Re-branding, again.

I had a post arguing this same point a while back, but it's worth revisiting.

Bubblehead recently called out Bryan Fischer, again, and as an aside took a swipe at DailyKos.

the Idaho Democratic Party just invited Daily Kos guy Markus "Screw Them" Zuniga to speak at their big yearly dinner. Not quite the best way to show independent Idaho voters that the Idaho Democratic Party isn't just the party of the Angry Left.

As I, Chris and Sisyphus commented to Bubblehead, Kos's site may have some wingnuts leave posts on it, but he and his front page writers cannot fairly be called wingnuts. Left leaning, okay, progressive, sure, but not lefty wing nuts. But I digress.

What I really want to say is that I am almost unable to conceive how the Id Dem Party can show independent voters that it just isn't the party of the angry left. I believe that, even though about a third of the electorate self-identify as independant, true independents are pretty scarce. The bogus independents vote R in election after election. Just look at the results. So most of those independents are Republicans and beyond reaching or convincing.

And please, don't make the tired argument that Idaho Dems don't put up good candidates, and hat if they did they'd get more votes. Larry Grant is a moderate Dem and a good candidate by any standard. Even more to the point, check out the race for State Controller. Donna Jones, with her GED and her experience as director of a realtors group, beat out Jackie Twilegar, with her MA in finance and her years of experience in the financial field. And it's not a highly political job, so political opinions are of minor effect in the job. Jones got voted in, solely, obviously, because she's an R. True independents would have voted for Twilegar. So, there aren't that many independents to reach out to.

Idaho Dems simply are not of the hard left persuasion. Certainly no Dem that runs for office is left of moderate. In most cases, Idaho Dem values are in line with what people in Idaho want. Gun ownership, fine. Death penalty, fine. Fiscal responsibility, check. Middle-class tax relief, check. Granted, Dem values vary from what the hard right want, but no so much from moderate Rs.

My point is that Idahoans just aren't paying attention to who they're voting for. They just assume R=good, D=bad. Idaho Dems need some re-branding campaign to get people to take a look, and until such time virtually nothing they do will influence Idaho voters.

Update: DFO at Huckleberries Online started a thread to discuss whether "most Idaho Independents really are straight-ticket Republicans who don't want to admit it."

Voting in a small town

I went to usual place to vote last night and was told that my precinct was not voting there for this election. They explained that since it was a city election, and county voters would be voting, they didn't want to overwhelm the voting place so they added new voting places. Hmmm, less voters, more voting stations. Ooookay. Oh, and I was the only voter in the room at the time.

They gave me directions to the new place; the 7th Day Adventist Church, right across the street from the Fire Station. Here is the Fire Station.



Here is the Church. That people vote there isn't readily apparent. Looks pretty dark.



Look at the left middle of the pic; see the sign that says "Vote"? I circled it.



Here is the door into the voting area. Again, not real will lit.



Here is the door with car headlights shining on it.



Behind the door is the Church's gymnasium, complete with basketball hoops and the paint on the floor for a basketball court. Half court line, free throw line, etc. Oddly, the floor was carpeted and the court lines were painted on the carpet. I wonder how well the ball bounces on the carpet. Seems like it would change the game a bit. Maybe that's just a 7th Day Adventist thing.

I voted by drawing an inked X in the boxes of my candidates (only one of whom won) and folded over the paper ballot. Once again, I was the only voter in the building.

I returned after voting to take the pictures, and about 8:03 an Ada County Sheriff drove up and escorted some poll worker through the by-then locked door. High security for paper ballots.