$14 Billion. California faces a huge budget deficit. Not even “The Terminator” can stave off this disaster. Voters will rightfully riot against tax increases. So there will be some tough cuts in all areas of state spending, some of which will, undoubtedly, touch upon programs near and dear to the GLBT community.

Marty Block for State Assembly. As the state moves into deficit mode again, we need to elect legislators – people like Marty Block, who is running now for the Democratic primary for the 78th Assembly district, the seat now held by termed-out Assemblymember Shirley Horton. Marty has been nothing short of spectacular in his role as president of the San Diego Community College Board and also when he served on the County Board of Education (during an era when fundamentalist religious zealots tried to destroy public education by refusing federal funds).

A Democratic president in 2008. Virtually all the Republican candidates seem to have succumbed to the hardcore right wing. It’s a race to show who’s the “most anti-gay.” At a recent debate, Mitt Romney retracted (not surprisingly) his view that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” should be repealed. According to him, he said that in 1994, “before 9-11.”

Mitt Romney is not just a flip-flopper; he’s polypositionous – a term I’ve coined for someone who doesn’t have multiple wives (like Mitt’s great grandfather) but for someone who has multiple positions on every issue, depending upon the audience.

Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee didn’t necessarily retract his 1992 statement that persons with HIV should be segregated from society, even though it was quite clear in 1992 that HIV is a communicable but not a contagious disease. Ironically, some criticized Huckabee for the statement in 1992 and his reluctance to apologize and retract it in 2007. But there are certainly those in these early primaries who would welcome something akin to death camps for persons with HIV. And they wouldn’t stop with just folks with HIV. The anti-immigrant rhetoric has approached an ugly tone.

So that leaves the Democratic field. On GLBT issues, any one of them would be superior to any in the Republican field. The president appoints justices to the Supreme Court, who, in turn, can rule that laws that discriminate against gays and lesbians are unconstitutional.

The president also controls hundreds of administrative agencies, such as the Department of Education. For example, federal court rulings already give the secretary of education power to hold schools accountable for discrimination against students based upon gender identity or sexual orientation. Unfortunately, Secretary Spellings has done little to enforce these federal laws, taking a position inconsistent with the law as developed by the Clinton administration.

New City Council in San Diego. Santa should add Marti Emerald, Carl DeMaio and Todd Gloria or Stephen Whitburn to the San Diego City Council. I wish we could add Consumer Bob and KUSI’s Michael (“It ain’t right”) Turko, too.

Marti Emerald, who is running in District 7, is a no-nonsense trouble-shooter who’s unlikely to sit idly by as the mayor and other city officials paint rosy scenarios about the city’s fiscal crisis. More than a decade ago, Marti received an award from the local GLAAD group for her reporting on GLBT issues.

Carl DeMaio is running in District 5, a Republican stronghold for decades. Carl is openly gay and has managed to attract a list of conservative supporters that Mitt Romney would relish. The reason he’s attracted so much support is that he is a walking encyclopedia on municipal finance and management. People here have prayed for someone like New York’s Michael Bloomberg, who knows how to use municipal financing and regulatory law to create jobs, build affordable housing, attract business, and generate revenue (from a source other than taxpayers) to re-build a crumbling infrastructure.

If Carl is elected, he will not be the first gay individual to represent District 5. Years ago the district was represented by Linda Barnett, an attorney who now lives in Los Angeles. Linda never discussed her sexual orientation publicly, yet we all knew she was a lesbian. She provided a crucial vote in passing the gay rights ordinance back in 1991. She was recalled from office, but it was not because she was a lesbian.