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GELFAND’S WORLD - I’m noticing something about this election season. It’s the lack of interest among the public. Except for the mayor’s race and the race for governor, have you heard much of anything about the other down-ballot races? Do you know who is running for the state treasurer or Lt. Governor or the congress?
In the real world, we’ve got vigorous races for the state legislature but I’m seeing almost no enthusiasm in any of them. In another era – what with numerous open seats both statewide and federal – there would be a lot of interest. There is one exception, which is the now-humorous race between Young Kim and Ken Calvert – two conservative Republicans – who are fighting over a Prop-50-gerrymandered seat. Each is desperately trying to portray him/herself as the true Trump supporter.
But aside from this dogfight and the two big ticket races, I’m not hearing or seeing a lot, other than all the unconvincing television ads that pollute my viewing.
A colleague offers the following explanation: We’re all a little depressed and a lot exhausted by these first 15 months of Trump’s second term. There may be a few Trump supporters locally (even within the authors of CityWatch) but I’m not hearing anybody that I consider serious who is writing or talking with happiness or enthusiasm about the sum total of Trump’s actions. Even among those who support Republican principles as a matter of life-long conviction, there seems to be a glum reaction to rising prices and an obvious loss of control over international affairs. You can see some of the conflicts being explored in this article about the farm vote.
All that having been said, there is an election coming up, and no matter what our feelings, there are decisions to be made by those who will vote.
Just as one tiny but terribly serious example, consider your role in deciding who will sit as superior court judges. Judges face reelection every so many years, which is an ultimate safeguard, but one that doesn’t really work all that well. You can check out the Los Angeles County Bar Association analysis, which lets us know which candidates the Bar Association thinks are qualified, not qualified, or well qualified, and if you are willing to trust those findings, you can vote for the ones with the highest scores. You can find a link to the bar association findings here.
I count 11 judge positions evaluated by the county bar, and of these, there are a limited number where there seems to be a clear and obvious choice. These include (office number and the one to vote for)
Office no. 2: Valbuena
Office no. 64: Ghobadi
Office no. 66: Forer
Office no. 81: Walgren (the only candidate rated exceptionally well qualified)
Office no. 87: Bayne
Office no. 116: Connolly
Office no. 176: Marin
Office no. 181: Dibble
A few include two or more candidates who are all rated qualified: Offices 14, 65, 131
I guess you are supposed to bring a coin to the voting booth to decide those three offices.
I don’t know enough about the County Bar’s process to know for sure that it is entirely reasonable and trustworthy. But somebody is going to get elected to each of these offices so it is useful to know who is at least acceptable to at least a few knowledgeable people. See what I mean when I say that this process of throwing judge tenure to us inexpert, uninformed voters has some weaknesses?
Before I get back to the governor’s race, what the real problem is
Whatever happens in this primary election, we have to notice a deep structural failure, and it is not the jungle primary system that pundits so loathe and fear. It is the failure of the television stations to react critically to candidate advertisements. As we have noted over the years, these political advertisements never tell the whole truth, even if on occasion they tell some truth. Viewers are bombarded with advertisement after advertisement, and the television stations fail to serve the public interest by fact checking those ads and by doing a reasonably harsh analysis.
Cynics will point out that the tv stations make a lot of money on these ads, so they have plenty of reason to avoid finding fault with their own revenue stream. I fear that the cynics are correct. I offer you a pungent example.
Saturday was Tom Steyer’s Yorty moment, and I don’t mean this in a good way.
It looks like a three-way race among Xavier Becerra, Steve Hilton, and Tom Steyer.
Steyer must be getting a little frantic, what with spending $200 million to try to buy this election and finding himself falling behind. There is a very real chance that Steyer will have thrown away a fifth of a billion dollars in order to fail to get past the primary. In theory he ought to be going after Republican Hilton in order to claw his way into second position and thereby win a place in the November runoff. But that is not what he chose to do. Instead, he is pushing a nonsensical argument that – because Becerra’s staff member committed a crime -- that Becerra is somehow responsible.
On Saturday, a political ad was aired that warns us that – if Becerra is indicted – it would lead to the election of Republican Steve Hilton. The ad goes on to cite the indictment of a Becerra aid who embezzled money from a campaign fund. This fund was, at the time, not being used because Becerra had been appointed to Joe Biden’s cabinet.
Let’s consider. Suppose your house is burglarized, and you lose money and possessions. Would the District Attorney decide to arrest you because you were the victim of a crime? That’s basically what this ad is implying. Unless something else comes out – and the prosecutors have so far made clear that Becerra is just another crime victim and not a criminal – then this last weekend attack ad is exactly what it appears to be: terminal sleaze.
You can read an account of the crime, the prosecution, and an analysis here.
Allow me to point out an uncomfortable parallel, which is the 1969 mayoral race between Tom Bradley and incumbent mayor Sam Yorty. Bradley, later to become the mayor of Los Angeles, was a former police officer and member of the City Council, and Yorty was behind. So Yorty dusted off every racist trope he could get away with, basically telling voters that Bradley would be in the pocket of violent revolutionists. A few of us remember how there was a mass leafletting attack right before the 1969 election. It worked, and Yorty won.
So here we were, the weekend before election day, and Steyer was adopting a strategy to draw votes away from Becerra. It’s his own Sam Yorty approach. And it’s sleazy and slimy. If you are a voter who cares about character, there is a clue here.
And if you want to be a tactical voter, the obvious move is to vote for Becerra so that he finishes in first place in this primary and will be the strong favorite to win the November runoff.
Addendum: All those ballot measures
The really deceptive measure is County Measure ER. It is presented as a way to preserve our emergency rooms in the face of the Trump administration’s reduction in funding Medical etc. In reality it is just another sales tax increase that will feed money into the county’s general fund. The county could then spend it on its hospitals or on anything else.
I’m inclined to agree with CityWatch author Jack Humphreville in terms of rejecting all of the ballot measures that are just disguised sales tax increases.
The one measure that everyone else seems to agree with is Los Angeles city measure CB, which will “apply cannabis business taxes to unlicensed cannabis businesses.” The idea seems to be that pot shops have been opening up all over the place in spite of the city’s hope that it could limit the supply by officially licensing only a few. Lotsa luck on that. So this measure accepts reality by turning the pot trade into a source of government revenue.
Down Ballot Races
I mentioned the general lack of interest in statewide races that are not for the governor. My take is that people who have served without scandal can be reelected, and these include Rob Bonta for Attorney General, Fiona Ma for Lt. Governor, Shirley Weber for Secretary of State, Malia Cohen for Controller, and Eleni Kounalakis for Treasurer.
In the race for State Board of Equalization 3rd District, my own state Assemblyman Mike Gipson has been a decent legislator and will get my vote. In the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Al Muratsuchi has served in the state legislature and would not be a bad choice.
Looking at all the above words, I’m tempted to suggest that you bring two coins to the poll on election day.
(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])
