The Groundhog Day Election
After a impetuously fought primary election, no conquering hero emerged in the June 3 election in the Los Angeles County Superintendent race (between City Councilmember Bernard Parks and Regal Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas). With only one-sixth of all voters participating, millions of dollars spurt, and a race that turned increasingly pessimistic, neither Ridley-Thomas nor Parks could come together a majority (50 percent addition one) in the nine-candidate field. As a result, both candidates must now duke it out for another five months until the November universal election — leaving voters in the crossfire of more mudslinging and derogatory attacks.
According to some political consultants and politicians, runoff elections are sensible for democracy. In theory, they give voters a “man Friday look” to size up the top two finalists. But in all uprightness, how much more will voters learn about Councilmember Parks and Assert Senator Ridley-Thomas that we don’t already certain? What will we learn from another five months of attack mailers and be set bites?
One things we will definitely learn is how low mudslinging campaigning can go. To age, the two million residents of the sprawling 2nd LA Supervisorial Division — which stretches from Venice to Koreatown to South Los Angeles to the Burgh of Carson — have been subjected to increasingly vitriolic charges and countercharges. And that’s not counting the additional millions of dollars burnt- on this race by so-called independent destruction committees.
This is not the first time that Los Angeles voters have had to abide nasty, negative and expensive runoff elections. In the past we saw it in the mayoral races in 2001 and 2005, in some borough council districts, as well as a community college ward runoff in 2007. In each race, voters were hammered with set ads telling us what’s wrong with the unborn winners — undermining our duty in our leaders.
Adding insult to wrong, LA taxpayers shell out millions of dollars to pay for the administering of these runoff elections. The May 2007 runoff expense $5 million for an election where only 6 percent of voters participated, a 40 percent dropoff from the Cortege primary. Some precincts had no voters – yet taxpayers paid $40 per voter for this lavish election.
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