It is not just Davis that seems disinterested in today’s election. The Field Poll released this morning indicates that they predict a low turnout – in fact a record low turnout for a presidential primary – with just 35 percent of registered voters casting ballots.
“There’s really no comparison,” poll director Mark DiCamillo said. “We’ve never had a turnout at this level before for a presidential primary in California.
On May 26, the Vanguard reported on a Davis Police incident that began with a police response to Glacier Drive to a reported fight. The responding to the 911 call ended up with police having to use a Taser on Jerome Wren and confront Tatiana Bush who had intervened.
Mr. Wren is facing felony resisting arrest (PC 69) and now Ms. Bush, a student at UC Davis, is alleging excessive force and police brutality in an article this morning in the California Aggie.
When Clinton Parish decided to Challenge Dan Maguire for judge, he immediately cited the fact that Dan Maguire was a “political appointment” by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He said, “Political decisions have no place in the court. Last minute political appointments are not in the best interest of Yolo County. I believe the People of Yolo County can make better decisions than Arnold Schwarzenegger as to who should be a Judge in our County.”
As we noted in yesterday’s column, the 2012 Davis City Council campaign will go down as one being largely about personalities rather than issues. Despite this, and to the credit of the candidates, at least on a personal level, the campaign was marked by remarkable civility.
Nevertheless, it is to the detriment of the community that were was not more robust on several very critical issues, moving forward.
How much has redistricting and blanket primaries actually changed the dynamics of California politics? It is difficult to know just yet, but the combination is producing some compelling Congressional elections – however, some of that is produced by the one-time phenomenon of redistricting forcing two incumbents – sometimes of the same party – into a single district.
Yolo County has one of the more intriguing congressional races developing. John Garamendi is a name most Californians know – he has spent years building and rebuilding a political career in Sacramento.
This Election is About One Particular Personality, Not Necessarily Contrasts in IdeasThe most memorable moment from the 2012 Davis City Council campaign will be the moment that you first read the mailer itself or about the mailer on the Vanguard or another news site. Most observers, myself included, believe that the mailer itself backfired.
It is never clear how meaningful the final ad really is. There is a school of thought that people have largely made up their minds at this point. And to the extent that they have not, it is hard to imagine that a final ad in the newspaper will be decisive.
That said, I find the Sunday Davis Enterprise campaign ads very interesting for other reasons – it tells us what each candidate thinks is their strength, who they believe their strongest or most persuasive supporters are, and what they want to emphasize.
The word we have received from the powers on high – at least as high as Woodland – is that only one-third of the absentee ballots have been turned in.
I know a lot of people do not like the horse race stuff – but I think we have talked a lot about issues here, I think we have talked a lot about extraneous stuff no one really cares about, and what this boils down to is a horse race. What matters is who will be on the council.
The atmosphere was a bit different than the typical day in Yolo County. Judge David Reed’s department six was packed full of 12 defendants, five attorneys, and countless supporters, to the point where the court’s capacity was maxed and throngs of supporters overflowed into the lobby, where some briefly verbally skirmished with private security personnel who staff the exterior portions of the courthouse.
The Davis Enterprise is reporting today that an individual who has asked to remain anonymous filed a complaint with the Yolo County Grand Jury to investigate the campaign mailer sent in early May, attacking Sue Greenwald for what they called “bad behavior.”
According to the Enterprise piece, “The complainant said he wants to make sure the truth about those involved is revealed.”
One of my hobbies during election time is to find some of the more ludicrous arguments in letters to the editor and write about them. Now some people believe that mentioning these validates them.
I am about open government and transparency and I think the best way to deal with these is to address them. After all, one of my political mentors told me that the way you treat communications is to understand that for every person who speaks out, there are at least 100 people who feel the same way but are not speaking.
