A Missed Opportunity

For only the second time in my adult life I will miss voting in a major election.  I feel so ashamed.  I am still registered to vote in Florida.  For a lot of reasons which I won't go into, maintaining my Florida residence is important for the time being.  I even considered flying to Fort Myers so I could see my wife and vote early.

There are a lot of exciting races in Florida.  The U.S. Senate race is interesting because of Charlie Crist's decision to run as an independent.  I have mixed feeling about Governor Crist.  I've met him and I like him but he often does what's politically expedient and not what's best for the state.  But his main rival, Marco Rubio, is an example of what's currently wrong with Republican politics.  There is no room for moderation.

The other race that concerns me is a County Commission race in which a clueless Carla Johnston stands a good chance of getting on the board.  If she wins and Brian Bigelow keeps his seat county government could grind to a complete halt, which might be a bad thing.

And don't get me started on Congressman Connie Mack, who only pretends to live in the district.  He may not be the worst congressman in the world but the fact that voters let this carpetbagger stay in office just goes to show how bad Florida politics can be.

But I must admit, California politics makes Florida look amateur.  The state is out of control with its ballot propositions.  The big one this time around is the pot proposition I blogged about earlier.  The fact that voters get asked to decide things like how the state does its redistricting and how lawmakers pass a budget shows you how horrible our legislators are. 

Then we've got a race for Governor and the U.S. Senate that mirror each other.  Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer, career Democrat politicians are facing wealthy, ex-CEO's on the Republican side, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina.  Whitman's run for Governor and Fiorina's U.S. Senate campaigns have been laughable.  Brown and Boxer have horrible records yet neither Whitman or Fiorina have been able to drive home a consistent message about how they can be difference makers. 

Tuesday night is going to be interesting here and across the nation.  It's a shame I can't vote.