Just give us a way to go beyond them.

I also think that California could use some more Asian-Americans serving in the government. This certainly isn’t my main criteria, but it’s definitely icing on the cake.

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