San Diego June 2018 election - US Senate Race.

US Senate

Em's vote: Kevin de León
Dishonorable mention: Richard Little 

First of all, there are 32 people running in this primary for that Senate seat. Thirty-two people hoping to get one of two spots in the general election, and most of them are not qualified. At all.  There's an electromagnetic field conspiracy theorist ("Stop the 5G and Internet of Things"), a 'technodemocratic' candidate encouraging us to revamp our entire government infrastructure by incorporating blockchain, and this man that I would never allow near any children. Not with that icy glare:

Are you an advocate for children TO go missing?  Because that's what I'm reading.

Are you an advocate for children TO go missing?  Because that's what I'm reading.

In all honesty, it looks like Pierce does some good work. Shinning a spotlight on missing kids is a valuable thing to do with your life. However, the man's twitter account is full of bad selfies telling the world what a good guy he is, which undercuts his intentions.  He posts in all caps, incoherently, bragging that he's going to reveal the details of all cases he's solved (which I'm sure is not fully legal or wanted by the victim's families.)

Also, is it just me, or is the phrasing off?  Like, are you the guy in the van on the street these cases were investigating? Because dude, you look it.

Pierce isn't familiar with aptly using the internet to convey his message. Which is a huge problem in this politcal age.  Being on twitter at all gives him a leg up on these works of art:

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That last one is just a word document on a webpage.

I looked at every candidate because if you're running, you believe you have something worthy to say.  That's worth 30 seconds of my time to look into it.  But like, 10 of these people don't even have web pages.  How.  It's like, less than 50 bucks to set up.  YOU ARE RUNNING FOR THE US SENATE. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER.

Anywho, before we get to my pick, obviously a liberal, I want to talk about the conservatives. There is a whole slew of transphobic shitheads running, but they aren't even the worst of the bunch.  No no, the worst is one of the top GOP candidates polling with a shiny endorsement from David Duke: Richard Little.

I want to give the GOP credit here, they have rejected this guy. If you click on the article above, you'll read about how he was kicked out of the GOP convention and bluntly told, "There's no room for that kind of hate speech that that man uses." What kind of hate speech, you ask?  This is his campaign slogan:

Liberate the US from the Jewish Oligarchy.

Yup.  He's also a holocaust denier! 

Unlike other GOP apologists, California Republicans have a backbone. Kudos. However, they also have no candidate. Since no Senate candidate earned an endorsement from the GOP, Little's name still pops up in polls.  That's troubling, as some people don't look into candidates, and run with trends to help their party get in the door.  Good news: James P. Bradley is crawling up on the polls as well.  Bradley is a pretty run-of-the-mill conservative, though it's notable that he doesn't accept money from special interest groups.  He has a well-fleshed out ideology which I disagree with at almost every point; he's not my cup of tea. But he isn't overtly racist, so that's something!  

Hysterically, trying to explain why Bradley started doing well over other put-together conservative candidates like Erin Cruz, I came across this gem:

“Maybe it could be that Bradley is a relatively common name and someone could be associating him with some other Bradley.”

And I laughed and laughed.

Ok, the Dems!  We have the incumbent, Dianne Feinstein, followed closely by candidate Kevin de León, currently a State Senator.   It is widely predicted it will be between these two in the Fall.  Feinstein has money and support, but de León is a true progressive.  His environmental record is exemplary, authoring Prop 68 which we'll also be voting on this election. He favors Medicare for all, specifies funds for low-income areas, and pionerred "Yes Means Yes" legislation.

There are other worthy progressive candidates, but none of them have the experience de León has.  And guys, he's tieing in the polls with practically unknown Bradley and Neo-Nazi Little. Feinstien has fought for our state tirelessly, but she's also part of the old establishment. If she wants to keep her seat, I want to give her a real run for her power and money. Bradley and certainly not Little can't do that.

 

Emily T Griffiths