Posted on 10/23/2014 9:01:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
Most years, California offers up supersize election stories -- an embarrassment of riches for the opinion columnist. This year, other states are getting all the drama while California looks as staid as a bored accountant.
In 2010, the big story was Meg Whitman's millions vs. Jerry Brown's cheapskate comeback campaign. Whitman spent $140 million of her own money on her campaign for governor, only to watch attorney Gloria Allred chastise her on TV for firing a nanny because she had come to the country illegally. The previous two elections -- one a recall -- starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, the cigar-chomping movie star who boasted about kicking nurses' butts and dismissed state legislators as "girlie men."
This year, it's Brown vs. Neel Kashkari, a buttoned-down former U.S. Treasury official who's not even a billionaire. Because Kashkari doesn't have Whitman's money -- he started the election worth $5 million, and he's poured $3 mil into the campaign -- Brown is free to ignore him. And the press corps is free to ignore the race.
If Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly had won in the June primary, California's gubernatorial contest would be more interesting. He's a former Minuteman who was put on probation for trying to get through airport security with a gun. Donnelly also accused Kashkari, a Hindu and son of Indian immigrants, of supporting Shariah when Kashkari worked for the Treasury Department. This year's Republican voter had little appetite for a candidate who can spit out quotes that bring on weeks of damage control and paint the GOP as ethnically insensitive.
Turnout in June was an abysmal 25 percent -- a big drop from 2010's 33 percent. In the 2010 election, 60 percent of California voters participated. This November, turnout is expected to slump to 50 to 52 percent, according to Neal Kelley, who is the Orange County registrar of voters, although the state organization for election officials he heads hopes it will be larger. Kelley did confirm that so far, absentee ballot submissions are 5 to 6 percent lower than four years ago.
Given the lack of conflict, I think it will be amazing if half of registered voters turn out. If Donnelly had won, then Democrats would have used his border background to whip up a lather of Latino voter indignation; demonization boosts turnout. In the absence of a mud fight, only 1 in 4 voters could identify Kashkari for a September Los Angeles Times poll.
San Jose State University political science professor Larry Gerston notes that turnout is likely to be low because there's no presidential contest; California's a very blue state, which makes outcomes predictable; and there are few initiatives on the ballot. Gerston also sees a trend of public disengagement. "We all know our rights," Gerston told me, but not necessarily our obligation to vote.
Without big money (which is supposed to be a voter turnoff) -- and without mountains of mudslinging (the other alleged voter turnoff) -- and with two good candidates, voter turnout likely will achieve a record low. As California becomes increasingly liberal and liberal pols make it increasingly easy to vote, see more Californians who can't be bothered to do so. One-party rule begets two kinds of elections: ugly and inevitable or boring and inevitable.
No real reason in Kalipornia for a conservative to even get out of bed on election day it seems.
When the courts keep reversing voter passed amendments to the state constitution general apathy is the inevitable result.
As the June primary approached, it looked as though Tim Donnelly, the Tea Party favorite, might win the nomination, but the GOP Establishment, including talk show host Hugh Hewitt pulled out all the stops to derail him.
Now we have as our candidate Kashkari, who is running 16 points behind Jerry Brown just 12 days before the election. I hope Hugh Hewitt and the GOPe are satisfied.
“also sees a trend of public disengagement...”
Used to be, ballots were in English. Now they are in English and Spanish. And the ballots contain provision so people can still vote, even if they are so illiterate in English and Spanish that they can not even sign their own name.
Anyone still wonder why California has become a One Party State....just as the USSA will be when 35 to 50 million Mexicans and related become FSA voters?
Duh?
When the people do speak out via our 'direct democracy' option, some a-hole in a black robe throws it out. They've even found ways around the formerly ironclad Prop 13.
There is no representative republic in California. Why bother?
Also, every time the citizens get some citizen-sponsored law (via Propositions on the ballot) passed that would do something radical like defining marriage as a man&woman or forbidding illegals to become part of the FSA, some Dem/Leftist hack put in a Judges job, declares the Peoples’ Will to be Unconstitutional.
Anyone still drinking the MSM koolaid and think this is still a “Democracy”?
Jurists at the Federal and State level are always “giving deference” to Legislative and Administrative actions yet when it comes to “We the People” - from whom all power supposedly derives - they give no such deference.
They’ve even found ways around the formerly ironclad Prop 13.
If the RATS get super-majorities (more than 2/3) again they will overturn Prop 13. That is why, unlike Ms. Saunders and others on this thread, I think this is an extremely important and interesting election.
If you are in a swing Assembly or Senate district for goodness sake get out and vote. If the turnout is low, then all the better—your vote counts more. All conservatives need is 3 or 4 seats in either house and we can stop the RATS in their tracks.
There are two important initiatives on the ballot-45 and 46. Regardless what you think, these do matter. If either of them pass then your medical insurance bills will increase even more than they will under Obamacare. While you are at it vote against Prop 1, which is a boondoggle bait and switch. The RATS put in poison pills so no new dams or canals can get built but it will fund their pet projects.
With all due respect, after reading threads like this I am beginning to think that Freerepublic is being overrun by RAT operatives who are trying to depress conservative turnout.
If you really think there is no hope then stay home and turn on the TV to the soap operas and Entertainment Tonight.
AKA The Battle of the Badly-Shorn Scrotum. (If you don’t get that, see that picture of Neel, and then see recent pictures of Jerry Brown.)
Don’t skip the election, just skip various offices where the candidates are so awful.
RINO Kashkari has been a major dud, the race is considered non-competitive.
And ironically, the Levinites who love to scream "GOPE! GOPE! GOPE! GOPE! GOPE!!!" at everyone on the planet barely lifted a finger to help the conservative running against Kashkari in the primary. Apparently its MUCH more important to defeat people who vote the way we want 90% of the time.
Why put initiatives on a ballot in a general election when people actually vote? Here in Kally-forn-ya, we waste millions in taxpayers money to create endless "special elections" for 'em
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