President/VP: Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Obama's been my guy for four years. He has the heart, mind, temperament, and compassion to do the job. I liked John McCain eight years ago--I would have gladly voted for him then. In the meantime, he's sold out to the religious right and the party establishment he used to rebel against. Obama is the right man to guide us out of the fiscal and military disasters we're in, and McCain is not. That was clear even before he selected unqualified religious loon Sarah Palin as his running mate, a choice which confirms he's not serious about leading well. (Biden voted for the PATRIOT Act, but I'm not abandoning Barack over that.)

Congress (52nd district): Mike Lumpkin. Duncan Hunter the Younger wants the job because his daddy left it to him. Yes, it's nice that he's a Marine reserve officer. He skipped out on debates and candidate panels, as if he doesn't need to present himself to voters. Fuck that. Lumpkin is a retired SEAL commander with experience on Capitol Hill as the Special Operations Command liason to Congress. He's a stand-up guy and I think he deserves a shot at representing us.

State Assembly (75th District): Darren Kasai. He's a bit weak on abortion issues for a Democrat, but I'm worried less about reproductive choice in California than I am the fiscal situation. He favors reintegration assistance for convicts and alternative penalties for nonviolent criminals, and doesn't support building more jails. He doesn't support vouchers, though he does support illegal aliens paying in-state college tuition. He favors concealed carry. He favors gay marriage and opposes abstinence-only sex ed and letting fundie pharmacists refuse to dispense contraceptives. He calls out a specific need to attend to PTSD treatment for returning veterans. His GOP opponent, Nathan Fletcher, seems like a good guy, but I can't find anything about his issue positions.


Poway Unified School District: I'm on record as Seriously Unhappy with the incumbent board, so I won't reelect those two. All of the current board reside in the City of Poway, and I don't believe they serve the half of the district inside San Diego properly. Darin Hunzeker is a Rancho Penasquitos resident, and Tom Giles is from Rancho Bernardo. (A third challenger, Bill Gore, is a TSA screener. That's being "part of the problem", sorry.)

Poway City Council: Chuck Cross and Howard Collins seem like good guys. Chuck lives in the Garden Road neighborhood in southeastern Poway, and the city south of Twin Peaks Road hasn't been well represented on the council. (A third candidate, Jim Cunningham, is tight with people I think have been less than stellar influences in the community. I wasn't wild about incumbent Merrilee Boyack when she ran the first time.