You can only vote once, right?
That was my reaction upon hearing how the Supreme Court's ruling on President Obama's health care plan was going to fire up the conservative base in November. Now, I have written how the ruling can aid Senate candidates like Connie Mack, with the premise that he could be the deciding vote to overturn the law (if you only 51 Senators to do so). But the folks that seem pretty mad at President Obama -I'm thinking that they didn't need the Supreme Court's ruling to get them motivated to the polls.
However you couldvote multiple times for your favorite baseball players to start in tonight's All-Star game from Kansas City. 25 actually, from one e-mail address. Of course, you can also vote the old-fashioned way via the ballots handed out at the ballparks, something that San Francisco Giants did in massive numbers a couple of weeks ago, getting three of their eight starting players into tonight's starting line-up (and NL manager Tony LaRussa named Giants star Matt Cain to start tonight, making it four Giants starters).
There have been complaints (mostly in New York) about the Giants fans stuffing the ballots. And yes, it's obvious they did. But it's not like this hasn't happened in previous years where some undeserving players get the nod. What's funny is, as Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson complained, a city of 800,000 (SF) was able to get their 3rd baseman, Pablo "Kung Fun Panda" Sandoval in over Mets glamour boy David Wright.
What it shows me as a fan of the Giants, who up until the late 90's had trouble drawing decent crowds, is the power of attendance. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays, second to last in attendance this year – have two pitchers, David Price and Fernando Rodney named to the game by manager Rod Washington.
Okay, on to the news. Speaking of voting, every black elected official in Hillsborough County gathered yesterday to alert the public that registration for next's month primary election ends next Monday.
Nina Hayden officially announced yesterday she's no longer running in Florida's 13th Congressional District Democratic primary against Jessich Ehrlich. Meanwhile, Ehrlich is seizing on her Republican opponent this fall, Bill Young, and his ill-advised remark made last week when asked his thoughts about raising the minimum wage.
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2012.