It Starts to Get Interesting in the Golden State
[guest post by JVW]
Both Fox News and the Sacramento Bee are reporting on the latest Public Policy Institute of California poll that shows Hillary! Rodham Clinton, the Once and Future Inevitable Next President of the United States, with a slim 46% – 44% lead over Socialist senator Bernard Sanders of lily-white Vermont in the upcoming June 7 California Democrat Presidential Primary Election. This represents a tightening of the race since March when polls had Her Clintonic Majesty up 48% – 41%, and it’s a huge departure from the 18-point lead that the ABC/SurveyUSA poll released earlier this week showed. Significantly, however, no poll released this far has shown Sanders with a lead in the California primary.
As of 11:00 pm Pacific Time tonight, the Los Angeles Dog Trainer hasn’t seemed interested in reporting these latest updates. Recall that they have already endorsed the former First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State/IT Whiz for the job.
I followed through on my threat to change my party registration from GOP to No Party Preference, only to discover that the NPP ballot does not include the Democrat Presidential candidates. I received a helpful text from the Bernie Bros (I do not recall opting in to receiving texts from any candidate) telling me that I had to request a Democrat ballot by Tuesday, May 31 if I wanted to vote by mail (I’ll be out of state on primary election day, so that’s imperative), or I need to request a Democrat ballot at the polling location on election day or at the County Election Office before election day. This is fair warning to anyone who wants to join the Democrat fray.
– JVW
If you’ve gone NPP and want a Democrat ballot, go to this site, print out their form letter, and mail it in. Here is the one-pager on crossover voting.
JVW (eabb2a) — 5/26/2016 @ 11:33 pmI’ll be voting for Cruz.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/27/2016 @ 12:28 amdamn.
now i have to go check my absentee ballot…
as A new “no preference” voter here in SoCal, i would have sworn i already had that option.
Important Sidebar: As usual, there are a variety of Superior Court Benches open on the local ballot here in Lost Angels.
Got any suggestions on who to vote for & why?
redc1c4 (15347c) — 5/27/2016 @ 1:25 amthe facts are few on the ground otherwise…
I already voted
e e cummingsfeet (bfd5cd) — 5/27/2016 @ 5:28 amas NPP
but with a Dem ballot
for Bernie
to maximize socialist disaffection later
when pee-stank inevitably
wins
I read that the Democrats are allowing No Preference voters to vote in the Democratic primary, but the same is not true for the Republicans. Bernie Sanders wanted to extend the deadline.
Trump offered to debate Sanders, and Sanders agreed. But Trump had a condition that the money (the broadcaster makes?) must go to charity, so it remains to be seen if that’s going to come off. It depends on whether or not Trump is serious. If the debate takes place, that ought to be enough for Sanders to win the primary. Just the attention will do it.
Sammy Finkelman (335ac9) — 5/27/2016 @ 6:54 amI’m baffled by the difficulty involved in communicating the set of rules for this primary.
* everything except President and county central committee is a blanket primary ballot, with all candidates from all parties on the same ballot.
* for president, *some* parties have closed primaries where only party registrants can vote (the Republicans are one of them).
* for president, *other* parties have semi-open primaries where party registrants and no-party-preference voters can vote.
* no-party-preference voters who wish to vote in a particular party’s semi-open primary must request a ballot from that party. (otherwise the state would have to send them ballots for *all* semi-open parties, which would be a problem).
aphrael (3f0569) — 5/27/2016 @ 8:13 amDarn it. I was NPP and then registered Repub to vote for Cruz. I realize now I should have registered Dem to vote for Bernie. The Dems made a mistake to allow all the NPPs to vote this time. Hah!
I think Bernie would win any debate with Trump, not because his ideas are any better, but because Trump is always unprepared and just speaks in stream of consciousness.
Patricia (5fc097) — 5/27/2016 @ 8:22 amI would have changed my registration, but figured I would get robocalls from everybody,not
Bar Sinister (c62a89) — 5/27/2016 @ 8:54 amjust Repugs.
Jimmy Kimmel attempting to set up a Trump-Sanders debate:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sanders-tells-kimmel-trump-debate-made-us-interesting/story?id=39418887
Recent news:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/27/bernie-sanders-says-he-isnt-giving-up-on-debating-donald-trump/
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 5/27/2016 @ 8:55 amRegistered Republican here, trying to decide on my own best strategy.
Can anyone make a good case for casting a vote for Cruz at this late date?
Alternatively… anybody have any thoughts on giving a write-in vote to Sanders? Just to try to derail Hil-LIAR-y’s entitled inevitability? Or something like that?
Your thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks.
CrankyBeach (736ed9) — 5/27/2016 @ 11:05 amHey CrankyBeach. Thanks for joining the discussion.
Voting for Cruz, as our host and Kevin M (among others) plan to do, strikes me as being highly principled but utterly futile. If there were any possible way to swing the nomination back to Cruz then I would be with them in a heartbeat, but I think we have given up the ghost by now.
Voting for Sanders is the best way to be a disruptive conservative force. First and foremost, it helps slow Her Majesty’s tortured march to the nomination and it forces the media to write stories about how she just can’t close the deal. As an added bonus, if conservatives vote en masse for Sanders then it tricks the Democrats into thinking that Sanders’ childish socialism is way more appealing than it truly is, which would have the salutary effect of making Hillary! move even farther to the left. This might not matter in the Presidential election, but I am hoping it would benefit GOP candidates in the House and Senate.
JVW (eabb2a) — 5/27/2016 @ 12:37 pmI think some conservatives want to support Cruz. It’s why I’m writing in his name in the general election. But I also think voting for Bernie makes sense in this Democratic primary election. It’s a form of Rush Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos, although that didn’t accomplish much but JVW may be right that it will matter this time.
The goal is making Trump the leader of the Worker’s Party and Bernie/Hillary the leader of the Taker’s Party. At this point, however, I’m not sure whether America has more workers or takers. My guess is we have more takers.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/27/2016 @ 12:47 pmOkay, utterly DUMB question here… can I safely assume that if I write in Bernie Sanders (or any other name, for that matter) on a Republican primary ballot, the vote will actually count? Barring, of course, any of the usual often-alleged but never proven voting machine and/or ballot box shenanigans? I have never before faced such a dearth of viable ballot choices that I’ve considered writing in a name, so I have no experience or knowledge re how the write-in process works…. Just want to stand a meager fighting chance that my vote might actually count for something…. Oh, and if something shifts in the wind between now and primary day such that a vote for Cruz might actually mean something, would somebody PLEASE post a blog entry here making the case for it? Again thanks…. 🙂
(And just to be absolutely clear… if Trump is on the November ballot, he will have my vote, heaven help us, because either Bernie or Hillary scares me even more than he does, and a protest vote for any possible third-party challenger that might arise between now and then will more than likely throw the election to the damn-o-cratic candidate.)
CrankyBeach (736ed9) — 5/27/2016 @ 2:03 pmhttp://www.theweek.com/articles/626617/why-trumpsanders-debate-disastrous-hillary
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 5/27/2016 @ 2:32 pm13. CrankyBeach (736ed9) — 5/27/2016 @ 2:03 pm
I don’t know what they would do with write-ins, but you can’t do that, I think, in the general election in November for president, because actually you are voting for electors. I think you’d have to write in the names of 55 electors in California.
I think there always has to be a way to do that in every election in every state. In paper ballots, there’s probably a line for that.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 5/27/2016 @ 2:37 pmhttp://deadline.com/2016/05/trump-backs-out-of-debate-bernie-sanders-blames-hillary-clinton-1201763466/
Trump’s bluff was called.
Sammy Finkelman (335ac9) — 5/27/2016 @ 3:55 pmThese reasons existed before he started talking about debating Bernie Sanders.
Sammy Finkelman (335ac9) — 5/27/2016 @ 3:56 pmQuick check suggests that in California a vote for a candidate who has not officially filed will be ignored when votes are counted. So if Cruz does not file for November a vote for him will be the same as not voting at all. Other places have the same rule, but I only checked California.
My suggestion for those voting in California is to vote for Cruz in the primary,if only to place everyone on notice that there are actual conservatives still around. I think that has more impact than a vote for Sanders.
kishnevi (d22255) — 5/27/2016 @ 4:23 pmAnd since it is Friday, a bit of comic relief from Wikipedia
kishnevi (d22255) — 5/27/2016 @ 4:26 pmVote for Cavareco!
He would do at least as well as Caligula’s horse
kishnevi (d22255) — 5/27/2016 @ 4:28 pmA serious answer for a serious question: The only real reason to vote for Cruz at this point is protest. That’s how I’m going. We both know that Sir Hillary pretty much has the vote locked up here come the general. As I understand it, the Dem primary is open, where the GOP is closed. Check for sure with your local registrar’s office. I suppose you could go Operation Chaos and vote Sanders. It is possible to put a large dent in Killary’s day, and give the state to Sanders. I just don’t think it likely.
By the way- what part of LA? I go frequently, about 1-2x/mo. I’m straight outta San Diego.
Bill H (971e5f) — 5/27/2016 @ 7:19 pmAs I tell my customers, dumb questions are cheaper and easier to fix than dumb mistakes. Fire away, Gridley.
I don’t think it will, since Bernie isn’t registered for the GOP. If you want to feel the heartbern, you’ll need to reregister as a Dem, and with June 6 coming up in a little better than a week you need to put a rocket on that. Like I said- contact your local registrar’s office. They might even be open tomorrow.
I get that you will vote Trump in the general should it come to that. A lot of people have made that calculation, and they can’t really be blamed: those people are the ones who are placing their vote where they think it does the most good. I feel for those people. Not because I think their mental faculties are questionable, but because they were cheated out of a meaningful candidate and left with, as us, Mr Tangerine Man-vs-The Hildebeest.
Bill H (971e5f) — 5/27/2016 @ 7:40 pmCrankyBeach, taken directly from the main post:
Bill H (971e5f) — 5/27/2016 @ 7:48 pm