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The Party
August 05, 2006
It’s campaign season. On July 25, we voted in the (first) primary election. On August 22, we’ll go back to the polls to decide a few runoff races. Then, in November, we’ll go out for the general election. Too much voting… Oklahoma should vote on a law like Michigan now has - only allow votes four (state-specified) times a year. Votes cost money (and waste money).
In the Governor’s race, I must choose between the Governor, Brad Henry, and the out-going U.S. Representative, Ernie Istook. I have to admit, I never thought I’d feel like the Republican candidate was too conservative for me… but here I go.
Then, in the race to replace Istook, we’ll have to choose between Dr. David Hunter, the Democrat, and either Mick Cornett or Mary Fallin as Republicans (silly runoff system). There is an Independent, but he’s a nutcase (in my opinion). Dr. Hunter was the only candidate (Democrat, Republican, Ind.) in the primary to mention the environment on his issues webpage - there were three Dems, six Republicans, and one Independent. Enough said for me. Besides, I’m still unsure what to do about illegal immigration, and almost all of the Republicans here are anti-amensty, anti-guest worker, etc.
We really don’t have any other decisions to make in our area. We live in a solidly Democratic neighborhood, so our Council Member, State Rep, and State Senator are all Democrats. Even if there was a Republican candidate, he or she would have little chance here.
One thing Oklahomans are big on is conservative spending. Most of it is just talk, but one of our Senators is HUGE in this area (Tom Coburn). There’s even a push for eliminating special projects in state spending (Hey Big Spender). I agree with some of Coburn’s efforts in the Federal government, but I’m not sure I agree with the state-level effort. The whole point of eliminating Federal spending is that states and local governments should be providing more for themselves rather than feeding off of taxpayers in other states. If we’re going to cut many Federal services to cut our Federal taxes, we’ll need to make up for most of it at the state and local level. Although, living here, I’ve found that there are plenty of people who’d rather we didn’t pay any taxes, no matter what… I know that’s not a new idea, but there are many more people who believe that here than I’m used to.
Posted by paul at August 5, 2006 09:02 AM
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