Editorial: More at stake than just governor’s seat

An election featuring a gubernatorial candidate who hasn’t
voted in 13 of the past 20 elections challenging an incumbent whose
most notable public assessment of his personality was describing
himself as cautious may not seem exciting to students, but there
are plenty of other reasons Bruins should get out and vote Nov.
5.

Funding for University of California construction projects, Los
Angeles secession, future regent appointments and a potential war
against Iraq will all be heavily influenced by the decisions voters
make in these midterm elections. Because residents are often
impacted more directly by local elections than national ones
anyway, the lack of a presidential race or commendable
gubernatorial candidates shouldn’t cause students to shy away
from the polls.

The ballot measure most directly affecting students is
Proposition 47, which will provide UCLA with $24.9 million out of
$1.6 billion in order to fund higher education construction
projects. This money will partially fund the $50 million project to
rebuild the Engineering 1B building because it is not seismically
sound.

Because there is no backup plan if Proposition 47 is not passed,
it is vital to the well-being of the engineering department, as
well as the school as a whole, that the measure pass. The
university needs the money to demolish this unsafe building before
an earthquake does.

If the idea of splitting the city of Los Angeles down the seams
seems appealing or appalling, students should take interest in the
measure on the ballot that would allow the San Fernando Valley and
Hollywood to formally secede from L.A. and form their own cities.
Splitting Los Angeles would be a historic event with many
sociological implications, so students should be interested in
having a say.

The war with Iraq received a huge boost this month when Congress
voted to allow President Bush to use military force. One of the
bill’s supporters was Henry Waxman, the democratic
representative in the House whose district includes Westwood and
UCLA. Students can choose to approve or disapprove of his support
for Bush by holding him accountable at the ballot box. Students
should also consider Waxman’s campaign office stating he has
no plans for higher education or student issues when making their
decision.

Speaking of educational issues, the next governor will be given
the power to appoint four new regents. In recent history, campaign
donors have taken precedent over educational experts in Gov. Gray
Davis’ appointments. While other attributes of these
uncharismatic gubernatorial candidates may not generate a
tremendous deal of interest, the fact that they will appoint
regents should, given the actions of past appointees.

Ward Connerly, appointed by former Gov. Pete Wilson, for
example, used the regent platform to end affirmative action at the
UC and also to advocate for ending it in the state overall. Now he
is using the notoriety he has gained from the position to garner
support for his Racial Privacy Initiative, which seeks to eliminate
racial classification from almost all public records. Connerly has
bluntly stated he was appointed to the board of regents because of
his campaign contributions, something that has notably influenced
Davis in his own appointments.

Though students cannot really control what appointments are
made, they can help decide what ideological background regents will
come from based on the gubernatorial candidate for which they vote,
and they can also hold Davis accountable for his decisions thus
far.

Elections are often dominated by the few people running for
executive office. That the two candidates running for that office
in this election are unusually weak has a silver lining: it has
cast focus on important measures that may have gone unnoticed
otherwise.

UCLA students should go to the polls on Nov. 5 and focus their
attention on these “other” issues. If the two
main-party candidates are too appalling to vote for, vote for a
third-party candidate.