Lean Left

How I Voted

by tgirsch

November 2nd, 2006

Kevin filled you in last week on how he voted.  I did my early voting today, so I guess it’s my turn:

1. Issue #1, “Gays Are Icky” Amendment:  Since there was no “hell, no” button, I was forced to settle for a plain “no.”
2. Issue #2, Property Tax Freeze for Seniors Amendment:  This was a reluctant “no.”  I’m not totally opposed to the idea of a property tax rate freeze/cap for fixed income seniors on their primary residence if those seniors have lived in the residence for a certain amount of time.  But ultimately, the amendment was still too vague, and didn’t require some of the things I would have wanted to vote in favor.  For one thing, it not only left the income restrictions undefined, it even made such restrictions optional.  That is, it allowed the legislature to limit the rate freeze to lower-income seniors, but did not require such a limit.  Also, there was no length-of-residence requirement.  I’m sorry, but if you can afford to buy a new home, you can afford to pay property taxes like everyone else.  (The amendment would freeze/cap the rate at whatever it was at the time you made the purchase, if you purchase over 65.)  If the amendment had been worded to freeze/cap the property tax rates for fixed-incomeseniors (especially those for whom social security is the primary income source) who have lived in their primary residences for at least 5 years, I likely would have voted “yes.”  But this amendment fell well short of that.
3. US House, TN District 9:  I voted for Steve Cohen.  It’s a win-win: If Cohen wins, we finally get a real Democrat in the seat, and the seat is out of Ford family hands.  Cohen’s appeal is broad, even winning many moderate Republicans.  But with Jake Ford running as an independent, I still worry that Cohen might not get it.
4. US Senate:  Let’s face it:  In this race, both candidates suck.  Despite all the Corker ads about how “liberal” Ford is, his record in that regard is actually quite spotty.  He’s anything but a solid progressive.  One need look no further than his vote for the awful Military Commissions bill to see that.  And, as Kevin notes, he’s part of a political family dynasty, and a corrupt one at that, which makes me even more uncomfortable with him.  But at the end of the day, Corker is no better, and is arguably worse.  Ford’s ties to corruption are largely guilt-by-association, given his family name.  Jr. himself has managed to keep his hands relatively clean, at least as far as we can tell.  Corker, on the other hand, appears to have the stench of corruption on him directly.  And setting aside personal issues, just limiting things to the issues, Corker is still objectively worse in almost every measurable way.  On virtually every issue where I’ve disagreed with Jr.’s voting record, Corker would vote the same way.  And on those issues where I’ve agreed with Jr., Corker would generally vote the opposite way.  Ultimately, it was a choice between “bad” and “worse,” so I went with “bad.”
5. Governor:  Bredesen.  I’m with Kevin in thinking that Bredesen has been anything but a solid progressive.  But a wishy-washy progressive is still better than a Southern conservative, and I’m too paranoid to follow Kevin’s lead and abstain.  Admittedly, Kevin’s probably right, and Bredesen’s going to win easily.  But I wasn’t willing to risk it.  As much as I’d like to punish Bredesen, it’s not something I could do in the general.  (I did vote against Bredesen in the Democratic primary, however.)  Given a choice between Bredesen and a real progressive, I’d pick the latter.  But that choice wasn’t offered here.
6. TN General Assembly, District 93:  Mike Kernell.  He’s a solid progressive with a good record (and again, one who has done well with the moderates), and his opponent, Tim Cook, is running solely on the simplistic “taxes are eeeeevil” platform; Cook is the kind of one-trick pony that I’d like to think would be appealing to absolutely no one not named Say Uncle, but this being Tennessee at all, and people being as bad at math as they are, I can of course see a lot of people saying “I hate taxes, too!  I’ll vote Cook!  Hey, why do the roads and schools suck, and why are the police understaffed?”

Categories: Politics |