How Venice Voted
By Jim
Smith
A better headline might be
“How Venice Didn’t Vote,” since the turnout was only around 12
percent in the June 6 primary. Although Beachhead readers surely turned out at
the polls, en masse, to other Venetians it was a big yawn, with only a few
contested elections.
Here are the Venice results for Governor
(Democrat), Congress (Democrat), and Prop. 82, the pre-school initiate. There no
were significant primary contest for these offices in other
parties.
In all three cases, Venice
went for the most progressive candidate or position, and by significant
amounts.
In the Governor’s race, Phil
Angelides had staked out the most progressive positions and won most of the
left-leaning endorsements. Yet, he barely eaked out a victory over big-spending
Steve Westly. Statewide, Angelides won 48.1 percent to 43.1. In Los Angeles
County, he didn’t do any better, winning by 49.4 percent to 42.4. In Zip
90291, Angelides won in a landslide, 58.6 Percent to
41.4.
Anti-war Democrat Marcy Winograd
lost to the incumbent, conservative Democrat Jane Harman, by 62.5 percent to
37.5. Yet in 90291, Winograd turned the tables, winning 59.3 percent to 40.7.
However, in that part of Venice comprising zip 90292, that is, the Oxford
Triangle and the Peninsula area, Harman beat Winograd by 61.4 percent to 38.6,
even while they were giving the nod to Angelides for
Governor.
Most reassuring of the basic
humanity of Venetians was their support for universal pre-school funded by
taxing the rich. Massive TV advertising against this initiate persuaded
Californians to vote no by a 60 percent margin. In L.A. County, the proposition
also failed by 55 percent. Yet in Venice 90291 (hooray), it was endorsed with 62
percent voting yes.
Here’s the
scorecard;
Posted: Sat
- July 1, 2006 at 09:03 AM