My Pat Brown Institute: October 2008

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Jaime Regalado quoted in the Los Angeles Daily News

Voters may face ballot confusion

Rick Orlov
Staff Writer - Los Angeles Daily News
October 26, 2008

For Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, it's the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama that is driving him to the polls.

"This is my first election and I couldn't be more excited," said Spitzer-Rubenstein, 18, who also made calls for the Obama campaign in Los Angeles.

But, other than a couple of other items, he said he was unsure how to vote on all the ballot propositions.

"I know about (Proposition) 8, but a lot of the other ones are pretty confusing," he said. "There's no way anyone can really know about some of the issues that are on the ballot."

It's a dilemma facing all voters, a record number of whom have registered for the Nov. 4 election. When they get inside that voting booth, the nearly 30 races, measures and propositions could lead to information overload.

Enthusiasm over Obama's historic candidacy has swollen voter registration rolls, where in Los Angeles County, more than 4.1 million people are registered. Of them, 451,000 are new voters, half of them ages 18 to 25.

Democrats already held a 51 percent to 25 percent edge over Republicans in Los Angeles, with an additional 20 percent registered as independents. Among new voters, however, 56percent are signing up as Democrats, county elections officials said.

Political analysts expect a dropoff in interest as voters, especially the new ones, make their way down the ballot.

"As a rule, there is always a drop-off regardless of the election," said Republican strategist Allan Hoffenblum. "What happens is people get excited about voting for president and then they get their ballot and they see elections for state senators or assemblymen or the ballot propositions and judges. They don't know any of these people, so they just pass and go to issues they are familiar with."

Bob Stern of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies agreed, saying it is even more difficult for new voters, who often don't even receive campaign mailings because they haven't voted before.

Among the best known statewide ballot measures is Proposition 8, which would ban gay marriage.

"I imagine there will be some people turning out just for that - on both sides," Stern said.

Jaime Regalado of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles, said it is always a danger that voters pass on certain items.

"At the same time, you get concerned about people voting when they don't know anything about the people or the issue," he said. "With new voters, both parties hope they just vote a straight Democratic or Republican ticket."

Read more.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Jaime Regalado quoted in the Los Angeles Daily News

Latinos Driving Growth in U.S.

Tony Castro
Staff Writer - Los Angeles Daily News
October 24, 2008

In a historic change with political and cultural implications for the nation's largest minority group, a baby boom has helped Hispanics account for just over half of the overall population growth in the United States since 2000, according to a report released Thursday.

Different from the past, the nation's Latino population growth in this decade has been more a product of birthrate than immigration, according to the report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

Since 2000, the nation's Latino population has increased by 10.2 million - 6 million from births in the United States and 4.2 million from immigration.

"What we are now seeing is the secondary impacts of Hispanic international migration from the '80s and '90s," said Richard Fry, a senior research associate at the center, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C. "Now fertility - natural increase - is driving Hispanic growth."

Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley are a microcosm of the phenomenon, with heavy immigration waves in the 1980s and 1990s leading to more American-born Latino children, Fry said.

Overall, the nation's Latino population has grown by nearly 30 percent, from about 35 million in 2000 to about 45 million in 2007, according to the Pew report. By comparison, the non-Hispanic U.S. population grew just 4 percent over the same period.

Los Angeles County, where the Latino population has increased by about 435,000 so far this decade, ranked first in the nation in Hispanic population, according to the report.
The Latino population growth so far this century is just a small part of the coming population explosion, demographers say.

California Budget Project researchers estimate that the state's Hispanic population will increase by 65 percent in the next 12 years while its non-Hispanic white population will grow by only 2.3 percent.

In California especially, the Latino population growth could change political power in electing more Hispanics and driving changes in public policy.

Already, U.S.-born children of Latino immigrants in the 1980s and 1990s are influencing change.
"There is a very large, young Hispanic second generation, and these are kids who were born to immigrants in the 1980s and '90s," Fry said. "In terms of California politics, now that these kids are all 18 and they can vote, I think about how they are going to influence the outcome in California."

Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute at California State University, Los Angeles, agrees.

"What that means is that there is going to be an increasing demand on ramping up for a fair share and a far more level playing field virtually across the board," he said. "We've heard that in politics. We've heard that in higher education (and) in K-12, making the schools more balanced, parallel and equal.

"But we're going to be increasingly hearing that as well in business and economic pursuits, whether it's small business, whether it's hiring by corporations or in foundations, whether it's in the leadership of the labor movement."

Read more.

Monday, October 20, 2008

10/22 PBI Panel on "Immigrants, Race Relations and the 2008 Elections"

ADVISORY

Monday, October 20, 2008
For Immediate Release
PBI Contact – Jacqueline Ruiz, 323.343.3770
Media Contact – Edward Headington, 818.720.7181
Website – http://www.patbrowninstitute.org/

Los Angeles, CA. For almost three decades, the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs (PBI) has focused on state and community issues—dedicated to the quest for social justice and equality of opportunity, enlightened civic engagement, and enhancing the quality of life for all Californians. This Wednesday night, less than two weeks before the national elections, the PBI hosts a panel discussion on "Immigrants, Race Relations and the 2008 Elections."

WHO: PBI supporters and staff; immigration experts; community leaders and others

Moderator: Jon Beaupre, California State University Los Angeles, KPCC 89.3 FM frequent guest host, and the Los Angeles Press Club

Panelists: Stewart Kwoh - Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California; Rev. Eric P. Lee - Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles; Angela Sanbrano - National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities; and Ira Mehlman - Federation for American Immigration Reform

WHAT: PBI Panel Discussion on "Immigrants, Race Relations and the 2008 Elections"

WHEN: Wednesday, October 22, 2008; 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

WHERE: City Club on Bunker Hill @ 333 S Grand Avenue, Suite 5450, Los Angeles, CA 90071; (Wells Fargo Center)

WHY: The panelists will consider the following: What roles do immigration and immigrant communities play in the larger arenas of race and ethnic relations in the U.S.? How do these roles affect local, regional and national politics/political processes? How can we situate debates on immigration within the larger framework of social, economic and political justice?

FYI: Hosted by Southern California Edison and the James Irvine Foundation. RSVP today @ www.patbrowninstitute.org/register/227/.

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The Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs, a presidentially chartered institute at California State University, Los Angeles, is a non-partisan public policy center dedicated to sustaining vision and legacy of former California Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown through convening public policy forums, engaging multi sector stakeholders and diverse communities, and conducting timely policy research and community driven initiatives. For more information, go to www.PatBrownInstitute.org/.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Jaime Regalado quoted in the Los Angeles Daily News

Both won, say supporters, but it was no JFK-Nixon game-changer

Tony Castro
Staff Writer - Los Angeles Daily News
October 16, 2008

The Kennedy-Nixon debates these weren't.

The final presidential debate of the campaign Wednesday night, like its two predecessors, likely won't be remembered as a game-changer.

Oh, the supporters of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain crowed about their respective candidate winning, especially here in the shadows of the entertainment industry where many San Fernando Valley residents witnessed it at television debate watching parties, which had the feel of mini campaign rallies.

"I thought John McCain won the debate," said Nancy Spero of Tarzana, co-chairwoman of the San Fernando Valley McCain campaign, who had a small get-together at her home. "I thought he scored well in telling Senator Obama that if he wanted to run against George Bush, he should have run four years ago."

"I thought it was the best debate, but all 30 of us here thought Obama won and that nothing will change," said Linda Fidell of Winnetka, a retired professor at California State University, Northridge, who hosted a party at her home. "McCain was just testy and irritable."

But in the end, even Republican Valerie Basham of Mission Hills admitted that she feared that McCain hadn't done enough in this last debate to cut into Obama's lead shown in most national polls.

"I wanted to see him come out with both guns blazing and take him down, but he didn't," said Basham.

Political experts agreed that this debate, like the previous two, had failed to change the dynamics of the campaign - that these debates had not altered the race the way the historic first nationally televised debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960 had.

"There haven't been many game-changers in the history of presidential debates," said Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. "For there to be a game-changer, somebody needs to hit a home run or commit a balk and neither candidate has done that.

"Everyone talks about JFK-Nixon and that's the mainstay of American politics. Kennedy got it right on the first debate. And even though Nixon did well in the next two debates, nobody remembers them.

"What they remember is a picture of Kennedy straight, unflinching, stoic and in command of issues. Nobody remembers what he said. They remember Nixon looking tired, unshaven with a five o'clock shadow and wearing a gray suit that didn't make him look good."

Read more.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Footage of PBI Panel on Technology and the Future of Civic Engagement

From touch-screen voting to online campaigning, technology is shaping the future of civic engagement. But what does this mean for e-democracy—especially for those individuals and communities without access to the latest technology? This panel considered the promise of technology and how it enables us to acquire and disseminate information.

In debating various notions of e-democracy, the panel looked at the degree to which the digital divide may hinder any aspect of these expectations.

California Agenda Panel Discussion on “Technology and the Future of Civic Engagement”

September 24, 2008