I voted -- plus a few political odds and ends

I dropped off my ballot at the county drop box on Wednesday morning.  No problems -- no federal goons or other miscreants lurking about (the drop box I use is in the parking lot of a police station, so I really doubt troublemakers would mess with it).  I should soon get an e-mail from the county confirming the ballot was received and counted.

I ended up voting for Jeff Merkley (the Democrat) for the Senate.  He has a generally good track record on most issues.  Calling for a Palestinian state after the October 7 attack is a huge red flag, but in practice it just means that, like many politicians, he's out of touch with reality on that one issue.  It has no practical effect since there will never be a Palestinian state, no matter what US policy is.  Gaza was a de facto independent state since Israel withdrew control in 2005, and we saw the result on October 7 of 2023.  There's not a chance in Hell that Israel will ever make that mistake again.  All other things being equal, it would be better to have a Democratic majority in the Senate to act as a check on Trump and to block egregiously-bad nominations to the cabinet (or to the Supreme Court, if another vacancy arises).  In any case, Merkley is so far ahead in the polls that the outcome in this race is a foregone conclusion.

I also voted for Andrea Salinas (the Democrat) for the House.  Again, she has a reasonably good track record.  Also, I put a lot of weight on endorsements and she's endorsed by the AFL-CIO and the ONA (nurses' union) as well as Planned Parenthood.  And the Republican candidate sounds like a religious nut.  Not a difficult choice.

I voted for Christine Drazan (the Republican) for governor.  Tina Kotek, the Democratic incumbent, has been way too gung-ho for data centers; perhaps as a result of that, she now has the lowest popularity rating of all fifty state governors.  She changed course a bit last week, likely realizing that she could actually lose re-election over this issue -- but as I explained in the most recent link round-up, it's not enough and she could easily let construction start again once the election is past.  Drazan at least says that the final decision on building data centers should be in the hands of the local communities they affect.  She's pretty moderate on the bad Republican stuff, notably abortion, and in any case would not be able to do a lot of damage, with the state legislature solidly Democratic.  The polling on the governor's race has been very close, with each of the two candidates having a slight lead at different times.  It's conceivable that Kotek could be the only major Democrat to lose in a blue state in a blue-wave year.  Those who support data centers must suffer consequences.

I voted for the Republican for state senator and for the Democrat for state representative.  I don't vote on party lines, but evaluate the candidates and initiatives case-by-case, on their own merits.  Oddly enough, there were no ballot initiatives this year.

o o o o o

I thought this focus group report from Des Moines IA was rather interesting.  Among a group of rural and suburban Iowa voters, not even one was leaning toward supporting Ashley Hinson, the Republican Senate candidate.  Several praised Josh Turek, the Democrat, as a "pragmatist", strong on border security and willing to work across party lines.  Hinson was dismissed as being "out of touch" and a millionaire.  All these things seem to reflect what I've heard about how voters feel these days.

Harris county TX (which is basically the city of Houston) has broken its record for turnout on the first day of early voting, with 104,600 people.  The previous record for that day was 63,188 people, in 2018.

University students in North Carolina marched en masse to vote on the first day of early voting after county officials removed their on-campus polling place.

Elon Musk is spending hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Republicans in this election.  Several billionaires are using their money to wield such power.

The Trumpazoid FCC chair is demanding that the media stop airing "fake polls", by which he means real polls that Trump doesn't like.

Here's why Dan Osborn is resonating with voters in Nebraska.  His Republican opponent is desperately trying to brand him a Democrat -- probably the only tactic that has any chance of stopping him.

A PAC supporting Susan Collins for Senate in Maine did an ad buy in Portland OR by mistake instead of Portland ME.  Yes, people here in Portland OR have been seeing ads for a Senate race at the other end of the country.

The latest poll in Michigan has Abdul El-Sayed only two points ahead.

The Republican running for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts has been arrested for drunk driving.  That looks like one hell of a crash.

Republican candidates are having weird public meltdowns as the election approaches.  Maybe they're all getting drunk after seeing the polls.

It's been widely reported that the attendance at last Saturday's No Kings rallies was far below that of the previous ones.  Perhaps this, along with the meager turnout for Trump's rallies around the country, reflects the public's general exhaustion with politics as the interminable campaign season slog draws to a close.  People are certainly voting in great numbers, but nobody particularly wants to hear "look how awful the other side is!" for the 784th time.  I think most people will be relieved when it's all over.

[Note:  I didn't take the photo at the top of this post, and that's not the specific drop box I use.  It's a generic image found on the net.]