Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Jeff Simons Election Central


Look for June 8 election updates from Jeff in the comments section...

40 comments:

Jeffrey W Simons said...

well sometimes they have the early voter and absentee ballots up by noon . . .

Jeffrey W Simons said...

so far a Zero Report from the San Mateo County Election Website for June 8, 2010 Election

Jeffrey W Simons said...

8:05 report . . .

Horsley leads Vargas 11,772 to 7,060 in mailed votes

Sandie Arnott over Dave Mandelkern by 3,500 votes

Cabrillo Measure E right at the 2/3 yes 1/3 no line

Jeffrey W Simons said...

Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown are huge leaders for the Governor primaries . . .

Jeffrey W Simons said...

so far the leaders for the Proposition ballots:

Prop 13, Seismic Retrofitting YES 85%/15%
Prop 14, Top Two Primaries YES 62%/38%
Prop 15, Public Funding of Elections YES 55%/45%
Prop 16, New 2/3 vote requirement for local public electricity providers NO 55%45%
Prop 17 Auto insurance NO 53%/47%

though the proposition to legalize and tax marijuana is on the November ballot, it has already received 4,000,000 votes from Woody Harrelson . . .

Jeffrey W Simons said...

8:30 PM update . . .

Horsley extends his lead over Vargas to 5,000 votes with 25% of the precincts reporting . . .

Sandie Arnott maintains a healthy 4,000 vote lead over Dave Mandelkern . . .

Cabrillo Measure E still walking the wire . . .

Prop 13, 14, 15 have healthy leads for YES

Prop 16, 17 both around 54% NO

Jerry Brown has a ridiculous 91% of the vote for the Democrat Governor Candidate primary, while Meg Whitman has her "But It Now" button set to 71% of the vote.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

Here's a primary story to follow in South Carolina:

Unemployed military veteran Alvin Greene - who raised no money and ran no campaign - upsets 4-term Senator Vic Rawl to win the Democratic primary.

The Tod Schlesinger campaign blueprint prevails . . .

Jeffrey W Simons said...

10 PM update . . .

with 110 of 456 precincts reporting, Horsley leads Vargas by 4,300 votes . . .

Sandie Arnott still up by about 4,000 votes . . .

Prop 13, 14, and 15 are cruising to YES votes, while Prop 16 and 17 are failing

Cabrillo Measure D still a tight race . . .

Obama "birther" attorney Orly Taitz has managed to receive almost 30% of the Republican vote for the Secretary of State primary . . .

Jeffrey W Simons said...

10:30PM update . . .

with 1/3 of the precincts reporting, Horsley extends his lead over April Vargas to 6,000 votes.

Sandie Arnott still enjoying a 4,000 vote lead

Prop 13, 14, and 15 extend the margins of victory while Prop 16 and 17 fall further behind.

Cabrillo Measure D may enter the Pacifica Parcel Tax Twilight Zone and win or lose by just a few votes (hopefully not as YES votes magically appear to push it over the top!)

Laurie Frater said...

If - as now looks likely - nobody reaches the 50% threshold in the Horsley/Vargas and the Arnott/Mandelkern races, the top two will face each other in runoff races in November.

Arnott may well be in the lead now, but I suspect that Mandelkern will get most of the Galligan and Guilbault votes in the runoff. But it could be very close.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

Here's the breakdown on the statewide Propositions:

Yes 13 Property Taxes and Seismic Retrofit of Buildings
3,174,697 84.5% 584,071 15.5%
Yes 14 Primary Election Participation 2,061,015 54.2% 1,747,268 45.8%
No 15 California Fair Elections Act 1,583,353 42.6% 2,128,470 57.4%
No 16 Local Electricity Providers 1,812,544 47.5% 2,002,797 52.5%
No 17 Auto Insurance Pricing 1,832,690 47.9% 1,990,066 52.1%

Jeffrey W Simons said...

MEMBER, BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, 3RD DISTRICT - NONPARTISAN
Completed Precincts: 456 of 456
Vote Count Percentage
DON HORSLEY 23,980 38.6%
APRIL VARGAS 15,069 24.2%
JOHN J. "JACK" HICKEY 10,105 16.3%
MATT GROCOTT 8,757 14.1%
MICHAEL G. STOGNER 4,243 6.8%

Jeffrey W Simons said...

TREASURER-TAX COLLECTOR - NONPARTISAN
Completed Precincts: 456 of 456
Vote Count Percentage
SANDIE ARNOTT 23,423 38.4%
DAVE MANDELKERN 16,966 27.8%
JOE GALLIGAN 15,292 25.1%
RICHARD GUILBAULT 5,268 8.6%

Anonymous said...

PG&E outspent opponents $40 million to $90 thousand but still lost by 4%. The Peebles blueprint writ large.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

I would say the major difference between Peebles and PG&E is that Peebles tried to sell something the people had already stated they wanted, while PG&E was pushing a regulation no one had ever said would be a good idea.

And Peebles spent his own money made out of state. PG&E will just jack up rates to cover their losses, and this fight over municipal power provision is far from over. Would you want this Pacifica City Council voting to provide the city with power? PG&E will keep fighting to prevent municipalities from providing their own power management.

Anonymous said...

Do not understand why you moved to Texas.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

"Do not understand why you moved to Texas."

Because I'm married and my wife said so. :)

Better economy, better schools, better roads, better cost of living . . . both of our adult children moved here and its comforting to them to know they can get a job and own a home with a comfortable middle class salary . . .

we love California but there's a reason its infrastructure is falling apart, and it isn't because we didn't pay enough taxes.

Anonymous said...

Great textbooks, too!

Anonymous said...

How are your property taxes there, Jeff?

Jeffrey W Simons said...

yeah not too thrilled by the decisions by the State Board of Education, but you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Still a strong progressive movement in the Dallas/Houston/Austin area with lots of support for the fine arts.

Property taxes are a higher percentage of property values, but since property values are lower and more stable it evens out. We pay less total property taxes for our 4000 sq ft brand new home along a greenbelt than we did for the 2000 sq ft home in Pacifica. And its nice to drive on new roads, have a fully staffed police and fire department, electricity and gas prices are significantly cheaper.

If you Google "Texas versus California Economy", there are some great side by side comparisons of what you pay and what you get in both states. Texas wins pretty much all the financial battles.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

oh yeah I also like our brand new 21st century state of the art library and government building. A nice central downtown area that is still growing with mixed use development and a walkable area of commerce. If only someone wanted to build that in Pacifica . . . we also have state of the art baseball fields, all the schools have college quality football fields (even the middle schools), lots of parks and hiking trails, etc . . .

Anonymous said...

Nice strip malls full of chain restaurants in Frisco too.

Kathy Meeh said...

Pacifica has chain stores too, but no malls. And, Pacifica can't even afford to repair its streets. Did you see the front page of the Tribune today?

Jeffrey W Simons said...

yeah why bother having commerce to pay for things when you can keep raising taxes? Its just common sense.

Anonymous said...

Your property taxes are lower but your neighbor who has lived in the community for 30 years probably pays higher taxes than s/he would if s/he lived in California.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

"Your property taxes are lower but your neighbor who has lived in the community for 30 years probably pays higher taxes than s/he would if s/he lived in California."

enh, that's kind of a false argument. Real estate prices don't fluctuate as much here in Texas as in California. There's a more stable economy and tax base.

Anonymous said...

It's still Texas.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

yeah well clearly California is better off being billions in debt, having the worst business environment in the US, having 12-15% unemployment with no jobs being created, a crumbling infrastructure, and having businesses and citizens leaving by the droves for other states.

Just repeal Prop 13 and all will be well.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

Here's the funny thing . . . most Texans are taken aback by the recent changes in the history textbooks, but we're not going into a full blown panic like California. We can always choose to educate our children at home or better yet, realize they don't pay that much attention to social studies anyway.

We also kind of wonder if California is so worried about textbooks from other states, why don't y'all make your own textbooks instead of getting grandstanding politicians to pass laws? Ohhhh that's right, you can't afford to.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

and while we are on the subject of education, our son transferred here to Texas in the middle of his senior year. at his graduation ceremony it was announced the city of Frisco gave over $4 million in scholarships JUST to his high school.

so yeah, it is still Texas . . . keep ragging on it and ignoring the sinkhole California is becoming because educated fools think they know better and refuse to acknowledge better ways of doing things than raising taxes and increasing spending . . .

Anonymous said...

Obviously Texas is the greatest thing since sliced bread as evidenced by your desperate defense of it on this Pacifica, California blog.

Kathy Meeh said...

Anon 6/9/10, 2:31PM. Pacifica has chain stores too, these are frequently franchises, one closed a few weeks ago, that was Quiznos sandwich shop in Linda Mar Shopping Center.

Anon 6/17/10, 9:37AM. Obviously you're an idiot. Jeff lived here 5 years, and worked to try to improve this CA city (which might be impossible without voting-in new, challenger pro-economic city council candidates.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

yes the brilliant California education at work: someone brings up Texas and I explain why we moved, then someone attacks Texas and I am criticized for defending it.

Are you sure you're not a USC fan?

Anonymous said...

Don't worry. Jeff will soon have another conniption and leave in a huff after first deleting all the blog entries in which his posts appear.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

Well as much as I would love to make this all about ME, you still haven't offered one idea on how to improve Pacifica, or California. But you excel at distractions and personal attacks . . . is that you, Jim Vreeland?

Anonymous said...

"you excel at distractions and personal attacks"

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Anonymous said...

Why aren't you focusing your time and efforts on finding a job and raising your family in Texas? Its obvious that no matter what you say or post, Pacifica is not going to improve until the voters wake up.

Go, build the better life you are seeking... hopefully the voters will wake up and make smarter choices.

George Tirebiter. said...

"Are you sure you're not a USC fan?

Texas was scared to go to the Pac 10 because of USC. Forevermore, the Texas Longhorns will now be known the Texas Chickens.

O.J. Mayonnaise said...

The Texas Shivering Chihuahuas.

Jeffrey W Simons said...

cmon you guys you know my team is Penn State . . . never sanctioned, never suspended under Joe Paterno . . .