Candidates are crying foul as nearly 150,000 controversial voter guides land in two California house districts this week. The guides, which rate candidates as more liberal or conservative than Barack Obama and his 2012 challenger Mitt Romney, are part of a Stanford-Dartmouth study on voter participation and may have broken state law. Similar guides were received in Montana, where the Secretary of State filed a complaint last week, alleging that the mailers violated multiple state laws. Melanie Mason has the story for the Los Angeles Times.
“In all, 143,000 mailers were sent out as part of the study, which ‘seeks to compare voter participation in precincts that receive the additional information with voter participation in precincts that do not,’ said Stanford in a statement.
“But the mailers have not been warmly received in Montana, where pamphlets were sent to 100,000 voters statewide with information on candidates in two state Supreme Court justice races.”
Governor Jerry Brown, on the stump in Alameda yesterday, told supporters that he plans to keep Prop 30’s temporary tax hike, temporary. Carla Marinucci has the story at SFGate:
“’I said when I campaigned for Prop. 30 that it was a temporary tax,’ Brown said. ‘That’s my belief, and I’m doing what we can to live within our means.’
“Brown made the remarks after a stop at the Alameda County Democratic Party’s campaign headquarters, where he told an audience of elected officials and volunteers that Democrats in California have fashioned a ‘winning combination’ in power that includes a quality most often associated with Republicans — fiscal prudence.
“’Out here in California, we’ve got momentum because we have two things: We have the compassion and caring of the Democratic Party, and we’ve got the prudence and the discipline to live within our means,’ Brown said.”
Coming as exactly zero percent surprise to anyone who watches California politics, a new study has found that white men hold a disproportionate number of political offices. (We’re pretty sure that Jennifer Fearing or Shawnda Westly could have told them that without bothering with the survey.) Jeremy White has the story in the Bee.
“While white men account for just 19 percent of the state’s population, they hold 55 percent of elected offices from the county level up. Women of color, by contrast, make up nearly a third of the state’s population and account for just seven percent of elected officials. Men of color make up 30 percent of the population but command 16 percent of public offices.”
Capitol Weekly’s John Howard digs into the recent PPIC poll and finds some interesting numbers about how and where Californians get their political news. Hint: fewer are getting it from their TVs.
“In 2007, nearly half of Californians — some 47 percent — relied on television for political coverage; today, it is 38 percent. Of those who go to television, nearly half rely on cable TV, according to the PPIC report, which included the findings of earlier statewide surveys.”
TV may be losing some eyeballs, but the money keeps pouring in – especially in election years. Joseph Tanfani looks at how the midterms are paying the bills for stations in battleground states. From the Los Angeles Times:
“The surge in political spending is cyclical and can be fickle, but it has become an important part of the revenue stream for broadcast companies — as much as a 30% increase in election years — and it's affecting how they operate. Even though more political advertising is landing on cable channels and online sites, well more than half of the spending is still flowing to local stations, analysts said.
"’All the digital guys say TV is a dinosaur. Well, dinosaurs roamed the earth for millions of years," said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, a group that has pushed advertisers for more disclosure.”
Dan Walters looks at the politics – and the personalities - in play for Dems getting supermajorities in both houses again. From his column in the Sacramento Bee:
“Democrats don’t want to cede hegemony, Republicans want to regain a smidgen of relevance and legislative leaders seek personal validation.
“There are as many as eight Assembly seats in play, six now held by Democrats and two by Republicans, and the GOP would have to win four of them to hold Democrats below a 54-seat supermajority…
“All in all, Democratic chances of keeping at least 54 of their 55 seats are fairly good, but in very low-turnout elections, strange things happen.”
And, at the San Jose Mercury News, Matthias Gafni looks at the very best part of in-person voting: the “I Voted” sticker.
“[Janet] Boudreau, a veritable Betsy Ross of the oval-shaped sticker, paired the words ‘I Voted’ with an American flag waving in an adhesive wind. The sticker swiftly became ubiquitous in American elections. Charging $6.95 for a roll of 1,000 stickers, Intab sells more than 30 million each year to election offices in all 50 states and U.S. territories, including many in the Bay Area.
"’Others claim to have created that design, but I copyrighted it long ago,’ Boudreau laughed about her bestseller.”
