Petrelis Files

Vote: Dennis-GOP, 
Brown-Dem, Other Races-Green

As I have always done since I turned 18, I will be voting my conscience this election season.

I'm proud to declare I've never been a "battered gay Democratic Party voter" who gets bashed or ignored by that party. My desire for alternatives to the two-party system led me in 1980, the first presidential race I could vote in, to cast my vote for Barry Commoner of the Citizen's Party.

I will not now become such a battered gay voter. Democracy is too important to waste a vote on Democratic Party candidates I don't believe in.

For my House representative, my vote goes to GOP candidate John Dennis and not incumbent Nancy Pelosi. I'd like to help her retire to her Pacific Heights mansion. Dennis has enough pro-gay, anti-war and pro-marijuana stands to please my political tastes. Plus, casting my ballot for him allows me to send Pelosi a message, that I'm sick of her refusal to hold debates with him or any of her primary or general election opponents.

I could go on and on about how Pelosi can't be bothered to hold town hall meetings with the local gay community, and her endless excuses over her and her party's failure to relentlessly push for ENDA, but I'll instead move on to two Democrats I will vote for tomorrow.

First, at the gubernatorial level, Democrat Jerry Brown is getting my vote, and I plan to praise and protest him when it comes time to make humanistic cuts to the state HIV/AIDS budget. You can read my endorsement of him, made back in September, here.

Only one other Democrat has earned my vote, and that is Debra Walker, who is running to be my District 6 member on the SF Board of Supervisors. She is progressive, yet pragmatic, knows how the city's bureaucracy (mal)functions, offers practical solutions to budgetary and housing issues for my district, and has good activist credentials.

For every other elective office, the Green Party candidate will get my vote. Click here to read the Green Party voter's guide. For me, voting Green, in as many races as possible, is an important and enormous investment in strengthening American democracy, and breaking up the duopoly of the Democrats and Republicans.

Tomorrow morning, I'll be voting at the St. Francis of Assisi senior home on Guerrero Street and I hope to find the polling station full of voters. I'll be doing my part to vote my hopes, not my fears. How about you?