The First Day of November & Voting

I cannot believe that October has gone - never to be recaptured - and we are into November. Wow. That is just staggering.

Ready for something more staggering?

I have been telling everyone how unhappy I am with the 12 candidates for the gubernatorial candidacy and my father told me this morning that there is a space to fill in anyone's name. I'm not sure who's name I will fill in, but that is my plan.

Normally I am the world's stupidest voter. I'm not stupid, but politically speaking, I'm very ignorant. Which is fine. Normally I vote the way many do: just go down the line of my political affiliation. I'm more of a Democrat (one of them crazy liberals) than a Republican, although it is never that simple. I think I am really a little of both or at least I'm willing to see both sides or find that I don't agree with every Democratic ideal and every Reublican ideal. But I know I fall more into the Democratic party than the other.

What I don't know much about are the other parties... I know that there is an Independent party... the other ones were all new to me. There are actually four "independent" candidates, and then there is a Socialist Party, a "For Election Party", "Just in Time", "'People Not Politics'", Libertarian Party, and Middle Class Empowerment. Ye gods...

So I turned over the County of Morris Sample Ballot, and read up on each of the 12 candidates, who had a space to fill up with 500 words.

And here's the list:

Republican: Christopher Christie
Democratic: Jon Corzine
Socialist Party: Gregory Pason
Independent: Gary Steele
For Election: Joshua Leinsdorf
Just In Time: Gary Stein (yes, I know, how dopey)
Independent: Alvin Lindsay, Jr.
Middle Class Emp.: David Meiswinkle
Independent: Christopher Dagget
Indep. For the People: Kostas Petris
Libertarian Party: Kenneth Kaplan
"People Not Politics": Jason Cullen

I met Chris Christie at our Fall Festival. I was underwhelmed then and after reading his 500 words, I was more underwhelmed. First it was yak, yak, yak about his family (I so don't care if the cadidate is married or not, has kids or not, etc.), then it was pointing fingers at past incumbents (clearly emphasising Jon Corzine's failures), and then all sorts of New Jersey pride. Oh, shut up. You are so insincere.

I read Jon Corzine's piece but I hated the actions of this man, beginning with his car accident, raising taxes mid-month, putting taxes on dues and other things that never had them and then (the last straw) draining the EMS fund from $4,400,000 to $400,000. What an idiot - you were too stupid to wear a seatbelt, busted up your leg and other things in accident where we came and saved your butt, and you reward us by taking away our training fund. If it didn't mean losing my EMT certification I'd leave him at the side of the road to be mired in his injuries and think about what an ass he is.

He couldn't get my vote if he personally came to the house and spoke to me.

Gregory Pason clearly has too much money. He wants to raise minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.00, bankrupting tons of small businesses. What a moron. He naturally promised tax cuts, which is completely unreasonable. Taxes exist for a reason: government income is that - tax. Do I think the property taxes should go up every year? Not really. But I understand it.

Gary Steele didn't really make much in the way of promises, but went on and on about how he's been a teacher and understands the people, blah, blah, blah. He wants to make New Jersey a tax friendly state... sounds nice, but unless you can geographically move New Jersey from being next to Manhattan, that really can only happen to a small degree. That's crazy.

Joshua Leinsdorf did not write about himself (or have his writer put his 500 words in the first person view), someone else did. This guy wants every student to have a laptop but the kids all to take mass transit and not yellow (is there any other colour?) school busses. Say what? Kids in inner-city type environments aren't exposed to enough danger that you want them taking mass transit? Do you have rocks in your head?

That brings us to Gary Stein. How to say this? He is... totally nuts. If any votes for him, I will be amazed. Absolutely amazed. Even his family, if he has one, should be smart enough not to vote for him. His 500 words were a waste. He is incapable of writing - or should immediately fire the writer - and give this up. If you haven't mastered the basics of your own language, don't do something you can't handle.

He began one paragraph with "Up theirs!" as a sentence. Oh, my gods. I was flabbergasted. I have no problem with "foul" language, but in your gubernatorial statement?! Yikes. Moving right along from this loser...

Alvin Lindsay Jr did not even use half of his 500 words. He made a comment about alternate energy sources, such as solar and wind power, which is good - what he did not outline is how people should afford it. He wants to make the minimum wage $10.00 hour, so he would only bankrupt a couple tons of small businesses. Another pipe dreamer. He'd like to make healthcare more affordable (where have I heard that before?), but again - no plan.

David Meiswinkle wants New Jersey to do its own exhaustive investigation into the 9/11/2001 disaster. What? Move on, man. That was 8 years ago and it is better to look to the future and being more carefully instead of wasting time mired in the past. He wants to cut taxes, as well. Good luck. Oh, and hey! He's a politician who is going to completely eliminating corruption! Wow! Are you going to start with yourself?

This brings us to Christopher Daggett. He really didn't say anything substantial, but glossed over all the usual hot topics and promised to - surprise, surprise - cut taxes. Moving on...

Kostas Petris did not do much with his space, either. He used up a bit over half. His big thing was history: the Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln. No great statement there. More empty tax cuts, naturally - that is the fall back position.

Kanneth Kaplan began his 500 words with "If everyone agrees with me votes for me, I'll be the next Governor!" Huh? Only if the majority of voters agree with you. Think about those strong, opening, declarative lines before you run into this kind of thing. Read what you are writing. He wants to do away with taxes. He makes promises about gay rights, education set being unfair to those of us without kids or home school their kids, and legalising marijuana. Mmmm... good luck. I agree with those points, but he is picking too many shocking topics at once.

The last one is Jason Cullen. Another one who didn't write in the first person perspective. He wants to progressively eliminate sales and corporate taxes. Whoa... I can understand attempting to lower them, but eliminate them? Where will all that money come from? Universal taxes to those who have their kids in private school. Yikes.

I just can't get behind any of these people. I'm not sure who I think should run the government in New Jersey, but it is not any of these yin-yangs.

thinking...

thinking...

thinking...

Oh, I just thought of my choice for governor.... Joe!