ON SURVEYS IN THE FINALS DAYS…
As we get closer and closer to election day, the media’s voracious appetite for stories related to the election will only increase. This is always the case. My favorite phenomenon takes place around now, when we get within two weeks of the big day. The press folks all look for a ‘big story’ and then rush to print it. [the visual here would b
e when you put food in a fish tank, and all of the fish swarm to eat the little flakes in the water]. This
is the period of time where all of these different polling companies will release information, all in the most startling manner possible, in order to gain notoriety for their individual poll.
Today’s headlines are dominated by the first of these ‘last minute’ polls — this one from the Public Policy Institute of California, based out of San Francisco. These folks have news-making down to a science. First they set up ‘exclusive’ arrangements with some papers, so that the news is ‘coveted’ – but even better, they will poll on many topics, and then ‘dribble’ out the results for days, basking in the glow of self-attention.
I think that when you get this close to an election, the only real poll that matters is the one taken on election day – the one that really tells you the winners and the losers.
All of that said, we can certainly take one important message out of this PPIC poll – and that is that this election is going to be very close. No one is going to "run away" with anything — which means that everything that you do between now and November 8th can make the difference in whether the important reforms being pushed by the Governor pass or fail. Of course, most important of these is Proposition 75, the Paycheck Protection measure, whos passage would usher in a sea-change here in California, and start to undo the strangehold that unions have had on our pubic policy making apparatus in Sacramento.
BILL WHALEN DOES IT AGAIN
Don’t miss FR contributor Bill Whalen’s outstanding analysis of how the battle over Proposition 73 (it is the featured Golden Pen article today, the Parental Notification Initiative, could make all of the difference in putting the "other’ 70’s, the Governor’s reform measures over the top.
DON’T MISS IT – DICK ARMEY OPPOSES 77
Coming in a commentary soon, former Congressman Dick Armey of Texas, a conservative’s conservative, pens a piece on why he OPPOSES redistricting reform in California. Boy do we miss Armey’s influence in Congress – I wonder how he feels about Hastert, Delay and his former colleagues presiding over so much growth in the federal government? Anyways, I promised a friend some ‘equal time’ for this bizaare, misguided "Republicans should oppose redistricting" argument – so look for it soon.
Take care, Jon
P.S. If you missed my column yesterday on the proposed ‘Shareholder Protection’ measure, you can catch it, and other columns I have written, on the special reports page.