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Election Surprises Abound Published Saturday, November 11, 2000 Last Tuesday's general election was startling, maybe shocking, possibly incredible. I suppose nothing in politics should surprise us, but this day was truly a day for surprise. THE PRESIDENTIAL SURPRISE. As I submit this column, the outcome the 200 presidential election remains in doubt. It looks like the winner will be determined by a few votes in Florida in an impossibly close race. as a recount mandated by Florida law takes place, lawyers for the candidates (from the law firms of ex-cabinet members James Baker and Warren Christopher) are flying in to look out for the best interests of their respective candidates. Although we Americans love close games, we also love decisive winners, so this election limbo is discomforting to the country. Also, it's unsettling that there are allegations of irregularities in Palm Beach County, Fla. Well, we can handle it. We have a tradition of taking our election results maturely. The winners gloat a little, the losers say, "Wait 'till next time!" and the country moves on. This is a darned sight better than those tinpot countries where a close election means that tanks roll through the streets of the capital and thousands of peasants fight then with rocks or AK47s. What if Gore has the greater popular vote, but Bush wins in Florida and, therefore, the electoral vote? Then Bush wins. this sort of thing has happened before, and the country came through fine. Still, you can be sure that our electoral college system will be under new scrutiny. E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post columnist appearing in The Union, argues for scrapping the old, outmoded electoral college, I agree. Wouldn't it be novel if the candidate with the most votes simply won the election? It's about time we elected the president directly. We adopted direct election of senators in 1913, and we seem to be doing fine. No matter who wins, we have an electorate that is evenly divided, and this is also largely true of the House and Senate. The new president will be way out of line if he claims the the election reflects any kind of mandate. He certainly cannot claim that his philosophy won the day, yet somehow I don't think he'll be candid enough to say, " This was a squeaker. I'm lucky I got elected." My hope is that he'll promise to unify the country, and that won't be easy. In addition, there are a number of grand plans each candidate floated. I doubt if there's enough support from either Congress or the people to guarantee any significant progress on those agenda items. My hope is for compromise, but the likelihood is divisiveness and therefore legislative logjams. THE DISTRICT 2 SURPRISE. The race for District 2 supervisor is close. That's not news, because in the past, some supervisorial races (District 1) have been decided be as few as 40 votes. What is news is that Sue Horne, a late entrant and write-in candidate, drew so many votes. It looks like her message really resonated with south county voters. If she's elected, she well be a political rarity in California politics, following only Izzy Martin as a write-in victor in a supervisor race. THE DISTRICT 1 SURPRISE. While no one was surprised at the intensity of this close race, many are surprised by its excesses. The first excess was spending. As an electorate, we're amazed that each candidate spent roughly $100,00 to win a $30,000-a-year job in a county with eternal budget problems. what did they spend the money on? Certainly not on a battle of issues and ideas. The second surprise was Sign Wars. Yes, folks, we've learned that if you can't make something better, make it bigger. Congratulations to both candidates (but especially Greg Seghezzi) for having more large, garnish signs than we've ever seen before. THE GRASS VALLEY SURPRISE. Steve Enos' concerns about annexation and growth affected enough voters to win him a seat on the City Council. This a a good thing, as it adds dimension to the council. A first-time council member, Enos will be able to assert his views and develop a strong working relationship with other council members. These were quite enough surprise for me for one election. I'll be happy to wait two years before having to go through the process again. Barry Schoenborn is a technical writer, and a 12-year resident of Nevada County. His column appears the second Saturday of the month. barry@wvswrite.com is his e-mail address. The opinions of columnists are not necessarily those of The Union. |