So what did happen in the California primary?

The California election was a lot less exciting than expected. There are a couple of key indicators. First, the anger by the voters at the GOP does not seem to have held up - Pombo won easily. So did Doolittle. That was obviously partially a result of the amount of money sloshing in each of those districts for the incumbents. Second, the low turnout seems to have concentrated both primaries on ideological voters with little regard for electabilty in November and to some extent with the most common names. Democrat voters seem to have gone for common names - Garamendi and Brown for Lt. Gov and AG - neither is a very inspiring choice. The GOP selections - Parrish for treasurer and Strickland for controller - overlooked candidates that would have had a much better chance to be elected in November.

For all the wishful thinking of the dems on the 50th CD (Cunningham's district) Francine Busby did not even beat the Kerry/Gore percentage (45.5%) and Brian Bilbray won pretty easily. If there were going to be a big change in the House that district or the Pombo seat would have been a bit closer. Busby did make a huge error a couple of days before the election when she told a Hispanic group something to the effect of "you don't need papers to participate" - in immigration charged LA - that was just plain dumb. But I think what really happened is that there is a good deal of wishful thinking in the dems claims about taking over the house or senate. In the end this might have been the lowest turnout since the 1920s - and that makes the November election volatile but not one which puts the GOP in special jeopardy.

But the voters did show some grump. They rejected Proposition 82 - which was a terrible piece of initiative writing but they also rejected a pretty simple library construction bond (only 13 counties voted for it and those were by pretty small margins). For 82 only Alameda and Imperial voted for the turkey and again that was by small margins. I guess if you want to find the young socialists groupies in California look to those two counties.

Then there was the race for Governor. Westly won exactly where Schwarzenegger will concentrate in the fall - in the central valley. It was a closely fought race but Westly did not seem, in the end to connect with the voters with a message. When one meets Mr. Westly you are left with the vague impression that you are meeting "McKay the better way" (Robert Redford in the Candidate) and I think the voters saw through that.

One final issue - Measure H - which the Bee opposed vigorously - which will require our local municipal utility to seek voter review before completing a proposed annexation of customers in Yolo County - won by 2:1. I guess the Bee forgot the meaning of a voter owned utility. Evidently the voters did not.