It's a wrap: The 2010 election campaign grinds to a close in California and now it's time to find out what the voters think of all this. From Inside the Bay Area's quartet of political writers.
"Scrapping for every last vote, all four candidates in the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races made final appeals to supporters Monday, completing a whirlwind sprint to the campaign finish line with accusations and attacks -- and in one case, some conciliatory words..."
"In a final jab at his opponent, he told supporters
to see the details of his platform on his campaign
website. "Whitman's plan is mostly pictures, but I
have more respect for you," he said. Whitman, who met with voters at her favorite cafe,
Peet's coffee shop in Menlo Park, insisted that her
campaign's internal polls, which she says show her
in a dead heat, are right -- and that the Field, Public Policy Institute of California
and Los Angeles Times/USC polls are wrong."
After two years on the campaign trail and a personal pocketbook that's lighter by some $140 million, Meg Whitman remains confident, reports the L.A. Times' Seema Mehta.
"The former EBay chief and billionaire who has spent more than $140 million of her own money on her effort showed no signs of wear, despite campaigning for nearly two years. Frequently flashing a broad smile and chuckling, Whitman predicted victory on Tuesday, and dismissed pundits and polls suggesting otherwise."
"The only poll that matters is tomorrow," she said. "We're going to battle it out til the end." She said there would be "some surprised folks" after the ballots are tallied."
Decline-to-state voters, the roughly fifth of the electorate that doesn't align itself with either major party, are the key to the election, says the Bee's Dan Walters.
"The relatively close division of partisan voters – just a few hundred thousand more Democrats than Republicans – should give the GOP candidates for governor and senator, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, fighting chances to win. But both are trailing in Field's pre-election polls because of another factor – the bent of independent voters."
"The ranks of nonaligned (declined-to-state) voters have grown sharply over the last two decades to a record-high 20.3 percent of registration. The two Democratic candidates for major office, Attorney General Jerry Brown and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, enjoy strong margins in what now amounts to a third force in state politics."
No political season would be complete without formal complaints of wrongdoing. This time it's in the 28th Senate District, where the state GOP assails Democrats over a disputed mailer.
From Capitol Weekly's John Howard: "The (Republican) party’s view is that it was a blatant attempt to influence a vote,’ said Sacramento attorney Charles Bell, the state GOP’s general counsel, who described the mailer as a "false and fraudulent" use of an official communication. The mailer was intended to look like state paperwork, he added."
"It was in kind of a mailgram format, with yellow paper, their knockoff of a Western Union telegram," Bell said. Democrats quickly labeled the GOP’s action as politically motivated."
Speaking of bad mailers, CW's Malcolm Maclachlan has the lowdown on the some of the most egregious examples.
"Proposition 19 allows school bus drivers to smoke pot right before work,” according to a mailer from the Small Business Action Committee. Prop. 19, of course, says no such thing, and specifically allows employers to discipline and fire employees who are impaired on the job."
"A “Voting Guide for Republicans,” meanwhile, specifically makes the unlikely recommendation that members of the GOP vote for Democrat Bill Lockyer for Treasurer, instead of his Republican challenger, Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Tustin. It also urges “Republican voters” to oppose Prop. 23, even though the California Republican Party and a large majority of Republican voters support the initiative, which would indefinitely suspend the state’s AB 32 global warming law. It also states that Republicans should oppose Prop. 20 and support Prop. 27, the exact opposite of the party’s position on these redistricting measures."
The venerable Field Poll predicts a 55 percent voter turnout and says more than half the voters -- 55 percent, too -- will cast their ballots by mail. From the Bee's Jim Sanders.
"Months of political arm-twisting, shouting, robocalls and attack ads finally will end with a turnout projected at 9.5 million people, or 55 percent of registered voters, according to a Field Poll released today..."
"Fifty-five percent of votes cast in the election are expected to be mail-in ballots, the Field Poll found. Known by many Californians as absentee ballots, they can be delivered by the Postal Service or brought by voters to polling places."
And finally, from our "Fellow Travelers" file, John Davis installs a 747 flight simulator in his bedroom. What do you bet, he still can't get into the Mile-High Club?
"What started as a flight of fancy has turned into a hobby of jumbo proportions after the 50-year-old built an £18,000 Boeing 747-400 simulator in his spare bedroom."
"‘I’ve always been interested in planes and I dreamt of becoming a pilot from a very young age – but I was never any good at maths, so this is the next best thing,’ said Mr Davis, from Coventry."
"He and eight ‘crew’ plan to fly around the world to raise money for Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance."
A very crowded bedroom....