Tuesday is election day, and (as usual) I am here to help. Everyone always asks me what I think as far as the candidates go, and so what follows is what I think. I’ve written a little about some of the races, but on a lot I just gave you who I think should win.

[[Disclaimer: I am a liberal. I like being a liberal. I am also a pragmatist. I will not vote for a candidate that I think has no chance in hell of winning.]]

I’m only going to do my ballot on here, but if you have questions before Tuesday, hit me on FB/Twitter/email and I will help you out.

To find your ballot:

• MN Secretary of State website has a polling place search and you can download a sample ballot for your specific races
• The League of Women Voters has candidate responses to questions
• The Strib has a ballot finding system too, and some short candidate responses

[Update]For some slightly different views on the MPLS school board and soil/water candidates, theballot.org has compiled their own list. I’m standing by my picks as of right now, but their picks are also fine. Those races were kind of a toss up for me.

*** Governor: Mark Dayton ***

I almost used “blink” tag on that title. The governor’s race is so important this year, and even if you voted for a different person on every single one of the rest of the recommendations I make – please don’t let Emmer win.

I don’t care what Horner has convinced you of, whether he sounds reasonable (he’s a PR guy, he’s good at that) or if his campaign has convinced you Dayton is just too leftist. If you are a left-leaning voter or a moderate and you vote for Horner, you are electing Emmer.

Mark Dayton is a stand up guy. On jobs, on health care, on education, on GLBT rights, on women’s rights, on transportation, on energy and the environment: he’s got it right. The next two years are going to be rough ones in this state (if you haven’t been paying much attention, we are in quite a crisis right now) and we need someone who is going to right this ship, not someone who’s going to sink us.

Vote for Dayton, people.

*** US Representative District 5: Keith Ellison ***

This is pretty much a “duh” vote. Keith has been great in DC. He’s going to win: last election he got about 70% of the vote. Let’s keep it that way.

*** State Senator District 61: Linda Berglin ***

*** State Representative District 61B: Jeff Hayden ***

*** Secretary of State: Mark Ritchie ***

Give this guy a freakin hand. He has had an intense year with the Franken/Coleman recount and the fact that we don’t have major lawsuits over the whole thing means he did a damned good job when the margin of election was that slim.

*** State Auditor: Rebecca Otto ***

I can’t tell you the story I know about Pat Anderson, because I don’t really want to run even the most minor risk of being sued, so let’s just say that Otto is a nice, sane, competent person and that’s what we’d like to see in office.

*** Attorney General: Lori Swanson ***

She stood up to Tim Pawlenty this year when he tried to pressure her to sue the federal government over the health care bill. Gold star.

*** County Commissioner District 3: Gail Dorfman ***

I’ve been seeing all these Barry Lazarus signs around, but when I went and read up on him I was baffled as to why anyone would want to elect him. Plus I always think the signs say “Baby Lazarus” before my brain can reprocess the bad typesetting. It’s off-putting.

*** Minneapolis School Board: Chanda Smith Baker & Richard Mammen *** [Updated]

I’m going to throw my lot in here with the Stonewall DFL’s endorsement.

[Update] My friend Kristy notes some discomfort about Smith Baker because of where she sends her own children to school and the fact that they go to a suburban school and yet she wants to lead the Minneapolis schools. So if that makes you uncomfortable too, my third choice is T. Williams.

[Update, part two] Smith Baker responded below, explaining where her kids go to school. Good job monitoring online presence, by the way.

*** Associate Justice 2: Helen Meyer ***

*** Associate Justice 6: Alan Page ***

Because Alan Page is awesome! Seriously.

*** Court of Appeals 13: Randolph Peterson ***

When you look up the language of his opponent (most of the judicial candidates I’m not backing use similar language), it is incredibly clear that they plan on being ideologically conservative judges. “Strict constitutionalist” and “stop activist judges” = we don’t like court decisions that conflict with conservative politics. I won’t vote for them.

*** Court of Appeals 14: Larry Stauber ***

*** Soil and Water 2 & 4: see my notes ***

Hell, I never know who to vote for here. So, based on their bios – it looks like Scott Tracy would probably be good (for district 2) and David Rickert seems like he’s got relevant experience (for district 4). Let me know if you’re passionate about someone else and I’ll consider them.

*** Insidery Charter Amendment proposal: Um, maybe? ***

It makes no sense in its wording, and I’m still unsure as to the actual purpose. But the League of Women Voters have a Pro/Con sheet and more information on it.

What it looks like is an attempt to address issues of disparity in redistricting. But what I’m not sure of is whether this is a short- or long-vision thing. Like, is this being done with the current commission in mind? Because they will change and could be people we don’t want redistricting. Or is the current process really too political?

Will someone please enlighten me? I’m on the fence here. And on the fence tends to push me towards status quo. So as of right now, at 10:47 p.m., I’m going “no,” but that could change.

I have been waiting to get this video up until I had final approval from the people involved, but I am so excited to now share it that I’m up in bed with my computer aglow and Megan completely asleep next to me – that girl has serious Circadian rhythms.

Anyway, if you don’t know about the project…where have you been?!?!

Here’s the rundown. GLBT teens have always had a disproportionately high suicide rate; it’s been pretty consistent over time. The right wing (currently pretty silent on the topic) has loved to say that it’s another destructive part of the “gay lifestyle” – we all know that’s bullshit, of course, and that societal and systemic bullying makes the lives of GLBT or GLBT-perceived teens a special kind of hell.

I’m not sure what coalescing of events and connections spawned the uproar – maybe social media has us so connected that we started being able to see them as a whole, even though the kids were in different parts of the country. When you see it this way, the crisis is visible and you feel it.

Dan Savage started the project with this column and in his podcast. When he gets going, he is a powerful advocate for the causes he is passionate about and the GLBT community has responded in kind. Hundreds of videos of people telling kids what they don’t have access to – stories of how peoples’ lives got better when they got out of high school.

We feel their pain in a real way, and we are living proof that the particular sort of hell they’re experiencing often goes away with adulthood and removing yourself from that environment.

You’ve gotta give them hope, as Harvey Milk says. And hope serves to inspire. I hope more comes of this and that we can find ways to reach out better because we are not allowed to speak in their schools – policies on “neutrality” on the issue of whether or not gay people deserve rights or not have invaded school districts. Meaning: a kid can say gay people are going to hell, that’s just his religion. So if he gets in trouble for shoving a gay kid in a toilet and calling him a fag…well…how do you really address the problem of hatred there? You can’t. So we have to figure out how to do it from outside the system.

We made our little contribution. I hope we have more to give. Life got so much better for us – and we all measure what “better” is in different ways.

(By the way, my friend Kate is apparently our star because I don’t have time to select and upload a different picture.)

(Sidenote: this takedown of the “I’m a Christian and don’t agree with gay marriage, but don’t think gay kids should be bullied and so you can’t lump us together” response is just awesome to me.)