Don’t Blame Me I’m A Venetian!
By Jim
Smith
George Bush came up mandate-less
on Nov. 2 in Venice.
His anemic 13
percent of the vote north of Washington Blvd. proved once again that Venice is
one of the most progressive places in the country.
You could also say, “Don’t
Blame Me, I’m A Californian!” Bush won only 44.7 percent of the
statewide vote, and trailed John Kerry by more than one million votes
(confirming the Beachhead’s prediction last
month).
The remaining candidates for
president – Badnarik (Lib.), Cobb (Gr), Peltier (P&F) and Peroutka
(AI) – trailed in that order. At press time, the number of write-in votes
for Ralph Nader had not been released by the Secretary of State’s
office.
Similar results for other races
showed that Republicans have a very difficult time winning votes in Venice.
The most “popular” Republican
was Assembly candidate Greg Hill who got 14.6 percent of the vote, followed by
Paul Whitehead (Congress - 13.9%), Bush and Bill Jones (Senate -
11.2%).
These figures are for Venice
north of Washington Blvd. (zip 90291). Venice, south of Washington, is not as
progressive, but is still not a friendly place for Republicans. In these
neighborhoods, the Oxford Triangle and the Peninsula, many people think they
live in Marina del Rey. They (particularly the Peninsula) are more affluent than
90291 Venice, and vote
accordingly.
Several Venice candidates
ran in this election. Jane Harman, whose Congressional office is in Redondo
Beach, but lives on Ocean Front Walk in Venice, was reelected despite lingering
resentment by many Venetians for her vote in favor of the Iraq invasion and the
Patriot Act. She was opposed by Republican Paul Whitehead, who alternately
claimed to live in either Venice or Santa Monica. And running to Harman’s
left was Peace and Freedom candidate Dr. Alice Stek, a canal resident. Stek won
5.56 percent of Venice’s vote, nearly half of Whitehead’s
total.
The hotly contested Assembly
race showed how politically different are the two ends of the district.
Republican Greg Hill won both Redondo
Beach and Mike Gordon’s home town, El Segundo, but lost heavily in Venice,
Mar Vista and West L.A.
Venetian Jim
Smith (that’s me) finished with 5.61 percent of the Venice vote (about
double his total district-wide).
Again,
Venice progressiveness came through on the Propositions vote. In every case,
Venice voters followed the instructions given them in last month’s
Beachhead by Carol Fondiller, and ignored Arnold Schwarzenegger’s advice
to the contrary.
We Venetians voted to
preserve third-party election competition (No on Prop. 62), allow lawsuits by
environmentalists and others against corporations (No on Prop. 64), end life
sentences for non-violent crimes (Yes on Prop. 66) and provide health insurance
for 1.2 million Californians (Yes on Prop. 72). Of these, only on Prop. 62 did
the state voters go the same way.
We
also declined to give two-thirds approval for a sales tax increase in order to
hire more police officers. In Venice, this reluctance probably has more to do
with ambivalent attitudes towards the police than approving an increase in a
regressive tax. More info at <www.lavote.net>.
Posted: Mon - November 1, 2004 at 12:50 PM