Richard Bennett

Dan Walters tackles the LA Times exit polls, and discovers the meaning of California’s election results:

As turnout plummeted to a historic low level — far fewer than 50 percent of registered voters and scarcely a third of the 21 million potentially eligible voters — the number of voters willing to back Davis also plunged. Nearly 5 million Californians voted for Davis in 1998, but scarcely 3 million did this year — less than 10 percent of the state’s population.

A Los Angeles Times exit poll of voters found that just 40 percent of them approved of Davis’ gubernatorial performance. His vote percentage, 47 percent, was virtually identical to the proportion of voters who identified themselves as Democrats.

Republican Bill Simon’s 42 percent, by the same token, was just above the 40 percent of voters who were Republicans. In the main, therefore, Davis got the Democratic voters and Simon got the Republican voters, and there were a few more of the former than the latter.

Ten percent of Californians voted for Davis, and that was enough to re-elect. Sad.

Dan Walters, dean of the Sacramento press corps, laments the state of our politics in this state:

If we don’t do something, California politics will continue to deteriorate into a game for rich people, ideological warriors, professional insiders and very narrow interests, and public policy will reflect their priorities, not those of a fast-growing and fast-changing state.

He offers a concise laundry list of reforms, all sensible, including ideas that will help bring more moderate candidates into the process and reform the incumbency-protection racket that has been legislative district definition since Phil Burton’s day. Dan’s well worth reading.

That’s what the comments call Daily Pundit’s treatment of Robert P. George’s article in NRO.
George wrote:

At the top of the list is antiterrorism and national security. But there is more, including tax reform and economic growth, enhanced legal protection for the unborn, partially born, and newly born, a ban on all forms of human cloning, and passage of the president’s faith-based initiative.

and Daily converted it to:

At the top of the list is…enhanced legal protection for the unborn, partially born, and newly born, a ban on all forms of human cloning, and passage of the president’s faith-based initiative.

We report, you decide. Daily voted for Simon in the Republican primary, BTW.

Breathtaking stupidity from Paul Krugman:

Democrats should complain as loudly about the real conservative bias of the media as the Republicans complain about its entirely mythical liberal bias; that will help them get their substantive message across. But first they have to have a message.

…writing in the New York Times. No real liberal bias there, of course.

Democrats opted for permanent minority status in the House today, selecting Frisco Democrat Pelosi as their leader:

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California secured victory in the race for House Democratic leader on Friday when her only formal rival conceded defeat and offered an endorsement.

Democratic Party, RIP.

Here’s a link to the whole deal, with all the whereases and therefores: ‘Iraq Has Been and Remains in Material Breach’ (washingtonpost.com)

One outcome in Tuesday’s election that deserves notice is the Republican pickup of Assembly seats:

Democrats easily retained the balance of power Tuesday in the California Legislature, but Republicans dealt a blow to the leadership of Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson by gaining two seats in the lower house — and potentially a third.

It may not seem like much, but recall that Assembly districts were recently redrawn with the goal of preserving the 50/30 split by protecting incumbent parties. So picking up two or three seats means Republicans successfully bucked the trend, and overcame fund-raising advantages to do so. These districts are severely Gerrymandered, and one Republican winner – Dublin mayor Guy Houston – had to move because the district was drawn specifically with excluding him in mind. He succeeds Lynne Leach, also a Republican, representing the Tri- Valley area of the East Bay.

Half-a-million absentees remain to be counted statewide, which means Tom McClintock will probably emerge victorious over E-Bay hack Steve Westly, and Dem Rusty Areias is in big trouble in his state Senate race.

Now that Gephardt has has announced he’s stepping down, Martin Frost and Nancy Pelosi are in a dog fight to see who succeeds the old boy (Report: Gephardt Won’t Seek a New Term)

“The country moved to the right yesterday and House Democrats won’t win a majority by moving further to the left,” said Tom Eisenhauer, spokesman for Frost, attempting to depict Pelosi as too liberal to lead the party back into power.

But Nancy says it’s a matter of principle to send a message while losing. She sounds like a Bill Simon supporter.

Isn’t it interesting that the Senate elections came down to Georgia, Missouri, and Minnesota, states where Dems appealed to the sympathy factor (some would say “pity”) in an attempt to elect candidates not well-qualified for the job, only to be beaten by Republicans who displayed mastery of the issues, quick wits, and tons of (recent) experience in public office? The selection of these candidates had more to do with the outcome of the election than any issue, I believe.

Background: Cleland in Georgia is one-term Senator with one arm and no legs, who comes across as a drooling idiot. Carnahan is the widow of the former governor, and has never been elected to any office at any time. Mondale was once a politician, but that was 20 years ago and he’s lost a lot of speed sitting on the sidelines.