The California Six

Visitors to the Sansum Santa Barbara Medical Clinic need an escort to walk down the stairs to the laboratory. Deemed unsafe for solitary passage, the ailing and nearly ailing must journey to the basement in the typically slow hospital elevators.

This amusing circumstance was on my mind as I drove off after having my blood dutifully drawn and my urine gently left behind. This concluded my annual physical, punctuated this year by my doctor commenting I was quite overweight and nearing obesity. (I weigh 188lbs/85kg clothed!)

I punched in my National Public Radio affiliate and caught a segment of the 9 a.m. news on the California primary election. Reliably professional and authoritative, I frowned when I heard a journalist introduce a story on Phil Angelides and Steve Westly, “the two Democratic candidates for governor.” Later, I checked other news organizations and Mr. Angelides and Mr. Westly received the same presentation.

One could poll California residents and never come away with a sense the race for the Democratic nomination included other candidates. Because election rules do not mandate public debates between candidates, campaigning occurs on the nation television channels by the bias of commercials instead. Both contenders filled the airwaves with countless comparative ads where each in turn attacks the other’s supposed stand on issues. In spite of a professed pledge to steer clear of mudslinging, the tone inevitably and invariably reaches a feverish pitch where little information is conveyed.

Spending about U.S. $70 million between them, their coffers easily dwarfed the resources of six other candidates vying for the nomination to battle it out in the November general election. I cannot recall a single commercial for anyone else. Parties do not face the standard campaigning limitations imposed in other democracies. The race starts whenever and runs until election day. Candidates may purchase an unlimited amount of advertisements - whether on television, radio, print, Internet or direct mail – with but the bare control over content. As noted, debates are not mandatory, and television stations do not have to devote equal time, or any time, to the various candidates or referendum propositions.
An Official Voter Information Guide is mailed to registered voters in California. It contains ballot measure information in an argument for/rebuttal to argument in favor/argument against/rebuttal to argument against format that will not keep anyone awake late into the night but is instructive. Candidates for statewide office who accept the voluntary expenditure limit may purchase a statement to be included in the guide. It appears counterproductive to ask for a voluntary restraint and insist on payment in order to publish campaign material.
The state expects gubernatorial aspirants to spend no more than $6,690,000: Individually, Mr. Angelides and Mr. Westly each quintupled it.

Ideally, the news media would seize the opportunity to balance the oft-maligned impact of these staggering sums in the political process. (Many object to the purchasing of power, but the indignation does not translate in any meaningful reform.) At a minimum, any candidacy qualifies as news and ought to receive coverage, thus fulfilling the essential mission of a news organization.

I ran a news search on Google to learn how often all eight candidates for the Democratic governorship nomination had received a mention in an article or program. Mr. Angelides was cited 2,490 times and Mr. Westly 2,370 times. The news media were far less generous in their coverage of the other six office seekers. Barbara Becnel got the third most mentions at 17; Joseph Brouillette picked up 8; Jerald Gerst managed 5; Vibert Greene bottomed with 3; Frank Macaluso Jr. did only marginally better with 4; and Michael Strimling topped at 9 citations.

The size of the campaign coffers of Ms. Becnel, Mr. Brouillette, Mr. Gerst, Mr. Greene, Mr. Macaluso and Mr. Strimling escapes me, but I surmise it does not rise, even cumulatively, to the state maximum spending guidelines. The extent of media coverage is in direct proportion to the amount spent on advertising. No cash translates to no interest. In that context, NPR et al will see no editorial letdown in the failure to cover these six campaigns. Candidates cannot buy journalistic coverage, but it is not necessary when the journalists themselves only rise to attention when money is flashed.

When the ballots were counted, Mr. Angelides, most often mentioned, garnered 980,065 votes. Media runner-up Mr. Westly scored second place with 888,948 votes. The pair nabbed 91 percent of the votes, slightly less than the 99 percent of the news mentions they controlled, but remarkably on par.

On the Republican side, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger easily cruised to the nomination with 90 percent. Improbable as it sounds, such lopsided victories are the norm for incumbents. Often they face no opposition at all. Curiously, while voters forever complain they have no faith in existing politicians, they return them en masse. It is an extremely rare day when an incumbent, or a hand-picked successor, fails in his or her bid, be it at the primaries or general election.

The impotent - and self-important - news media are only too happy to oblige.

Elsewhere in the country, anti-gay marriage initiatives fared well, feeding on our pervasive insanity. The White House, with Congress in tow, pushed the Constitutional amendment matter back onto the limelight, where it was certain to fail. We have now proceeded to another hot issue, that of flag burning. Nothing else could possibly preoccupy us.

Meanwhile, for two weeks on Santa Barbara’s State Street, dozens of rainbow flags peeked from under blooming purple jacaranda trees into the June fog.