By Bill McEwen, THE FRESNO BEE
Welcome to California, where the “C” stands for contradictory — when it comes to politics.
I dare you to identify a common thread in Tuesday’s election results.
We were told that this election was all about money. Big money was a factor. It helped billionaire Meg Whitman smash Steve Poizner to smithereens, and it sustained Carly Fiorina, especially when her main rival, Tom Campbell, ran low on campaign cash.
But big money didn’t produce the desired results for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Mercury Insurance. Voters saw through their fake concern for consumers and shot down two special-interest ballot measures.
Proposition 16 opponents earned a place in political history, raising just $90,000 to defeat an initiative that PG&E backed with $46 million.
And unsung Brian FitzGerald may win a close race to become the Republican nominee for state insurance commissioner — over Assembly Member Mike Villines of Clovis — despite spending just $4,000 on his campaign.
Are you kidding me?
A family with teenage drivers probably spends $4,000 a year on car insurance.
It has been said many times that California is too big and too diverse to reach political consensus. Yet when asked if they wanted an open primary, voters in 56 of the state’s 58 counties resoundingly said yes.
Only ultra-liberal San Francisco and ultra-conservative Orange County voted against Proposition 14 — giving credence to the suggestion that a majority of Californians are more moderate than the extremists running the state’s Democratic and Republican parties.
Now, for the contradiction of the Prop. 14 results: the open- primary effort was led and funded by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose public approval rating is 23%.
Turns out, voters can love a message without loving the messenger.
We’ll see if Prop. 14 forces Republican and Democrats to move to the political center, as proponents claim. Or, if open primaries are much ado about nothing — as has been the case in other states.
One thing for sure: if we had an open primary in Tuesday’s 19th District Congressional vote, two Republicans — Jeff Denham and Jim Patterson — would have moved on to the November election. In finishing second on the Republican ballot, Patterson received more votes than Democratic nominee Loraine Goodwin.
Political analysts also have been saying that voters are angry and hungry for change. In contrarian Fresno, that wasn’t the case in two City Council races.
Sal Quintero, a former two-term council member, led all vote-getters and qualified for the runoff in District 5. Mike Briggs, a former council member and state lawmaker, received the most votes in District 3 and made the runoff, as well.
At the same time, nearly 65% of voters said they like the City Council the way it is with seven members and increased the population trigger that will expand the council to nine seats.
So, the thread of this election is that there is no thread.
We like who and what we like. We know it when we see it.
And we can’t be bought or fooled by big-dollar candidates and corporations.
Some of the time, anyway.
The columnist can be reached at bmcewen@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6632.
Tags: big corporations, contributions, deceptive, Mercury, NewsStory, Prop 17, trust, voters
