My Ballot
Words Jesse Scaccia
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 11:29 am
Voting makes me cry and there’s nothing that could stop me from making my voice heard every election day. Here’s my ballot with a very brief explanation for why I’m voting for whom. But check the links for more detailed explanations of who deserves to serve us in public office.
Governor: Creigh Deeds. Bob McDonnell outed himself as a fundamentalist sexist during his 30s. While it’s hard to believe that Creigh Deeds is the best person for the job, he’s certainly a better choice than Bob McDonnell.
Click here for The Virginian-Pilot’s endorsement of Deeds.
Click here for The Washington Post’s endorsement of Deeds.
Lieutenant Governor: Jody Wagner. When Will Sessoms is crossing party lines, you know there must be a good reason.
Click here for The Washington Post’s endorsement of Wagner.
Click here for the story on Sessoms supporting Wagner.
Attorney General: Stephen Shannon. From The Post, on Shannon’s opponent: “There is reason to worry that Mr. Cuccinelli would treat the job of attorney general as an ideological crusade.” Yowza!
Click here for The Washington Post’s endorsement of Shannon.
Click here for The Virginian-Pilot’s endorsement of Shannon.
Member House of Delegates – 089: Kenneth Cooper Alexander. This line from The Pilot sums it up: “The race for the 89th District of the House of Delegates pits an incumbent with a long history of civic involvement against a 24-year-old Norfolk State University student.” It also mentions that Triplin has faced debt collection and there are discrepencies as to whether he actually received the degree he says he did.
Click here for The Virginian-Pilot’s piece on this race.
Sheriff: Bob McCabe. I appreciate McCabe’s commitment to treating criminals as human beings that can be rehabilitated, with programs that teach prostitutes self-esteem, inmate GED programs, and a ‘therapeutic’ approach to substance abuse counseling.
Commissioner of Revenue: Sharon McDonald. It’s harder to know what to make of these smaller races. I’m going with McDonald because I find her opponent, Doug Knack, a bit dubious. Some of his fliers implied he had received endorsements from Obama and Creigh Deeds, which he did not. And I’m not perfectly comfortable with someone who has been a real estate agent for 22 years being our chief tax assessor. Too many potential conflicts of interest.
Click here for The Pilot’s article on the flier issue.
Click here for an overview of the candidates.
Get on in there with me.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Jesse is the editor in chief of AltDaily, and he's going to take this bio seriously, but not so seriously that he's going to continue in the third person. I've been involved with a bunch of local projects and civic groups in various roles, including: Hampton Roads, The Canvas; Art | Everywhere, Street Performance in Norfolk; Survive Norfolk; Hampton Roads Pride/Out in the Park; Bike Norfolk; re:Vision Norfolk, and such.
I originally came to Norfolk as a Perry Morgan fellow in ODU's creative writing program. Before that I bummed around quite a bit, writing stacks of books that never got published, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, riding the Greyhound up down and back across this country. Some of my favorite jobs and volunteer gigs have included working on organic farms in Ireland; being first mate on an old sail boat in Holland; working at a long-term home for young men in South Africa; being a journalist and high school teacher in New York and California; washing dishes in Yosemite National Park; teaching English in DC and swimming in Florida; and interning at ESPN in Bristol, which was much less cool that you'd want it to be. My career highlights have been having three of my op-eds run in the New York Times, and being the executive producer of a six-part docu-drama on BET. Because school is cool I have three master's degrees (ODU for MFA, NYU for magazine journalism, University of Connecticut for secondary English education). I live in Norfolk because I believe in its potential. Email your ideas or nicely couched criticism to jesse@altdaily.com.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
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