Election 2006: A Look Ahead

The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat gave the first overall view I've seen of the upcoming elections this year, at least as far as candidates go. No link to their story cause I couldn't find it. Someone just sent me the text of the article. Here's what it looks like for the state and federal offices. I can't help but wonder if they're missing a few names:

For 1st District, State Assembly, Patty Berg is running to keep her seat, as one would expect. She'll be opposed by her past Republican challenger, Ray Tyrone (at least I think he's the one that ran against her last time) and Libertarian, Tom Reed. Both Reed and Tyrone hail from Coverdale.

Wes Chesbro's finally out of the 2nd State Senate seat due to term limits so, as has been mentioned here before, Pat Wiggins will run in his place. She'll be opposed by past Republican candidate for U.S. Congress, Lawrence Weisner.

I was told that a local libertarian would be filing for that seat, as well, but his name doesn't show up on the list so maybe he decided against it? A shame, as it doesn't look like I'll have anyone to vote for in that race. I generally would vote for the Republican for state level offices if there's no libertarian in the race but Weisner's a bit too hard to the right for me. I don't know why Weisner even runs as he never shows up for any of the candidate forums.

Congressman Mike Thompson wants to stay in his office again. He'll be opposed by three others: Republican John Jones, a retired cop. Perenniel left wing candidate, Pam Elizondo, representing the Greens and Timothy Stock from the Peace and Freedom Party. There was supposed to be a libertarian in this race. I'm surprised not to see his name as he frequently runs for office so shouldn't have had a problem getting on the ballot. Maybe they missed him somehow?

Pam Elizondo used to be with the Peace and Freedom Party until she switched to the Greens. She probably only did that cause the Peace and Freedom Party lost their status as an official political party in California due to low vote percentages. They regained ballot status a couple years ago only because low voter turnout ended up giving them a high enough percentage of votes to give them back their recognized party status.

I was almost tempted to vote for Elizondo last time she ran against Thompson. Hey, anyone that would show up for a candidate debate wearing a t- shirt is ok by me. To hell with the issues.

For U.S. Senate, Dianne Feinstein has it easy, although she apparently has at least one Democrat facing her in the primary. The Press- Democrat doesn't show any Republican running against her, which is hard to believe. Then again, I understand the Republicans are having a hard time finding someone to run in that race. Amazing as it is to me, Feinstein is considered a shoo- in for re- election. Unbelievable.

I've been told that a libertarian, Michael Metti, is supposed to be in the race for U.S. Senate, but no mention of him from the Press- Democrat. Wonder if he had second thoughts? Maybe he'll pop up later.