UCLA student falls short in race for state assembly

Tuesday, April 2, 1996

UCLA student loses to Louis CalderaBy Michael Angell

Daily Bruin Contributor

Fourth-year political science student Mike Gatto lost his bid
for a seat in the California State Assembly during last week’s
primary elections.

Gatto, a Democratic nominee for the 46th assembly district, was
defeated by Democrat incumbent assemblyman Louis Caldera. Caldera
won easily, gathering 6,040 votes to Gatto’s 1,836.

As Gatto’s four-month-long campaign came to an end last Tuesday
night, he sat eagerly waiting for news of the results. Gatto was
joined by his campaign manager Scot Diaz.

"Tuesday was indescribable," Diaz said. "For two hours, 8 p.m.
to 10:30 p.m., we were on the edge of our seats. Every five minutes
we called newspapers and radio stations for results. It went like
that to about one in the morning."

Gatto and Diaz spent the last days of the campaign in a last
ditch effort to get voters to come out to the polls.

"We made Domino’s style doorhangers that said ‘We don’t care who
you vote for as long as you vote,’" Gatto said.

"Few people in the district even leave their house," said Gatto,
who was attempting to represent Downtown Los Angeles. "We wanted to
let people know that their votes do make a difference."

Although the number of doors he knocked on was higher than the
number of votes he had, Gatto credited precinct walking as the
source of most of his votes.

"That was my campaign," Gatto said. "I got close to 2,000 votes.
purely by elbow grease."

However, only 14 percent of the district’s eligible Democrats
voted in the primary. This was lower than the county-wide average
of 34 percent. Gatto blamed the low turnout as a major contributing
factor to his loss.

"That (low turnout) killed me," Gatto said. "In an election like
this, only repeat voters will turnout…"

Jim Gelb, Caldera’s chief of staff, agreed that the 46th
district usually has a low voter turnout. He said that any
candidate would have difficulty fighting voter apathy in the 46th
district.

"Our district historically has one of the lowest turnouts in
state elections," Gelb said. "Not only for assembly races but
congressional races on up. We have the lowest number of registered
voters in the county."

Diaz believed that the low turnout also hurt Gatto’s chances in
the primary. Besides the low turnout, Diaz cited the change of
election day from June to March as another reason for the low
turnout.

"They had to move up primary night to March just before the
Oscars," Diaz said.

But a low voter turnout was not the only reason behind Gatto’s
primary loss. A lack of money also hampered his campaign. Gatto
spent about $3,000, compared to Caldera’s $60,000 campaign.

Gatto said that the money Caldera spent allowed him to send out
more mailers to likely voters.

"(Money and incumbency) allow the incumbent to sit back and push
buttons," Gatto said. "Caldera could send out seven to 10 fancy
mailers."

But Gatto also faced a stiff political challenge against the
incumbent Caldera. Caldera, who will be serving his third term,
brought a wealth of political and business experience to the
race.

Caldera, 40, holds both a law degree and doctorate in business
administration from Harvard, was an officer in the U.S. Army, a
private practice attorney and a Los Angeles deputy county
counsel.

Nonetheless, Gatto said that the realities of the campaign trail
provided him with a new view on the political process.

"Politics is a dirty business. People don’t exaggerate," Gatto
said. "We learned a lot of realism. We learned it through our own
campaign."

But despite the tough lessons of running against Caldera,
Gatto’s lopsided loss did not sour him on politics.

"I would definitely do it again," Gatto said. "I learned
something I would never know from a classroom."

Mike Gatto