Can Progressives Win “Yes” votes in November’s “Just Say No” Election?

by Beyond Chron (reposted)

Thu, Jun 16, 2005 11:58AM

Governor Schwarzenegger’s call for a statewide special election in November could potentially reshape San Francisco’s local contests. An historically low off-year election turnout has been replaced by a contest that should bring masses of Democrats and Greens to the polls to defeat the Governor’s right-wing power grab. November would appear to be ripe for a series of local progressive initiatives, but there’s a problem: activists urging “yes” votes on local measures could be drowned out by the “Just Say No” statewide campaign that will blanket San Francisco.

One of the Governor’s initiatives--- repealing the school funding guarantees of Prop 98 and giving him sole and absolute control of the state budget---would destroy the state’s already grossly under funded public education system. This measure, along with the Governor’s attempt to silence the public employee unions who have exposed his hypocrisy, guarantees a huge November turnout in San Francisco.

In fact, November could see the largest turnout in California history for an election without statewide candidates. Turnout may well exceed that of the June 2006 election, and it is unfortunate that the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment will likely be decided then rather than this November.

Here’s the quandary San Francisco’s progressive activists face: asking voters for a “Yes” vote on local measures could be drowned out by progressives statewide multimillion dollar “Just Say No” campaign.

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