June 2010 Election Commentary

A week ago Tuesday, Davisites went to the polls in record low numbers to cast their ballots for City Council, many uncontested County races, a couple of local measures, primary battles for State offices and the usual amount of statewide initiatives.

There are roughly 50,000 (2006 US Census) of-age,  citizens in town that are qualified to vote.  12,275 ballots were cast in the June 7th election.  For a city that prides itself on being right, relevant and active in our civic activities, a 25% rate of citizen participation in our most fundamental democratic right is a shameful statistic.  Why was voter turnout so low? The list of possibilities include uncontroversial local candidates and issues, confusing statewide initiatives and a realigned focus due to the pressures of the recession.

Voter apathy is a scary thing to me… the why’s and wherefores are impossible to define and the potential for bureaucrats and elected officials to take advantage of the public trust when nobody is looking is too great.  So, listen up all you highly educated, intelligent and entitled Davisites.  Our community suffers when the people don’t turn out to vote.  We risk creating an untenable disconnect between average citizens and decision makers that could result in an unsatisfactory future for our community, created daily in decisions small and large.

“We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” – Herman Melville

How do we solve this problem?  We must continue to cultivate the culture that has made the Davis into the wonderful, quirky and interactive place that we all love; we must continually engage our fellow citizens over the fence, at the grocery store, on the sidelines of the youth sports game and anywhere else a sense of community can be fostered by talking about local policy issues.  We can’t just tell people to vote on Election Day, we have to engage them year round so that they know that their voice is a necessary component of our community.

City Council – Krovoza & Swanson Challenge Conventional Wisdom.

After the 2008 Council race, it was accepted conventional wisdom among many that in order to be successfully elected to the Davis City Council in the future, one would have to raise and spend at least $40,000 and  commit to a full year of campaigning.  Given the opportunity since then, I would wax eloquent about why Council candidates shouldn’t accept that conventional wisdom and how they could get away with it.

Thankfully, the fight for reasonable campaign length and spending prevailed, along with the help of a dreary economy and lack of incumbents, to produce two winning candidates who spent much less time campaigning with less money.  Joe Krovoza announced his intentions about six months ago and Rochelle Swanson began campaigning just three months ago.  Both candidates spent less thatn $25,000.  I’m hopeful that future candidates will take note here.  You can and should do more with less money (and few mailers and advertisements)… but that will take a serious amount of your time as you knock on doors, sit through numerous Farmers Markets, listen attentively at neighborhood coffees, speak seriously at organizational gatherings and forums and generally just make yourself available to voters.

On July 13th, our new City Council members will be sworn in as Ruth Asmundson and Lamar Heystek retire from elected life.  Joe Krovoza won the most votes this last go round, so tradition and ordinance presume that he will be sworn in as Mayor Pro Tem.  Since the future Mayor, Don Saylor, will be decamping for the Yolo County Board of Supervisors in just six months, there is some uncertainty as to how exactly the transition of power will go down.  Will Krovoza serve as Mayor Pro Tem for six months, then move into the big seat for three and a half years?  Will some sort of power sharing arrangement be worked out when it is decided if the empty seat will be filled through appointment or special election?  Your guess is as good as mine.  We’ll hear a whole heck of a lot more about it all in the near future.

My only advice to our new council is that this MUST be a transparent process; speak your mind on the dais and in every other public forum so that the people understand how the final decision was made.  This council’s decisions on leadership and a new member, once Saylor leaves, has the potential to either create or ruin the public trust.

Joe Krovoza ran a great campaign that leaned heavily on many volunteers who haven’t spent much time in Davis political circles.  Not only is he affable, intelligent and capable, I’m excited about his ability to engender a more positive relationship between the City and UC Davis.  Rochelle Swanson pulled together an unlikely assortment of supporters with little more than her honesty, quick grasp of complex issues and a serious commitment to leaving old political divisions in the past.  (Disclosure: I worked on Swanson’s campaign.)  I think that Rochelle will bring a much needed business sense (see Crisis: Budget: Ongoing) to the Council and hopefully, she’ll work to trim back unneeded bureaucracy and help create a better working relationship between City Staff and the entire Council.

With only two seats available, Sydney Vergis lost her second attempt at City Council by 868 votes.  The last couple of months of Vergis’s campaign were populated by a long series of setbacks.  She had trouble fundraising and didn’t receive several key endorsements including The Davis Enterprise, The Bee, The Aggie and the Davis Democratic Club.  I heard a lot of talk about diminished enthusiasm about Ms. Vergis over those last two months.  The main complaint was that she was far too young (28) to be running mostly on her resume.  Others felt like her campaign and message was a mainly recycled effort from two years prior and that 2008′s problems are vastly different from those of today.  Whatever the reason for her loss, Ms. Vergis still has a lot to offer our community if she continues and deepens her service on the myriad committees and boards with which she’s associated.

Jon Li and Daniels Watts placed fourth and fifth, as expected.  Neither raised nor spent any money and never seemed like serious contenders since they also neglected precinct walking and regular appearances at the Farmers Market.

Measures Q and R passed with wide margins.  The citizens right to vote on the conversion of agricultural land and annexation into the city has been further enshrined with very little public debate this time around.  The half-cent sales tax will probably always be with us, at least until the State ever cleans up it’s financial mess.

Yolo County Public Guardian Cass Sylvia easily won re-election, making us all wonder why the least vulnerable and most loved County official was the only incumbent challenged.

So, there you have it, one citizen’s ruminations over another exercise in local democracy.