Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Primary Day

It’s primary day in Indiana and North Carolina where voters could change some rather important issues. Oh, and Wisconsin Democrats vote to choose who will run to recall Scott Walker.

First is Amendment One in North Carolina. This is the ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to limit legal unions to only one man and one woman. To all of my readers in North Carolina — and I know there are at least two of you — be sure to vote today, and I hope you vote against this piece of crap. It’s not only anti-gay, but anti-anybody, straight or otherwise, who doesn’t live with someone in hetero-wedded bliss. Feh.

Indiana’s senior senator, Richard Lugar (R) is in for the fight of this political career against a Tea Party-backed challenger, state treasurer Richard Mourdock. Sen. Lugar has been in office since the time I lived in Indiana — when I was in my 20’s — and is one of the last so-called moderate Republicans. Polls show that he’s behind Mr. Mourdock. I can’t say I can generate a lot of sympathy for Mr. Lugar’s fight; he’s had a good long run in the Senate and been predictably Republican the entire time. If the Tea Party dude wins, that might even boost the Democrats’ chances for the seat in the fall, although Indiana has enough far-right True Believers to give Mr. Mourdock the seat; after all, this is the state that elected Dan Burton, the man who shoots melons to prove Hillary Clinton killed Vince Foster.

In Wisconsin, Democrats will choose a candidate to run against Gov. Scott Walker (R) in the recall slated for June. There are four candidates, but the top name seems to be Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee and the last man to run against Walker for governor in 2010, losing by 125,000 votes. On, Wisconsin.