Nearly 300,000 Californians Vote For Gun Smuggling Candidate

Don

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More proof of the myth of the rational voter. At least he didn't finish first.
State Sen. Leland Yee might have officially dropped out of the race to become California’s next secretary of state in March, but that did little to diminish his numbers on election night Tuesday.

When Yee pulled out of the race shortly after being charged and arrested for his connection in a federal sting, he was polling only at eight percent. After all the results had been counted Wednesday morning, Lee had earned 11 percent of the vote and finished second among Democratic candidates.
 

Don

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300,000 out of 38 million.

What's the percentage on that?
What's 38 million got to do with anything? He ended up with 9.8% of the roughly three million votes cast.

Unless you're making the point that less than 8% of the population had a voice in the election, which is admittedly pretty damning in its own right. Are those other 35 million disenfranchised, or do they see the exercise as futile, or do they question the legitimacy of the whole game?

I guess Eight Percent rule is better than One Percent rule. Marginally, at least.
 

clintl

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Unless you're making the point that less than 8% of the population had a voice in the election, which is admittedly pretty damning in its own right. Are those other 35 million disenfranchised, or do they see the exercise as futile, or do they question the legitimacy of the whole game?

We had two noncontroversial ballot propositions and a bunch of incumbent Democrats running against Republicans nobody has ever heard of in an open primary. Unless there was a hot local race, there was not a lot on the ballot this time to interest people (aside from the Kashkari-Donnelly Comedy Hour, but that was mostly an entertaining side show rather than serious politics). The race for controller was the only one that had any compelling drama.
 

robeiae

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Which doesn't change the fact that at least 10% of the people who voted are clueless.

The ones who didn't vote? Worse than clueless.

See, this is a serious problem imo. A good chunk of the electorate--in every state--only seems to care about national politics and controversial issues. They're uninformed when it comes to state and local politics almost as a matter of course.
 

clintl

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I'm not excusing the people that voted for Yee - I agree completely about them.

But the nonvoters I'm giving a pass this time around. There really, really wasn't much at stake in this particular election. I've never seen one quite like it. In most of the statewide races, the only question was which no-name Republican with almost zero chance in November was going to finish second and get the chance to go on to the general election.
 

Gregg

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In a somewhat similar story :

MADISON (AP) — Convicted felon and former state Sen. Gary George is running for Congress in Milwaukee against fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.
George filed signatures Monday to get on the ballot to challenge Moore for the 4th Congressional District seat she’s held since 2005. If both are certified to appear on the ballot next week, they will face off in an Aug. 12 primary.
George was recalled from his state Senate office in 2003 and convicted in 2004 of one felony count of conspiring to defraud the government. Convicted felons are not prohibited from running for Congress.
 

rugcat

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You can look at it like 10% of the voters are idiots, or you can take a more nuanced view that Yee got trounced receiving only 10% of the vote.

As for Donnelly, as Clint pointed out this was a primary with very little interest, and although I don't know what the final tally of voter turnout was, it was widely expected to be the lowest in California history.

Primaries like that enable highly motivated fringe groups to manage to get their choice on the ballot, which is how certain crazy people actually end up in office.

Donnelly had huge tea party support – pro-gun, violently anti-immigrant, as right-wing as they come. His opponent, Neel Kashkari, is a fairly moderate Republican who was unable to excite much support, not having that type of motivated base. Even so, he still managed to win over Donnelly.

I think a lot of Donnelly's vote was actually a protest vote from people making an antigovernment statement. Which they could afford to do, because they knew perfectly well he would never be elected governor. So why not stick a thumb in the eye of the establishment?

Plus everyone knows it doesn't really matter who won the Republican primary. Jerry Brown is going to win the governorship anyway -- unless he gets caught up in a gunrunning scandal.
 

Haggis

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Convicted felons are not prohibited from running for Congress.
I could do so much with this, but instead I think I'll just let it sit here and go on about its business while I go on about mine.
 

kuwisdelu

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Convicted felons are not prohibited from running for Congress.

I could do so much with this, but instead I think I'll just let it sit here and go on about its business while I go on about mine.

Personally, I have no problem with this. I don't think prior convictions of criminal activity of any kind should disqualify one from participating in a democratic republic. I realize I may be lonely in this view.

That includes both voting and running for office.
 
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Haggis

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Personally, I have no problem with this. I don't think prior convictions of criminal activity of any kind should disqualify one from participating in a democratic republic. I realize I may be lonely in this view.

That includes both voting and running for office.
It doesn't trouble you that someone who was convicted of defrauding the government might get the chance to work for that government yet again?
 

kuwisdelu

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It doesn't trouble you that someone who was convicted of defrauding the government might get the chance to work for that government yet again?

Whether it troubles me matters not at all.

Whether it troubles the voters is what should matter.

As for myself? It depends. What kind of defrauding? Why?
 

Haggis

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Whether it troubles me matters not at all.

Whether it troubles the voters is what should matter.

As for myself? It depends. What kind of defrauding? Why?
Fair answer and good point. There may well be situations in which I might disagree with some court's determination of guilt or innocence.

Thanks.
 

RichardGarfinkle

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It doesn't trouble you that someone who was convicted of defrauding the government might get the chance to work for that government yet again?

Whether it troubles me matters not at all.

Whether it troubles the voters is what should matter.

As for myself? It depends. What kind of defrauding? Why?

Fair answer and good point. There may well be situations in which I might disagree with some court's determination of guilt or innocence.

Thanks.

There's a difference between working for the government (that is being hired by a government agency for a job) and being elected by the people to a position running the government.

The former can have all sorts of restrictions and job requirements because they're jobs. The management of the agencies have the responsibility to hire sensibly.

The latter is the collective entrusting of a position to someone who a majority of those who choose to vote decide should have it. The principle of election is that the people en masse get to make a decision. It's their responsibility to exercise that decision wisely.

In short, in a Republic, the people have the responsibility to be sensible, but they also have the right to be idiots.
 

Don

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I'm not excusing the people that voted for Yee - I agree completely about them.

But the nonvoters I'm giving a pass this time around. There really, really wasn't much at stake in this particular election. I've never seen one quite like it. In most of the statewide races, the only question was which no-name Republican with almost zero chance in November was going to finish second and get the chance to go on to the general election.
I find this complete certainty of single-party rule more condemning of the system than if Yee had won, actually. Although it's been a very popular concept in the eyes of those heading one-party states around the world. I think it's still in vogue in China, North Korea, and Cuba, for example.
 

clintl

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I find this complete certainty of single-party rule more condemning of the system than if Yee had won, actually. Although it's been a very popular concept in the eyes of those heading one-party states around the world. I think it's still in vogue in China, North Korea, and Cuba, for example.

Yes, it could become a problem. But it's the Republicans' own fault. The damage has most almost entirely self-inflicted in California, and they're bleeding membership. They're becoming very close to falling behind independents and third party voters in registration, and it's largely because the majority of Californians want nothing to do with the social conservatism that the party activists are promoting. It's possible to get a socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republican elected at the statewide level - they just aren't running those candidates any more.
 

Scribhneoir

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As for Donnelly, as Clint pointed out this was a primary with very little interest, and although I don't know what the final tally of voter turnout was, it was widely expected to be the lowest in California history.

I heard 18% turnout, though I don't know if that was the final total. This was only the second time I missed an election -- the first time was through being in the middle of a move. This time, quite frankly, I forgot. :( That's how low interest this election was. I felt horribly guilty on Tuesday when I turned on the 11:00 pm news and saw election returns and realized I'd completely forgotten to vote. I guess that's partly because I wasn't being unrelentingly pounded with campaign ads over the last few weeks and partly because there was nothing on the ballot that energized me. It was the most low key election I've ever seen. I had more awareness of the mayor's race in LA a while back (which I couldn't vote in) than I had of this statewide primary.