Today, August 24, is primary election day in Arizona. For those of you who were asleep in high school government class, a primary election is when the major parties pick their candidates to run in the November general election.
Several statewide offices will be decided in November, including governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, and superintendent of public instruction. In addition, Congressional representatives (CD7 and 8 in Southern Arizona) and US Senate will be decided, along with many state Legislative races.
For Arizona Democrats and progressive independents, there are many, many well-qualified candidates running for offices. I am not going to make any predictions or endorsements because pretty much any of the Democratic candidates in contested races would do a fine job. For predictions, you can check out other progressive blogs like Random Musings.
If you don't know where to vote, check out this link on the Pima County Recorder's website.
A few years back, Pima County made it much easier to vote by instituting early mail-in ballots and early voting sites. These services have been very popular and successful according to the County Recorder's statistics.
If you have an early ballot and have not returned it, it's too late to mail it. You can drop it in a ballot box at any polling place today-- no waiting in line.
Also, if you would like to always vote by mail (after today), you can request to be on the Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL). Once you are on the PEVL, the County Recorder's office will automatically mail a ballot to you.
You wrote, "pretty much any of the Democratic candidates in contested races would do a fine job."
ReplyDeleteThese our not times to give anyone a free pass, we need good persons who can get things done. Particularly the economy. So here's a heads up on a good CD 7 candidate for US Congress - Independent Harley Meyer. This is why:
7TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT'S REGISTERED VOTERS:
DEMOCRATS 142,283
INDEPENDENTS 103,750
REPUBLICANS 75,487
LIBERTARIAN/GREEN 3,414
1. Source: Arizona Secretary of State, August 9, 2010
This is the first time that CD 7 has had an Independent on the ballot for US Congress so the dynamics will be different. As you can see the Independents out number the Republicans by a large margin.
The Independent candidate is bi-lingual - the Republican is not. When it comes to the economy the Independent knows enough to get the economy going again with approximately $32.1 billion annually in economic stimulus for the US economy.
Including over $1 billion in economic stimulus annually for Arizona. These are not tax dollars.
The incumbant does not know anything about the economy. The incumbant also has a leadership role for the progressives.
If the progressives can recognize that the real battle is for the control of the economy, then the progressives will control issues like - Social Security, Medicare, Healthcare Reform, stopping illegal immigration and solving many other problems both at the state and federal level.
The incumbant has not provided the leadership for the progressives to make progress.
What it will also do is move the progressives to the center, where they should be from a historical perspective.
So if you want the middle class back and the economy to recover, then take the time to learn about Harley Meyer Independent for US Congress.
www.harleymeyer.com