Fresno - November 2004 Election Analysis

Fresno November 2004 Election Analysis
By Mike Rhodes
Editor of the Community Alliance magazine in Fresno

There is a great article on Indymedia by Greg Palast that claims Kerry Won, Here’s the Facts . Palast says that there are 247,672 uncounted ballots in Ohio that if counted would give the state to Kerry. Perhaps, but even if Bush won the election, according to Peter Phillips of Project Censored, there were 80 million eligible voters who didn’t even cast a ballot in this election. His article, Democracy Fails: Corporations Win can be read here. If Bush did win the November 2 election he did it by a razor thin margin and he has no mandate to carry out a draconian right wing agenda. If Bush did not win the election and Palast is right, those uncounted ballots need to get counted real quick. Why Kerry conceded the race before all the votes were even counted, we may never know.

Here in Fresno County, the heart of the Central Valley, voters cast their ballots for Bush by a wide margin. Voting more like they were in Kansas City than San Francisco, Fresno County voters supported Bush over Kerry by a margin of 58% - 41%. The Green Party candidate, David Cobb only received 475 votes for .2% of the vote. Leonard Peltier of the Peace and Freedom Party got 275 votes or .1% of the vote.

2004 is the first year that the Fresno County Green Party has run candidates in Fresno. Larry Mullen, who ran in the 19^th District for the House of Representatives, received 13,362, 7% of the vote. John Crockford, running in the 29^th Assembly District received 4,401, 3% of the vote. But, as Crockford pointed out, there are only 1,129 Greens registered in that district. He received almost 4 times the number of votes than there are registered Greens. What would happen if the Democrats did that?

The Fresno County Green Party did not make a conscious decision to run local candidates. The decision was made by the candidates themselves and the party, while supportive, did not decide on who or in which races to run candidates. If the Fresno County Green Party had discussed an electoral strategy, would they have selected a very conservative Assembly District in predominantly white, middle class Clovis? There was another Green Party member who ran in a non-partisan school board race - he received 15% of the vote. If Green Party efforts had been focused on one race, that they had a serious chance of winning, would we have an elected Green Party member in Fresno today?

The Fresno Unified School District race was watched closely in this community. Mayor Alan Autry and other conservative forces backed a slate of candidates who signed on to a contract on kids . The slate of candidates supported by the mayor pledged to support the contract which would weaken unions and impose conservative values in the school district. The Fresno Teachers Association ran an alternative slate of candidates. Most progressive groups in Fresno were pleased that 2 out of the 3 FTA candidates won and that the mayor only succeeded in electing one of his candidates. The fourth candidate elected was not supported by either the mayor or the FTA. Manuel Nunez, the independent school board candidate in Southeast Fresno, was endorsed by the Central Valley Progressive PAC, a new progressive political force in Fresno.

Measure Z was a ballot initiative that received a lot of local attention. Many Fresnan’s first noticed measure Z when a stampede of knee-high, blue-eyed elephants appeared. Seemingly on the verge of tears, these heart-tugging little darlin's were, of course, the Yes on "Z" campaign yard signs. They were cute. They were everywhere, but people started to ask if they were also trampling the truth?

The Yes on Z campaign said that they were just trying to save the zoo. They claimed that because of past neglect the zoo was in need of significant infrastructure work. With all of the media on their side, 95,000 yard signs, and a budget big enough to choke an elephant, just about everyone supported measure Z.

Local community activist Kevin Hall was not convinced. For some reason he decided to look at the public record. What he found created a huge public debate about the privatization of Roeding Park, hidden expansion plans for the zoo, and questions about the sources of the Yes on Z campaign funding. The problem was getting the message out to the public. With all of the corporate media in lock step with the Yes on Z campaign, Kevin could not get the information out. That all changed with a front page story in the October Community Alliance magazine and interviews on community radio station KFCF 88.1 FM.

The map detailing massive zoo expansion was printed in the Community Alliance. The map was re-printed and handed out door to door. The details of a safari world taking over central Fresno’s only public green space came out. The right wing Republican agenda of cutting funds for Parks and Recreation and social services was told. After they cut critical funding for the zoo, they sell us a tax that will privatize the little green space we have left. Union jobs would be lost, parking lots would be expanded, and the people would loose the park. Why raise $95 million in tax for infrastructure work that requires $3.5 million? The answer was simple: the real reason for measure Z was to expand the zoo, privatize the park, enrich the business that will finance the work, and funnel most of the money to the building and construction industry. There is a lot more to this story. To learn more, you can visit the Save Roeding Park web site here: http://www.saveroedingpark.com/

For the first article that Kevin Hall wrote, this is the article that turned this issue into a public debate, go here: http://sfbay.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/1697549.php

To see the details about the incredible amount of money (over $1.2 million) spent on measure Z, go here: http://sfbay.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/1699618.php

The article - Operation Rezone Roeding can be found here: http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/10/1702322.php

Unfortunately, the Save Roeding Park campaign which had less than $10,000 to spend could not overcome the momentum of the monolithic Yes on Z campaign and their $1.2 million budget. The measure, which needed 2/3 to pass, received 142,651 votes to 52,997 against. Measure Z passed with 72.9% of the vote.

Some opponents of measure Z have suggested that the Save Roeding Park campaign was at least somewhat successful. In addition to making privatization and expansion of the zoo an issue, they forced the Yes on Z campaign to make public statements limiting zoo growth. Mayor Autry and several proponents of the measure promised that the zoo would not expand to more than 25% of the park. While most No on Z activists don’t trust the mayor’s "recommendation" that no more than 25% of the park will be taken over, it is a statement that can be used in the future. Many of the voters that supported measure Z did so because of assurances that the park would not be taken over by the zoo. At least we have a tool to hold zoo expansion advocates feet to the fire if they try to grow beyond 25% of the park.

Voting irregularities in Fresno included a large number of absentee voters who did not receive their ballots. Peace Fresno, Fresno Area Congregations Together (FACT), the National Action Network, and the Save Roeding Park campaign held a press conference on November 2 to bring this problem to the attention of the community. "People who ask for an absentee ballot do so for a reason," said Rev. Floyd Harris of the National Action Network California Chapter. "They are often elderly and unable to drive. The suggestion that they can simply go down to the county clerk's office or to their usual polling place to ask for a provisional ballot ignores the reality of the situation. It shows that the county either doesn't get it or just doesn't care." "The county's nonchalant attitude is an insult to the voters in our community who are the most marginalized," said Manuel Toledo of Fresno Area Congregations Together. "It's a non-response. The county must do much, much more to contact these voters and make sure they have a fair opportunity to vote." You can read more about the missing absentee ballots here

There were also reports of people who were paid by the Republican Party to register new (Republican) voters who did not turn in the registration forms if the person registering didn’t join the Republican Party. The Republican Party was paying $7 per Republican Party member, but nothing if you registered Green or Democrat, giving registrars little incentive to turn in non Republican Party forms. You can read more about that story here

Perhaps the most serious attempt to interfere with our voting rights came from Pappas Telecasting. They own the Fox TV network in the Central Valley, channel 26. They also own a talk radio station in Fresno. What Pappas tried to do is give $325,000 of free advertising to Republican Party candidates. The FCC, prompted by public complaints and Democratic Party lawyers ruled that the attempted giveaway was unfair and ordered Pappas to halt the practice. The FCC ruling was a windfall to several Democratic Party candidates in the area including Nicole Parra, who was running against Republican Dean Gardner. You can read more about that story here

There were other significant local developments in the local November 2004 election. For example, Measure B - the library tax passed. FACT conducted a successful get out the vote campaign in Southeast and Southwest Fresno to empower poor and working people. There will be more analysis about that development in a future article. Also, progressives are already developing a strategy for the 2006 City Council and Board of Supervisors elections. Even though the national elections were not what progressives had hoped for, progress has been made on the local level. The progressive movement in Fresno is as strong and vital as ever. To see a list of progressive groups active in the Fresno area, go to: http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/community.htm