California's new online voter registration system is drawing people in increasing numbers and the state may reach a record level of signups this year.
From the LAT's Patrick McGreevy: "So far, the early tally is that at least 679,000 Californians registered to vote in the last 45 days, including those who submitted paper applications postmarked before midnight on Monday, which may set a new record for registration, according to Secretary of State Debra Bowen."
"As of Sept. 7, there were 17.25 million people registered to vote in California, while the previous record was 17.33 million."
“I must emphasize these are preliminary numbers and not the final confirmed roster of eligible voters in California because county elections officials are now hard at work verifying each and every application,” Bowen said in a statement. “After all 58 county elections officials send their registration data to my office, we will compile the certified statewide numbers and publish a final report of registered voters on November 2.”
Nothing says California election like slate mailers, and with hotly contested races for the House and Legislature, plus an array of hefty ballot initiatives, the mailbox is getting stuffed.
From the Bee's Dan Walters: "Political mailers are filling mailboxes all over California, thanks to a bumper crop of contentious ballot measures and the most competitive array of legislative and congressional seats in decades."
"Most of those cardboard missives are just propaganda for and against particular candidates and measures, but in the last two weeks of the campaign, many are "slate mailers" that purport to represent sage advice from cultural or ideological groups."
"Don't be fooled. The vast majority of slate mailers are commercial enterprises, and the positions they take depend entirely on which side of an issue or which candidate paid the money to appear."
Speaking of the election, with less than two weeks to go before D-Day, Gov. Brown is on the stump to woo voters to back to budget-linked Proposition 30, his tax initiative to raise revenue for schools and public safety.
From the Mercury News' Steve Harmon: " Brown said voters have never faced "such a stark choice" as they do with Proposition 30, which would provide $6 billion annually to the state and avert $5.4 billion in cuts to schools and community colleges and another $250 million each to the University of California and California State University."
"If you vote yes, you get billions into schools, or you vote no and you can yank billions out of schools and jack up tuition," the governor said in a telephone interview with this newspaper. "It's an either/or simple matter of arithmetic with monumental consequences for the whole state."
"Attack ads on Proposition 30, which seeks to raise the state sales tax by a quarter cent and income tax on higher-income earners, have come largely from the Small Business Action Committee, a group that had earlier been powered by a $16 million donation from wealthy Republican activist Charles Munger of Palo Alto. He's the half brother of Molly Munger, who is bankrolling Proposition 38, the chief rival ballot measure that seeks to raise $10 billion a year for 12 years for schools by hiking income taxes on all but the poor."
One thing that baffles Brown: There are many people who have never heard of Proposition 30. The governor stopped by a coffee shop and wasn't pleased with what he heard.
From the LAT's Anthony York: "In the cafe, located in the shadow of San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, Brown asked employees whether they had heard of Proposition 30.
A couple had. Most had not."
"Do you watch TV?" Brown asked a young woman who had not heard of the measure. She said she did not. Brown seemed exasperated."
"That's the problem," the governor said. "How do you reach the non-TV voter?"
Gasoline prices are falling in California as refineries get back up and running and the cheaper winter blend takes hold.
From Gary Richards in the Mercury News: "That was expected. But here's a surprise -- a pleasant one: Prices may fall an additional 10 to 15 cents a gallon a week through Thanksgiving to about $4 a gallon, and they could drop to $3.75 a gallon or lower before the end of the year."
"I would be ecstatic if gas prices dropped that low," said Laura Keenan, of San Jose, a respiratory therapist who commutes to Castro Valley and who has paid as much as $4.95 a gallon for her 2004 Acura TSX that requires premium gas. "It gets expensive. I miss the days of 99 cents for a gallon of gas."
"The statewide average on Tuesday was $4.40 a gallon, down from the single-day record of $4.67 a gallon set Oct. 9. On that day, the California price even topped the average in Hawaii, which almost always has the most expensive gas in the United States. It's now back down below Hawaii -- by 2 cents a gallon."
And from our "Parallel Universe" file comes the tale of Germany's parking champion -- that's right, there really is a competition for parking a car.
"Sabine Langer, from Düsseldorf in North Rhine-Westphalia, had to complete five different stages to earn the unofficial title of “German parking champion”, which won her a trip to see the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix."
"The tasks included squeezing a nearly nine-metre-long limousine into a parking bay, blind parking and also mastering the horizontal gear shift famously used in a Citroen 2CV, as well as parking a rickety old three-wheeler."
"But no space was too small and no car too tricky for Langer, who said on Monday that she put it all down to practise. “As an industrial clerk I drive a lot and often have to park in tiny bays, which I see as a challenge,” she said."
