I don't
On Nov 3, 2:31 pm, nominal9 <nomin...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Here's an interesting take.... Now, I'm not Democrat....
> 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-Cali...
> 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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