We get the right to vote in this country free to the private citizen. It wasn't always that simple for all eligible voters to do that. I bring up the 60's era and the civil rights struggle where there was violence and death in this country as a consequence of people seeking to exercise this simple activity. It's been a long time since the vivid news pictures and stories were fresh and too frequent, and so it's not such a valued right for a lot of people who were too young to experience the era first-hand, or for others who just don't think about that history at all.
Tomorrow will be a very low turnout of registered voters since, like with many and church-going, they only show up for the big days like Easter Sunday and Christmas, and not much in between. The election in the 36 congressional district is down south, and Janice Hahn among the candidates to fill the post exited by Jane Harman that runs to 2013. It's an all-party primary and the runoff for the top two vote-getters wil be July 17th. It only involves that district so limited attention to that is much the case for a lot of us.
More local is the LAUSD District 5 election, a runoff election between Bennett Kayser and Luis Sanchez.
I will vote for Kayser since I cannot take anymore of the Villaraigosa influence on government, paid-for by special interests and showing us as a city on the brink of a bankruptcy. We haven't yet reached a bankruptcy only because it is being held back from that by a city council who follow the mayor's direction like following a carrot on a stick, using band-aid "solutiohns" to let them finish their terms. No long term solution is planned.. LUIS SANCHEZ is just too cozy with his boss, MONICA GARCIA, with too much "admiration" for the mayor and for her former boss, JOSE HUIZAR. Huizar brought us the A-G track, all-college bound type of curriculum, that is a contributing factor to our LAUSD student dropping out. Neither Garcia nor Huizar will consider that consequence. Supt. CORTINES did state a year ago that a "one size fits all" approach is not the way to go.
So BENNETT KAYSER, supported by the teachers union, will get my vote. I am not a big supporter of the union based on the fact that like all unions, the priority is working for the members and not the outer sphere of involvement that created the need for their jobs in the first place; here that's the students.
But compared to SANCHEZ and the wealthy special interests that get a big piece of the money spent in school operations, as Villaraigosa's adminstration is all about, I will not help that along. If there were demonstrable results that the SANCHEZ side had ANSWERS to the problems, maybe I'd change. BUT MONICA GARCIA has been there since I was teaching and the only thing I see is a district struggling under poor management- the board's management. A CHANGE is not their style. Make a change now and go with KAYSER. If Sanchez wins, you will have a Villaraigosa stacked Board and things will really become worse as with the city's operations. And there will likely be more spending foulups as they funnel contracts to the friends and shape expenses to boost incomes for the same groups.
IF YOU STAY HOME- you lose all around. A low voter turnout election magnifies the impact of the voters who show up.
COMMUNITY COLLEGE trustees election- Please get out anf vote for LYDIA GUTIERREZ AND NOT Scott Svonkin. The Community College Board of Trustees has allowed waste and corruption to go unchecked and one person added here would be a part of the corrections needed. I can't see any reason for re-electing the ones remaining as Trustees in the March election, but voters often don't read news to see what's plainly been there to see.
Neither of my choices is "perfect" but they are the "best" ones running here and should be better than their opponents in doing the job.
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