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.
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.
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 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.
A few years ago, growth was the key battle line that divided candidates – for the most part it was the battle between slow growth, slower growth, and stopped growth. With the collapse of the real estate market, along with the impact that Measure J and now Measure R have on Davis politics, growth has taken on a secondary role.
Right now is the debate over ConAgra and a number of infill sites. The Davis Enterprise recently asked the candidates about their views on growth.
On May 29, 2012, the Davis Chamber of Commerce Political Action Commitee following the Davis Municipal Code notified candidates that they were launchings four independent expenditures including an ad on the Vanguard from May 30 to June 5.The big expenditure will be a Comcast Cable ad buy for the final seven days of the election.
First, the controversy surrounding the attack mailer against Sue Greenwald dragged on for nearly a week – if not longer. The agony there was prolonged by silence and the failure for those involved to take responsibility and end the speculation.
Campaign signs are the hallmark of election season, and they become the flashpoint for battles over the perception of turf and visibility. From our perspective, signs have little value in terms of electoral issues, but nevertheless they become a symbolic and public battle between the campaigns.
The issue of the stealing of signs became so volatile in the Supervisorial Race between Incumbent Supervisor Duane Chamberlain and challenger, Woodland Mayor Art Pimentel, that staffers came to blows following a candidates’ forum, in an encounter in which the police had to intervene but the DA’s office declined to file charges.
One of the reasons we were supportive of the chamber’s efforts to become more engaged in the process is that we believe that the voice of business has been strangely missing in Davis political discussions, and we believe that the city has not taken full advantage of the high-tech boom and its proximity to a world class university.
When new director Kemble Pope launched his screed, it seemed that the chamber understood the precarious nature of Davis’ fiscal position.
When the three unions dropped what they thought was a bomb on unsuspecting Davis residents, they never expected the bomb to go off in their backyard and obliterate their efforts to depose Councilmember Sue Greenwald.
Called on it and triggering deep resentment and backlash, they took the remainder of their $25,000 largesse, nearly $14,000 unspent, and went home.
Frerichs and Wolk Return Money From Those Involved in Attack Mailer
If money means anything, Lucas Frerichs has moved into a surprising lead over everyone’s favorite to finish first overall, Dan Wolk. We also see the emergence of the Firefighters Local 3494, as well as the impact of the mailer on the race.
As we wind down toward the elections, we continued to ask the candidates for Davis City Council to respond to one hard-hitting Vanguard question on the issues that matter to Davis, or at least to the Vanguard.
Answers are limited to 250 words, which is a logistical decision and completely unfair based on the complexity of the question.
The Independent Expenditure Committee that triggered so much attention early in May will not be launching a second mailer, after their first mailer has likely backfired, depending on what its actual purpose was. Or at least it appears that way.
On May 8, a mailer from the group backed by Sacramento-based unions, Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447, IBEW Local 340 and Operating Engineers Local Union 3, in Support of Stephen Souza and in Opposition to Sue Greenwald, sent out an attack mailer to Davis residents reminding them of Councilmember Sue Greenwald’s publicized incident with former Mayor Ruth Asmundson.
By Michael BartolicBribery. Blackmail. Intimidation. Extortion. Election tampering. Conspiracy to commit fraud. The ugliness of the smear aimed at Davis City Councilwoman Sue Greenwald has rightly been widely condemned as all of the above, especially by Stephen Souza, who is also running for re-election, on whose behalf this outrage ostensibly was perpetrated.
The Sacramento Bee yesterday did their brief Q&A on the Davis City Council race. In general, the answers were short and the questions were generic.
Nevertheless, I found the answer to one question particularly interesting. The question was: “What is the most crucial issue facing Davis?”
The Vanguard sat down with the candidates for ten minute interviews on their candidacy and a few issues. Lucas Frerichs, Brett Lee, and Dan Wolk were able to make the interview. Unfortunately, we were not able to interview either incumbent – Sue Greenwald or Stephen Souza.
It was nice to be able to press the candidates on a couple of key issues, though ten minutes is too short of time to real get into detail.
The Chamber of Commerce PAC has launched their first major ad. The bulk of it is on the parks tax, Measure D, while a single line is dedicated in support of their endorsed candidates.
Executive Director Kemble Pope sent the email to Thomas Randall, the only known opponent to the parks measure.