my polling place

Though even most Angelenos don’t know it (or don’t care), there’s a local election going on here in LA today for School Board, Community College Board and a couple of city measures. I have to admit I did not pay much attention to it until today, when I had to figure out how I was voting, though we have been receiving tons of candidate-related mail for the past month. I am in a mixed marriage — politically speaking (though you’ll have to guess which I am!) — and so my husband and I receive all the mailings geared toward both parties.

Today when I was sorting through some of the mailers we received, I noticed that in a couple of cases the same slates of candidates were being promoted to people in both parties (though the seats themselves are nonpartisan). The group of College Board candidates who on one mailer are “Endorsed by the LA County Democratic Party” are featured on another mailer that says “Republicans support…” (without any actual endorsement from a Republican or the party itself). A third mailer with the same picture of this group highlighted the teachers unions’ endorsement, trying to appeal to those who are moved by cries of “Won’t somebody please think of the children?”

Similarly, another set of mailers are almost exactly the same as each other. But where one has a picture of a donkey in front of a red, white and blue background and the words “Vote Democratic,” the other has an elephant and the words “Citizens for Good Government.” (I guess they couldn’t bring themselves to use the R word, even though in the fine print it shows that several of the candidates are endorsed by the Republican party.)

I guess they’re trying to cover all their bases, but it seems dishonest to state that the same candidates are supported by both parties (how often does that happen, especially in a fight that involves teachers union money?). Most people would never notice the claims of support from both sides because they only get one party’s mailings. I’m afraid that the false advertising and claims of being all things to all people just make me more cynical and distrustful of all the candidates involved.

On a more positive note, today is a gorgeous, spectacular day in the upper 80s, and I just wanted to share the sunshine with a picture of some flowers from my front yard.

UPDATE (3/6/07): While the title may appear to be a major grammatical train wreck, I realize that not everyone else is a wannabe geek like me and that I’d better provide context. I’ll admit that I don’t really speak 1337, don’t use Ubuntu and I haven’t read a comic book since Wendy the Good Little Witch. But I hope you’ll forgive me for trying to get in touch with my inner geek from time to time.

Technorati Tags: los angeles, election, politics, democrat, republican

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