aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/201111191022862285.html

Virginia Board of Elections

If you are unsure of your district, or where to vote – you can enter your County or City and Address on this website and find out about your districts and voting location:

What’s on My Ballot

All polling places will be open from 6am to 7pm on Tuesday, November 8th.

Many state senate offices are being challenged. All state legislature delegates are up for re-election. Many county and city offices are also having elections.

These state and local elections have very far reaching impacts as the redistricting was decided by the winners of the last set of state and local elections, and the winners can shift the balance in the U.S. Congress by several seats per state each redistricting. It is one of the failures of our democracy, but one we have to live with until we amend the constitution.

Go vote and make your voice heard, even if your vote is for “None of the above.”

Squee!!!!

Even more Squee: Airport Utility for iOS!!!

This is what has been taking up a lot of my spare time for a long time.

I am in a new House of Delegates district because of the 2010 U.S. Census and redistricting, the new district is the 87th and because it is new there is no incumbent advantage. The Democratic party is deciding a candidate based on convention, but there is really only one person running for the Democrats for district 87 right now, and that is Mike Kondratick. The Republicans have a primary, August 23rd, to pick between Jo Ann Chase (Tea Party whackjob) and David Ramadan (club-for-growth anti-tax guy); who will then run against Mike Kondratick.

I am also in a new State Senate district, the new 13th district and once again there is no incumbent advantage. The Democratic party is deciding based on convention again and the only person running appears to be Shawn Mitchell. The Republicans are using the August 23rd primary to choose between Dick Black (yeah, the plastic fetus guy), John T. Stirrup (current anti-immigration ass-hat in Prince William County), and Bob FitzSimmonds (Kook-in-elli’s henchman and anti-immigration idiot); who will then run against Shawn Mitchell.

It looks like my U.S. Congressional district is still the 10th, so I will continue to fight to replace Frank Wolf who is not good for veterans, education, nor people being yet another corporate shill doing the bidding of big-business lobbyists every chance he gets.

Prince William County has a Republican Primary Election on August 23rd, the deadline for new voter registration is August 1st.

Within Prince William County it looks like Babur B Lateef of the Democratic Party and John S Gray an independent candidate will be challenging incumbent Republican Corey A. Stewart for the office of chairman of the county board of supervisors.

There are also races for each county supervisor seat, I am still in the Gainesville district where there are five Republicans running in the August 23rd primary to face off against Democratic candidate Ann Wheeler. The Republicans seeking to replace John Stirrup (who has, as predicted, run off to seek State Senate office) are:
Martha W. Hendley, Steven M. Botello, Suzanne N. Miller (campaigning on job creation and education, unusual for a Republican), Peter K. Candland, and Michael J. High. You know as much about them as I do so far…
A few of them don’t have websites that I can find (yet) so I linked to their VPAP contributions page.

It looks like I am now in House of Delegates District 87 (used to be 13):

http://redistricting.dls.virginia.gov/2010/DistrictMaps.aspx

I can’t quite tell if I will be in State Senate district 13 or 28 (used to be 29) because the PDF map resolution and detail is not good enough to locate my house on the map:

http://redistricting.dls.virginia.gov/2010/DistrictMaps.aspx

I am disgusted that the publicly funded redistricting maps require proprietary (although free) and security nightmare Microsoft Silverlight to view them.

Update: Some quick analysis over at DailyKos:
Virginia Redistricting Analysis

About the new 87th, Johnny Longtorso writes:
“The new district went 59-41 for McDonnell and 54-45 for Obama. Democrats have grassroots organizer Mike Kondratick running, while Republicans will choose between Virginia Republican Party official Jo Ann Chase and consultant David Ramadan in the August 23 primary.”

About the new 13th, Johnny Longtorso writes:
“Marshall’s district was, I believe, the most overpopulated district in the House before redistricting; it had enough population for two districts. So a lot of precincts had to be removed: the northern portion of the district, including Loudoun County and the northwestern end of Prince William, was moved off to create the new 87th district, while the south end of the district around Manassas is chopped off and added to the 50th and 51st districts. This leaves us with a spindly tentacle that reaches from the Haymarket area to Bull Run, picks up Manassas Park, and adds the bit of Prince William that’s wedged between Fairfax and Manassas. This leaves a district that’s slightly improved for Democrats, having gone 61-39 McDonnell and 55-44 Obama, but which retains Marshall’s base in western Prince William County.

The 13th always seems to be fools’ gold for the Democrats; Marshall has had a tight grip on this district, and always manages to win, even while being outspent. Nevertheless, they’re trying again; Air Force veteran and defense contractor Carl Genthner is giving it a go this time. We’ll see how Marshall does in his newly-slimmed down district.”

Update 2: Better Maps at VPAP.org, thanks VPAP!
http://www.vpap.org/updates/redistricting_maps

The Netflix Price Hike

Take a look at this CNET poll on how angry Netflix customers intend to react to the rate hikes, note the Firefly reference:

Now can we move on and focus on some important issues please and leave the Weiners to sort this out between themselves?