Monday, April 1, 1996
Only 39 percent of Californians make it to ballot box
By John Digrado
Daily Bruin Staff
With California’s role in the presidential race essentially
moot, voters turned their attention to matters closer to home
during Tuesday’s primary election.
Voters rejected three initiatives lashing out against lawyers,
gave much-needed aid to its ailing schools and earthquake victims,
and kept the mountain lion on the endangered species list.
Additionally, California became the 13th state to declare an
open primary, allowing voters to cast their ballots across party
lines in a primary election.
All this occurred during the state’s first-ever March primary
with scarcely 39 percent of registered voters going to the polls
 the worst turnout for a presidential primary in the state’s
history.
California Secretary of State Bill Jones conceded that moving
the primary from June to March was a futile attempt to give
California a greater influence in the nominating process.
"Until we revise the nation’s primary system to enable various
states to have influence in the presidential nominating process, we
run the risk of seeing fewer and fewer voters go to the polls in
states, like ours, where the primary is held after the parties’
nominations are clinched," Jones said.
Despite the low turnout, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole still
clinched the GOP presidential nomination with California’s 165
delegates, which put him well above the 996 needed to be
nominated.
California represented Dole’s first opportunity to run his
campaign against the Democratic party, having defeated the other
Republican vying for the nomination. Dole took renewed aim against
incumbent President Clinton, stating that "No state has paid a
bigger price for the broken promises of Bill Clinton than
California."
Consolidating his party’s support behind him, Dole invited GOP
opponent Pat Buchanan to join the Republican effort to defeat
Clinton in the November elections.
The suggestion came amid rumors that Buchanan, having been all
but defeated by the Kansas senator, may bolt the party in favor of
an independent run for the Oval Office.
"If he’ll take a look at what we’ve been doing, then I believe
he’ll fully understand that his future and our future are the same.
They’re in this party," Dole told GOP lawmakers on Capitol
Hill.
But so far, Buchanan has refused to give up the fight, despite
losing 25 consecutive primaries to the Kansas senator. He has not
yet decided the fate of his campaign.
It is possible that Buchanan may be considered by Dole for the
second position on the GOP ticket. Dole may also give the nod to
one of several Republican state governors. California Gov. Pete
Wilson, Michigan Gov. John Engler and South Carolina Gov. Carroll
Campbell are all being considered for the position.
In addition to sealing Dole’s nomination, voters also cast their
ballots on 12 state initiatives Tuesday.
Californians gave $3 billion to state schools with the passage
of Proposition 203. More than two-thirds of the money from the
school bond issue will benefit the state’s ailing K-12 system.
The bond initiative also gives $996 million to public colleges
and universities for capital improvements. Proposition 203 gives
$39.2 million to UCLA for a combination of maintenance and seismic
renovations on 10 buildings throughout the campus.
"I think people decided that they are ready for strategic
investments in those things that will move California into the 21st
century," said Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public
schools. "Even with just a mid-range IQ, you should be able to
figure out that in an information economy, the advantage goes to
the country with the best educational system."
Proposition 192, a $2 billion state bond issue to strengthen
hundreds of seismically unsafe highway bridges and overpasses,
passed with more than 60 percent of the vote. The issue provides
money to seismically retrofit more than 1,100 structures that were
identified as potentially unsafe following the January 1994
Northridge earthquake.
Voters also rejected three controversial anti-attorney
initiatives in a surprising upset of what supporters believed may
have begun a national backlash against lawyers.
Proposition 200 was a no-fault auto insurance measure under
which the insurer would have to pay for all damages, regardless of
who was to blame. The initiative would have taken all claims out of
the courts, except for accidents involving drunk drivers, police
pursuits and intentional crashes. It was defeated 65 percent to 35
percent.
Losing parties in securities class-action lawsuits would have
had to pay the winner’s attorney fees under Proposition 201, a
measure that lost 59 percent to 41 percent.
And Proposition 202, which would have capped lawyers’ fees at 15
percent of a settlement if the plaintiff agreed to settle within 60
days, was defeated by a narrow 1-percent margin, 51 to 49.
California also broke down barriers that kept voters from
casting ballots for candidates across party lines in primary
elections with Proposition 198.
Open primaries will now force politicians to address mainstream
concerns instead of parties’ fringe elements, explained Susan
Harding, chairwoman of Californians for an Open Primary.
"What I’m hoping is that the candidates who are running will
feel safe enough to actually discuss the issues that we’re dealing
with, instead of some fringe issues that will probably never come
up" in a major election, she said.
Opponents of the measure said that the ballot measure will
eventually be thrown out as unconstitutional.
"Members of a party should be allowed to decide who their
nominee should be without interference from members of other
parties," said Ruth Holton, executive director of California Common
Cause.
Holton said that the proposition may violate First Amendment
rights to assemble by allowing members of other parties to
"intrude" upon the nomination of one party’s candidate.
However, supporters said Proposition 198 created a system of
open primaries identical to those in Alaska and Washington, which
have already survived challenges in state supreme courts.
Twenty-nine other states already have open primaries as well.
Voters also turned down an initiative that would have removed a
24-year ban on mountain lion hunting. Proposition 197 keeps
mountain lions on a list of endangered species as part of 1990’s
California Wildlife Protection Act.
The proposition came in light of two highly publicized 1994
mountain lion attacks that left two joggers dead. It was defeated
58 percent to 42 percent.
Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu