Free Republic

Welcome to the live thread for the California Primary Election. Polls are open until 8pm tonight. If you are a registered voter, it is your duty to vote and defend your rights and civil liberties, protect your pocketbook, and vote the bums out where applicable. Feel free to discuss issues key to your local area that others may be interested in. Post your polling place experiences if you like. And post numbers as they come in later tonight.

So, without any further words, here is the Voter Guide:BALLOT MEASURES NOVEMBER 2006 - SUMMARYThe FR and Bill Leonard recommend: Proposition 1A = YESProposition 1B = NOProposition 1C = NOProposition 1D = NOProposition 1E = NOProposition 83 = YESProposition 84 = NOProposition 85 = YESProposition 86 = NOProposition 87 = NOProposition 88 = NOProposition 89 = NOProposition 90 = YES

LifeNews.com Note: Noelle Patno is Executive Advisor of Stanford Students for Life, the pro-life campus group at Stanford University.Any girl in California under the age of 18 can legally obtain a taxpayer-funded abortion — or be coerced into one — without the knowledge of those responsible for her. Such a legal environment fosters the willful ignorance of possible abuse and grants sexual predators and profiteering strangers the power to preempt parental rights, to pocket the funds of those who do not support abortions, and to endanger minors. Minors are called “minors” because society does not yet consider them mature enough...

After hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign advertising, voters are souring on initiatives that would enact new taxes on oil production and cigarettes, a new Field Poll has found. Californians surveyed last week and early this week were narrowly against Proposition 87, a tax on oil extraction to fund alternative energy. They were evenly split on Proposition 86, another measure on Tuesday's ballot, which would impose a new levy of $2.60 on each pack of cigarettes to pay for an array of health causes. Proposition 87 dropped four points in support from a poll taken at the end of...

Despite endorsements from Bill Clinton and Al Gore, support for Proposition 87, a measure that seeks to tax oil production to fund alternative fuel development, continues to wane, according to the latest Field Poll results to be released today. Both the Democratic former president and vice president in recent weeks have been front and center on behalf of the Yes on 87 campaign, being featured in television advertisements and leading rallies such as the one that Clinton appeared in at San Francisco's civic center on Wednesday. But the latest poll, taken between Oct. 23 and 30, shows 40 percent of...

The No on Proposition 85 campaign has begun airing a commercial that argues the parental notification initiative could put pregnant teens in danger from violent or abusive parents.The commercial is running in coastal media markets, including San Francisco, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and San Diego.Following is the text and an analysis of the ad by Peter Hecht of The Bee Capitol Bureau: •SCENE: In a seemingly tranquil setting of a residential backyard, a bubble floats in the air. It drifts by the house, where raised voices and rumbling sounds from a window suggest violence inside.Woman's voice: "I know...

He's the owner of one of the largest alternative newspapers in the country, a father of seven and a Vietnam veteran decorated with a pair of Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. He's also a conservative Catholic who attends Mass every day, teaches Latin to home-schooled students and rides the public bus from his Coronado home to his office in Little Italy. But to understand what drives Jim Holman, why he has bankrolled two parental-notification initiatives for minors seeking an abortion in this state, you might want to turn the calendar to 1989. That's when his weekly newspaper, the San...

Yes on 85 PARENTS’ RIGHT TO KNOW & CHILD PROTECTION INITIATIVE 1703 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101 // Toll-free (866) 828-8355 // email: Janet@ParentsRight2Know.org NEWS RELEASE October 23, 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Albin Rhomberg at (866) 828-8355 Sponsors of Jessica’s Law urge Californians to vote yes on Proposition 85, too 1.2 million California households get phone calls asking: “Vote yes on 83 and 85” The authors of Jessica’s Law are urging those who support strengthening laws against child predators in California to vote yes on a companion ballot measure – Proposition 85, the Parents’ Right to Know &...

LOS ANGELES -- Sister Rosa Gonzales says she can count on receptive audiences when she knocks on doors in Latino neighborhoods to urge a "yes" vote on Proposition 85, the parental notification initiative on abortion. "When they see that nun's habit, they listen," she says. The sight of Sister Rosa walking voter precincts near the Resurrection Church east of downtown Los Angeles is but one illustration of how the Catholic Church and Proposition 85 proponents are targeting a critical constituency: Latino voters. The outreach in Latino communities -- by both anti-abortion and abortion rights forces -- reflects the competitive stakes...

PROPOSITION 85 is a deceptive rehash of last year's Proposition 73, the parental-notification act that voters rejected. Under the guise that this is a proposition about child safety and parental rights, its backers are claiming that it's all about keeping parents involved in their children's lives when it comes to making such a decision as difficult as whether or not to have an abortion. Don't be fooled. Proposition 73 was a bad idea, and Proposition 85 is still a bad idea. Though the backers have stripped some of the measure's objectionable language -- a phrase that sought to embed wording...

The cast of characters at Monday's press conference was unusual, to say the least. The participants represented each of the major factions in last year's special election: the drug companies, big-business Schwarzenegger allies and unions. But this time they were all on the same side. They all opposed Proposition 89, which would create publicly financed campaigns in California. "It's a murderers' row of political spenders in California," says Common Cause's Ned Wigglesworth, who supports Proposition 89. If, as the saying goes, politics makes for strange bedfellows, then California's 2006 elections are one giant slumber party. Held in the twelfth-floor suite...

California's leading union organization, bucking organized labor's long-standing neutrality on the issue of abortion, is for the first time taking a strong stand in favor of abortion rights. Meeting behind closed doors last month, the California Labor Federation — which represents more than 2.1 million workers belonging to more than 1,100 affiliated unions — voted to oppose Proposition 85, a November ballot initiative that would require doctors to notify parents before performing abortions on minors. In a policy statement, the labor federation also urged the national AFL-CIO "to reconsider its position of neutrality on the issue." Union leaders say polling...

SACRAMENTO - A new statewide poll released today shows that voters are more than willing to make life tougher for sex offenders, smokers and oil company executives. More than three-fourths of voters -- 76 percent to 11 percent -- support Proposition 83, or Jessica's Law, according to Field Poll surveys on five of the 13 measures on the November ballot. The measure would lengthen sentences for sex offenders and require lifetime global positioning system monitoring "It would be hard to beat back," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll. "I don't see a big 'no' side that would need...

General Election - November 7, 2006 Prop. 1A Transportation Funding Protection: YES! For years, the Legislature has raided our highway taxes for general fund spending. Though it’s more window dressing than relief, this measure makes it marginally harder to do so. Prop. 1B Transportation Bond: NO! Although some of this money is for long overdue road construction, most goes for equipment, maintenance and social programs that will be obsolete decades before our children have finished paying off the debt. Californians pay the third highest tax per gallon of gasoline in the country – and yet we rank 43rd in per...

Last November, Proposition 73 - the parental notification initiative - lost by modest margin, 52.6 percent to 47.4 percent. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger's four reform measures targeting teacher tenure, union dues, legislative district boundaries and state budgeting practices lost by sweeping margins. Now the parental notification measure - which would require doctors to inform a parent or guardian before performing abortions on girls under 18 - is back on the Nov. 7 ballot, as Proposition 85. And this time, Democrats and legal abortion supporters hope the measure - endorsed by Schwarzenegger in 2005 - will help boost his opponent, state Treasurer Phil...