Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Jury Duty

I got picked to be a juror so I won't be posting for the next few days.
Everyone play nice while I'm gone.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

City Council Runoff

Up until today I had no idea who to vote for in the runoff for City Council District 8. The race is between Mike Berlanga, a CPA, and Reed Williams, a retired oil executive. I don't think I like either one.
On election day, I had voted for Berlanga on a whim only because one of his supporters was in the parking lot passing out literature with another guy supporting Julian Castro. The fact that they were together passing out literature made me think that maybe, just maybe Berlanga was a Democrat. And I just knew that Williams is a Republican.
But then the word came out after the general election that Berlanga is delinquent on paying his taxes. A CPA!!! And he can't pay his own taxes on time!!!
Well, that would have sealed it excpet that I really didn't want to put another Republican in office. I figure that Williams is probably like Carol Schubert who represented District 10 before challenging Phil Hardberger for mayor four years ago.
I thought, maybe if Berlanga is a Democrat I will just overlook this tax thing and vote for him anyway. But then in today's paper a story points out that both Berlanga and Williams are wealthy Republicans. Oh, joy.
So that pretty much sinks it for Berlanga. And also, the same story also said his excuse that he was protesting his taxes didn't bear out with the tax assessor's office which said that he is past the point of protesting and is just flat-out delinquent. So Berlanga is a Republican and won't pay his taxes, so screw him.
That means I'm stuck voting for Williams.
And if that wasn't bad enough, I get a phone call this evening with a message from Lyle Larson urging me to vote for Williams. Larson is the Republican who challenged my congressman Ciro Rodriguez in the last election. What are they trying to do? Rub dirt in my wound?? Do they want me to just stay home and skip this election!?! Sheesh!
Williams has also been endorsed by the Express-News which is practically the kiss of death in my book. The E-N has a policy of endorsing Republicans in almost every race.
Two years ago I had a city council representative - Art Hall - who I really liked. But then he had to step down because of our incredibly stupid term limits law and then I got stuck with Diane Cibrian who I can't stand. Fortunately, she left office early to run for mayor and lost badly.
Now I finally get to vote for somone without the moronic term limit restrictions and this is my choice. How depressing!