The Pennsylvania primaries are coming up on May 17, if you haven't noticed the ripe crop of district attorney campaign signs all over the county - solely for the Republican candidates, mind you. Think it's a Republican county? For us idiot Democratic voters, it's a choice between assistant DA Karen Arnold and a Walker township lawyer named Erik Rutkowski who's apparently been supplementing his new practice with a part-time teamstering job. Geez, a choice between an experienced loon (Arnold apparently was a Kusinich elector last year) and a recently-arrived country lawyer. I *think* I'll vote for the hick over the hippie, but it's not much of a choice.

There don't seem to be any Democratic candidates for the Bellefonte borough offices. Wish I had known this before - I would have tried for a seat on the council or something, just for the experience of running for office. That, and I hate to see "no candidate" on the ballot. Maybe that's just a partial list or something. The Republicans don't seem to have a full slate either, not even for the tax collector, and I'm pretty sure that the borough has one - I just wrote out a cheque to her last month.

There's five Bellefonte School District candidates for four slots, which means we'll have an actual choice on this page. I'm thinking the new kid, Hope Boylston, is the odd woman out, given her habit of writing crankish letters to the Centre Daily Times.

Finally, there's a fairly substantial "Ballot Question", which I think is Commonwealthese for "referendum", asking if we want the state to borrow over six hundred million dollars for sundry environmental projects. I don't know about this one. I'm inclined to go with "no" on general principles - it's vague and expensive-sounding. I prefer my pork with better documentation, I think.