Speaking of Endorsements

All the newspapers have been throwing out their endorsements for the various candidates and issues for a while now. Too many out there now to list all of them here. I'm sure the news will get even thicker with endorsements as we get closer to election day.

The Humboldt Taxpayer's League finally made their endorsements on the ballot initiatives. They actually made those endorsements some time ago. I imagine they probably waited until closer to election day before releasing them. One good thing about the Taxpayer's League is they don't take positions on issues that don't affect taxes.

Our very own, Eric Kirk, posted his recommendations to his blog a few days ago (October 13 post), for those that haven't seen them yet. Don't know if you would want to call blogger recommendations endorsements, but I guess they're pretty much the same thing.

And whatever happened to the Democratic Central Committee's recommendations on the ballot issues? I see they sent their recommendations in to the HOPE Coalition, for listing in their voter guide, but I never saw them mentioned in any of the local papers. Did I miss it?

One thing I'd like to see more organizations do, especially the Libertarian Party of California, is give a reason for their positions on ballot initiatives. Sure, often you're just asked for a Yes or No, but if there's time and space to do so, a reason should be given for your position.

The Willow Glen Libertarian Alliance did such a thing on their web page. The Yes or No recommnendation is a link that sends you to another page with the reasons for their position. Good idea. Too bad the LP of California can't figure out how to do the same.

As for me, my positions I believe I've already given and they can be seen in the Humboldt Libertarians positions on the HOPE voter guide below. The only ones I publicly gave No Position on, which leaves those columns blank, were Prop 85- the minor's abortion notification one, and Prop 90- eminent domain reform.

I think I'll be voting Yes on Prop 85, but gave No Position to the HOPE Coalition because back when Prop 85's predecessor was on the ballot in March, one of the local LPers took issue with my support of it. That's good enough for me to take a public No Position for the group as a whole.

I'm still undecided on Prop 90 with most of me opting for a stand aside, as the Greens call it. In other words: Don't vote on it.

I certainly won't vote NO on it, but there are some legitimate concerns with the language of the initiative and its effects so I'll either vote Yes or stand aside, as I did on the vote on the Wal Mart/ Balloon Tract issue years ago.

Nothing wrong with not voting on something, at least on some issues, no matter what some people may try and tell you.