I cast my ballot in the 2026 Midterm Election last week by dropping it in a Board of Elections lockbox situated at Stoner Park just under a mile from my apartment. Why did I vote early? Basically, I was so sick and tired of having my mailbox stuffed with multicolored ads claiming the support of the police and firefighters and full of outrageous lies and name calling. Now I could funnel all that stuff straight into the garbage where it belongs.

Democracy can be enervating in the extreme, especially when it is bloated with the cash of billionaires who are trying to push candidates and propositions that would favor their quest for power. I am sure that, human nature being what it is, the lies and name calling will always be a part of elections. The existence of so much money in campaigns, however, makes it ever so much more intense and vicious.

A month ago today, I posted about a candidate for California State Senate named Brian Goldsmith. He has been particularly energetic about stuffing my mailbox and TV screen with lies against his opponent, a fellow Democrat named John Erickson. His TV ads concentrate on attacking Erickson for daring to suggest cutting the staff of the LA sheriff’s department despite the crime rate going up 137%. Why, then, does the L.A. sheriff Robert Luna endorse Erickson? Does he want to see the L.A. sheriffs get gutted?

It seems that Goldsmith is a political consultant who is massively funded by several PACs with bland names. Although he is running as a Democrat, he was recently a Republican and changed parties. That’s a shrewd move in a state that at present is anti-Republican. But then why is he being endorsed by Republicans?

You have to be wide awake when voting. Things are never what they seem to be.