CAMPUS EXPERTS WARN ON RECALL:
Don't lose sight of issues
BY MARINA DUNDJERSKI
UCLA Today Staff
When it comes to California’s unprecedented gubernatorial recall
election, the only thing that’s certain — as the old cliché
goes — is that nothing’s certain.
The latest wrinkle as of press time: On Sept. 23, the U.S. 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals announced that the recall election will take place on
Oct. 7. The court ruled that the election should be held as originally
scheduled. While the media focus attention on the judicial wranglings,
political pundits argue partisan division and legal experts debate the
merits of the case and whether the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually
get involved, the candidates are continuing their campaigning as if the
election were still two weeks away.
The public, some campus academics warn, would be prudent to make that
same assumption.
“Until all avenues are exhausted, you have to operate as if the
election is still on schedule,” said Lynn Vavreck, assistant political
science professor. “Until the last door closes, you still have to
believe the election is Oct. 7.”
Law Professor Daniel H. Lowenstein agreed, saying that the appeals court
has “thrown a monkey wrench” into the process. “As far
as an informed electorate is concerned,” he continued, “the
media this week are preoccupied with the legal issues, rather than what
they should be preoccupied with — the political issues.”
Because the gubernatorial recall election is unprecedented in California
(and, if successful, would be the first recall of a governor in the United
States since North Dakota in 1921), UCLA Government and Community Relations
hosted an educational forum as part of the university’s public-service
mission.
More than 200 people gathered at Schoenberg Hall on Sept. 9 to hear
UCLA experts, journalists and California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley
discuss the election — with its slate of 135 certified candidates
— that many in other states have called a circus. The forum was
also co-sponsored by the University of California Public Policy Research
Center and the League of Women Voters.
“Some see recall as an opportunity for the electorate to express
its will, a kind of instant political messaging in the information technology
era,” said Barbara Nelson, dean of the School of Public Policy and
Social Research. “Others see the recall as part political maneuver
and an affront to our system of orderly and deliberative government. Whether
you support the recall or oppose it, it is clear that the recall has tremendous
implications for how we elect our governmental representatives and what
they do once they’re in office.”
Los Angeles Times Associate Editor Frank del Olmo said he was encouraged
to see that some of the media, including broadcast TV stations, were “rediscovering
politics.” He added, “I never thought it would happen again
in my lifetime.”
The sheer number of candidates means that voters are being exposed to
a wider range of viewpoints, some forum participants noted. Newsweek correspondent
Andrew Murr and forum moderator Bill Rosendahl, vice president of political
affairs for Adelphia Communications, said voters are able to hear more
views on issues that perhaps would not otherwise be discussed. “There’s
[a candidate] for everybody,” Rosendahl said.
Lowenstein, on the other hand, said the real problem in the 2000 presidential
election in Florida was not the so-called hanging chads, but that there
were 10 presidential candidates on the ballot, creating butterfly ballots
and voter confusion.
“Just because it’s inclusive doesn’t really make it
better,” Lowenstein said, noting that he believed Secretary of State
Shelley was “too permissive” in setting candidate registration
standards for the recall.
Regardless of differing views, there was one clear message repeated
throughout the forum: a call to vote.
“There are literally millions of Califor-nians who could vote,
but do not,” Shelley said. “There are literally millions more
who could register, but don’t bother. I know that if we want to
move this state forward, the first step must be to bring voters back to
the electoral system.”
For more information about the upcoming election, go to: www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/oct03election.html.
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