Independent... and there are quite a few dems I can do without....
(OreO, Dick the Blooming Asshole.... etc.) but the "strategy" seems
sound....you need a "majority" in office in order to get past the
gridlock.....Wonder if the voters will get the point and, if so, who
they'll vote for two years from now?.....
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Election-2010/2010/1103/In-all-blue-California-election-results-lessons-for-Democratic-Party
Los Angeles
Democrats did something right, at least, in California.
Skip to next paragraph Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) of Calif., gestures as
she speaks to supporters after being projected the winner in her
Senate race against Carly Fiorina, Nov. 2, in Los Angeles.
Mark J. Terrill/AP
Enlarge
Related Stories
California backs Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer to reject rolling GOP tide
On historic night, Republicans sweep House Democrats from power Prop.
19 in California: legalized marijuana goes up in smoke In the face of
a surging GOP elsewhere in the nation, California voters – who had
credible and interesting Republican candidates to choose from in two
big statewide races – elected to go with Democrats over Republicans,
long-time politicians over fresh faces, single-party control over
divided government, and, some would say, pragmatism over anger.
Do the state's election results hold lessons for the Democratic Party?
Or is that bucking of the national trend nothing more than California
being California – living in its own la-la land?
Not so, said some voters here. Their votes were born of experience,
including a gridlocked state government that is perennially unable to
grapple effectively with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
IN PICTURES: Election Day
"Elsewhere in America, people are angry and so they looked at the
president and voted the opposite party to make a statement," says
Megan Martinez, a 20-something emergency medical technician, at the
Sen. Barbara Boxer victory celebration. "Californians are angry but
took the time to really look at [Democratic gubernatorial candidate]
Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer versus [GOP competitors] Meg Whitman and
Carly Fiorina. They chose experience over fresh faces because we're in
very tough times. We already tried a fresh face with [Gov.] Arnold
Schwarzenegger, and that didn't work."
California election results mean that the state is one of the few to
remain all blue: Democrats will sit in the governor's office, hold
both US Senate seats, and control the state legislature. Even
Massachusetts has recently elected a Republican (Sen. Scott Brown in
January), and reliably blue New York isn't sure yet which party will
control the state Senate.
Analysts credit an intense burst of support by longtime Democratic
allies – plus the party's edge among the many racial and ethnic
subgroups here – for turning out the Democratic vote.
"Labor, the Democratic Party, and ethnic voters helped the Democrats
win and buck the national GOP tide," says Hal Dash, president and CEO
of Cerrell & Accociates, a Democratic strategy consulting firm.
California's relatively large shares of Latinos, Asians, Pacific
Islanders, and African-Americans tend to skew Democratic. That
contributes to the Democrats' advantage in voter registration: 44
percent of voters register as Democrats, compared with 31 percent as
Republicans and 25 percent as third-party or decline-to-state.
"Republicans in California just did not have the numbers or turnout
statewide to topple Boxer and beat Jerry Brown," says Mr. Dash.
"Democratic enthusiasm started slow but finished strong, and that was
another key."
California's results are not just an aberration and may be a
bellwether of what's to come for the rest of the nation, argues
political scientist Barbara O'Connor.
Page: 1 | 2
"The rest of the country will learn these things pre-2012," says Ms.
O'Connor, director of the Institute for Study of Politics and Media at
California State University, Sacramento. "Women won't just
[automatically] vote for women. Personal wealth won't buy elections,
and the tea party values on social issues don't appeal to our one-
quarter independents. [We] already had a likable outsider [in Governor
Schwarzenegger] and aren't willing to try it again."
Skip to next paragraph Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) of Calif., gestures as
she speaks to supporters after being projected the winner in her
Senate race against Carly Fiorina, Nov. 2, in Los Angeles.
Mark J. Terrill/AP
Enlarge
Related Stories
California backs Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer to reject rolling GOP tide
On historic night, Republicans sweep House Democrats from power Prop.
19 in California: legalized marijuana goes up in smoke Indeed, female
voters in California were instrumental in the Democratic wins on
Tuesday. Nationally, exit polls showed that women backed GOP
candidates by about 48 percent to 51 percent for Democrats, but in
California, 56 percent of women voters went for Mr. Brown and 40
percent for Ms. Whitman, says Lara Brown, a political scientist at
Villanova University. In the Senate race, 56 percent of women went for
Boxer and 39 percent for Ms. Fiorina. "In short, women in California
chose to support the Democratic Party and not the anti-incumbent
sentiment, which moved other women in other states away from the
Democrats," she says.
Governor-elect Brown has been in California politics for 40 years, and
Barbara Boxer has served in the Senate for 28. The GOP's Whitman, a
successful steward of eBay, was stung by her handling of revelations
that she had employed an undocumented maid. Whitman's avoidance of the
press and negative ads more than offset her perhaps-too-polished
responses in debates. She also managed to alienate the state's fastest-
growing voter bloc: Latinos.
"What this shows is that a hard line on immigration does not pay off
in places like California," says Angelica Salas, executive director of
the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. After
Proposition 187 – the 1994 citizens' initiative to deny education and
health services to illegal immigrants –Latino voters in California
became much more politically savvy. Calling Whitman hypocritical to be
urging crackdowns on illegal immigrants even as she employed one, Ms.
Salas says, Latinos "can smell a putrid idea when they hear one."
A recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California, she
notes, showed that 70 percent of illegal immigrants in the state live
with someone who is a legal permanent resident or a US citizen.
"When a politician chooses to attack an undocumented immigrant, entire
families feel attacked," she says.
With these two big wins in the state's highest-profile races,
Democrats should understand they must deliver or be thrown out, say
other Latino activists.
"They need to turn the economy around and provide real jobs.
Otherwise, the anger and frustration will only get larger and larger,
and Barack Obama will be in serious trouble when his reelection comes
up," says Randy Ertll, executive director of El Centro de Accion
Social, in Pasadena, Calif. "He will be blamed if the economy does not
recuperate and may in fact lose his reelection bid."
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