Yearly Archives: 2008

Early Voting Takes Determination

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Colleagues who have voted early at the Coral Gables library report long lines, and long wait times.

The Miami-Dade Elections Department has posted a list of early voting sites with approximate wait times at each location.   At this writing, the most recent data is for 2pm yesterday, and wait times varied from thirty minutes to two and half hours. I think 30 minutes might be tolerable, but to run a system that makes voters wait two and a half hours is a sign of either poor planning or an attempt to suppress the vote. Being a believer that one should rarely attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, I'm prepared to believe it's the elections dept. being its usual wonderful self, but even so….
 
Update — I found the following in my email:

To help students, faculty, and staff take advantage of early voting, the University will be providing free shuttle service to the Coral Gables library election site starting today. Shuttles from Stanford Circle on the Coral Gables campus will be running today, Thursday, October 23 and tomorrow, Friday, October 24 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; next Monday, October 27 through Friday, October 31 from 12 to 6 p.m.; and Saturday, November 1 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

If the wait times are a couple of hours, seems to me there's a danger anyone who goes out after about noon on these shuttles might get stranded, or will give up and go home. And as for voting on your lunch hour, fuggedaboutit.

Continue reading →

Posted in Miami, Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 2 Comments

Law School Price Wars Beginning? Not Quite Yet…

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

ABA Journal, Law School Free for UC Irvine's Entering 2009 Class.

Students who enroll at the University of California’s new law school in Irvine next fall will get their legal education for free.

The law school is giving full tuition scholarships worth about $100,000 to its first 2009 class of about 60 students, the National Law Journal reports.

Charles Cannon, assistant dean of development and external affairs at the law school, told the publication UC Irvine hopes to attract high-quality students with the offer. The free tuition is expected to cost the school about $6 million, he said.

Irvine is a start-up school. It has hired quality faculty, and this should let them get started with a bang.

I presume, though, they won't be making a habit of this. But if they do, it could lead to a wave of discounting in law school tuition which would change the face of legal education (and in the long run, most likely be in substantial part at the expense of faculty salaries since I doubt we or others schools like us could raise the money it would take to replace a third of our tuition revenue).

Posted in Law School | Comments Off on Law School Price Wars Beginning? Not Quite Yet…

I See A Pattern

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

The GOP stopped being the party careful with public money no later than when they started being the party that told itself government is funamentally illegitimate.

  • Boston Globe, Alaska paid for Palin daughters to travel,

    “Governor Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and she later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

  • Politico, RNC shells out $150K for Palin fashion,

    The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

    According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

    The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

If government is illegitimate, if taxes are theft (rather than the price of civilization), why not milk it for all you can get?

That said, Palin is a piker. She should get lessons in how to steal billions from Cheney.

But of course, it's the party elite, not the rank and file, who get the cash. Which is why we read stuff like Republicans Disgusted By RNC Spending On Palin. Tin-eared GOP spokesperson Tracey Schmitt didn't help matters with the implausible claim that, “It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.” Which makes Palin sound even more like Marie Antoinette.

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | 2 Comments

Coverage of Taddeo’s Surge

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

The blogs are noticing what Taddeo has achieved:

Interesting note: the DCCC hasn't done much if anything for Taddeo, even while being very active in neighboring districts. I suspect the hand of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, don't you?

Posted in Politics: FL-18 | Comments Off on Coverage of Taddeo’s Surge

Taddeo Gaining Fast

Posted on October 21, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

New polling released today shows Taddeo has lept from a 15+ point deficit in the previous poll a couple of weeks ago to only a seven point gap among voters who have made up their minds about the race in Florida's 18th district. Most importantly, Ros-Lehtinen remains under the magic 50% — the incumbent's recent ad blitz has netted her a statistically insignificant 2% gain over the last poll while Taddeo has surged. Add in the leanings of the uncommitted and this election is nearly tied.

Why? National events — plus Taddeo's name recognition has almost doubled in the last few weeks.

Here are the key stats: Taddeo at 41% and Ros-Lehtinen at 48%, and 11% undecided. Meanwhile, 78% of [somewhat] undecided voters lean toward Taddeo; only 22% to Ros-Lehtinen. That's almost a 4:1 split. Allocate that [remaining] 11% undecided according to the same 78-22 ratio, and the candidates are within 1% of each other — 50.42 to 49.58. If these numbers are right, they must be freaking out over at Ros-Lehtinen HQ.

As the pollster's memo notes,

Ros-Lehtinen’s favorables have declined while her unfavorables have increased. Moreover, because she is so well known in the district (94% are familiar with her) Ros-Lehtinen has very little room to grow her support, while Annette Taddeo is in a far better position to become better known to the electorate.

If the election were held today, these numbers suggest it could still be a squeaker win for Ros-Lehtinen. But there's still two weeks to go — and the more McCain looks like a loser, the more that Republican voters may stay home.

Like I've said from the start, this is going to be a turnout-driven congressional election. Here in south Florida we're enjoying a full-court press by the Obama get-out-the-vote team, plus some serious field work by the Taddeo forces.

And that's why blogging may be a spotty for a while: A few days ago I volunteered to be a precinct captain for the Taddeo campaign. Starting this past weekend my kids and I have been working our way through our precinct, going door to door identifying likely voters, and talking to independent voters and other identified persuadables about why they should vote for Taddeo. So far the response has been excellent. (PS, if you live or work near me — I now have Taddeo yard signs.)

Meanwhile, you can send Taddeo a few dollars, or buy a TV ad (prices start at $100 for two or more).

[Slightly improved from original version for clarity.]

Below, full text of the Taddeo Press Release.

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics: FL-18 | Comments Off on Taddeo Gaining Fast

In Which I Register With Zipcar

Posted on October 21, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

I've just registered with Zipcar, the $8/hour car sharing service.

We only have one car because we live near enough to campus to walk to work. But as the kids get older there are more and more occasions where they need to be schlepped in two different directions at the same time. So I think the idea of a car sharing service is wonderful and I'm delighted that it's finally come to Miami.

Except that it sort of hasn't.

In towns where Zipcar is really present, they have multiple locations — sometimes a plethora of locations. If your close location is out of cars, you go a bit further.

Will a car be available when I want one?

It's natural for new members to worry that cars won't be available when they want them. About half of all reservations are made the same day. We monitor utilization very closely, adding more cars as usage rises, keeping availability high. But the beauty of the system is that Zipcar members are entitled to use any of the cars in our fleet. So even if the Zipcar right around the corner isn't available, you'll still be able reserve one located only a few blocks away.

But in Miami, as far as I can tell, at present there's only one location. Yes, it's on the campus, and yes, it's near my house, maybe 10-15 minutes walk and almost as long to drive there, as the relevant entrance is on the far side of the campus. But still.

As far as I can tell from the occasional online spot check, they have a grand total of … two cars. So far, they do seem to be available most of the time. But if neither of those two cars is available…I think the next closest car is in Gainesville! Where, incidentally, they have a lot more locations.

We'll just have to see how it goes.

Posted in Personal | 6 Comments