The valley's few remaining spring vistas of fruit blossoms and mustard flowers have been marred by badly designed placards with the names of people we'd rather forget about. Voters can be forgiven for being apathetic, confused or angry. The major parties' presidential primaries are a done deal. Term limits have made races more interesting and less predictable, but they force us to work harder. And the content and meaning of debates at the state and local level continues to become even more irrelevant to solving the major issues of our time.
Bizarre things happen, too.
Like a Japanese-American heterosexual in political drag as a gay Latino. While Mike Honda's transparent attempts to corner those constituencies shows admirable embracing of diversity, even the best of chameleons will have trouble prying votes away from the representatives of those constituencies he must defeat. Then there are familiar names like Alquist, Cortese and Diridon. Like licensed designer wares that attempt to leverage the good name of the flagship product, this new generation will no doubt benefit from the goodwill associated with those they slept with or were sired by. Finally there is Ed Foglia, who is not running, but whose name appears on the ballot anyway.