Political Texts

I got a text from someone at Katie Porter’s campaign. Porter is the US Representative for CA-45. She beat out Mimi Walters in the 2018 mid-term elections. I actually didn’t know who Katie Porter was until I looked her up; turns out she’s my Congresswoman. The text said:

Hi xxxx, I’m Marlene, a volunteer with Congresswoman Katie Porter’s campaign. Katie has fought to increase tax fairness and deductions for OC families, ensure free COVID testing for all and keep OC housing within reach for everyone. Will you join me in supporting Katie?

I have several issues with this. In the two years Porter has been elected to CA-45, she’s never reached out to me as an electorate. That’s fine since there are many voters in the district, but why now? She only contacts voters right before an election? Is it because I registered as an Independent (i.e., no party affiliation)? I went to her congressional website and the tax thing mention above seems to be to abolish Trump’s SALT deduction cap. I usually vote Republican since they typically push for smaller government and lower taxes but that hasn’t worked out with Trump (not that I voted for him). I would like to see SALT abolished too but without spending cuts, Democrats would probably jack up taxes in other areas, like Biden has proposed, so I’ll likely pay even more than now. As for COVID testing, I think free testing is a positive but again, anything that the government “pays” for, ultimately ends up being paid by the 50% of us that actually pay taxes. Finally, the affordable housing for all families sounds good but probably is just support for the rent control proposition, which I opposed on principle. We should let the market decide. If the rent is too expensive compared to market, then no one will rent it. If the market is too expensive, then sorry, you need to move elsewhere. Taken to the extreme, why can’t we all have a Central Park penthouse for $100? California is a super high cost-of-living area. Instead of mandating rent control and high minimum wages, the market can sort all this out without all sorts of central economic planning.

I don’t know much about her challenger either. His name is Greg Raths and I don’t know anything about him. Before the text I received today, I probably would have automatically voted for Raths since he’s the Republican option, but now, I think I need to read up on both candidates. I guess the text did help Porter a bit.

Still wondering how the Porter campaign got my information and cell phone number though.

==========

I’ve always voted by mail. I have no interest to stand in line and rush through the ballot in a polling location. Now with the COVID-19 pandemic, no way am I going to stand there with hundreds of people to vote when there are much safer options. This is where Trump need to shut his hole about mail-in ballot fraud. He needs to respect the system that elected him president, and will hopefully vote him out in a few weeks. Oh I wish we had better satisfactory choices for president.

==========

Hmm, at first glance, both congressional candidates look fairly moderate for their party. I talked about Porter already. Greg Raths’ website seems to support repealing SALT legislation, has a link to CDC regarding mask wearing recommendations, and doesn’t come across as a Trump clone. I guess that’s a better situation then having to choose between someone like Maxine Waters and a white racist.