Malibu is seeing blue in midterm electoral results

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Only 38.19 percent of registered voters in Malibu precincts voted last week.

By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times

Malibu’s voters apparently were swept up in the blue tsunami that inundated the rest of the country in last Tuesday’s national elections. Except for the re-election of Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor, Malibu voters marked their ballots for Democrats across the board in numbers that reflected little favor for Republican candidates or conservative ballot proposals.

Schwarzenegger will be surrounded by a solidly blue team in the offices of Lt. Governor John Garamendi, Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Controller John Chiang, Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Attorney General Jerry Brown. Only the position of state insurance commissioner fell to a Republican, Steve Poizner.

Jean Goodman, vice president of the Malibu Democratic Club, voiced relief with the electoral results.

“Debra Bowen, as secretary of state, is going to finally ensure that problems with the electronic voting machines will be fixed, at least in our state. This issue is of enormous significance,” she said. “And it is important that we have John Garamendi as lieutenant governor, with the amount of time Schwarzenegger spends out of state.”

The Los Angeles County bond measures, designed to fund improvements on everything from highway safety to disaster preparedness to shelter for the homeless, passed by wide margins in Malibu, reflecting the trend for the entire county.

“There is great concern for upgrading our schools and for our basic infrastructure,” Goodman said, “but there would be even more concern if Republicans had taken over state and local offices.”

The 2006 election saw the most expensive ballot campaign season in California history, with more than $100 million alone being spent in the battle between energy companies and entrepreneur Steven Bing to pass Proposition 87, the bill that would have taxed oil producers to provide funding for alternative fuel resources and development. Statewide, despite being funded by energy companies such as Chevron, who saw record profits in recent years, the No on 87 Campaign was able to convince voters that the initiative would only result in higher prices at the pumps. Malibu voters weren’t persuaded and voted to approve 87 by more than a 20 percent margin.

On other ballot initiatives that lost, Malibu voters were in agreement with voters statewide: Proposition 85, which would have imposed parental notification restrictions on minors seeking abortions, was soundly defeated by local voters by a two to one margin.

Twice as many local voters disagreed with supporters of Proposition 89 and voted with the rest of the state to defeat the initiative, which would have provided public funds for campaign financing. Proposition 88, which would have set a parcel tax on all properties to fund education proposals barely registered a blip on the screen-Malibu voters went against it by 2,295 votes to 803.

The one state measure that saw a close result in Malibu was for Proposition 90, the bill that would alter how the state implements and pays for eminent domain. Along with the rest of the state, Malibu voters opted to defeat 90, but by a margin of only 213 votes.

Lorraine Stahlberg, the vice president of the Malibu Republican Women’s Federation, was resigned about her party’s losses last week.

“Well, God bless our system of government,” she said. “People do like checks and balances.”

Stahlberg noted that the national elections veered blue, but said the trend supported “centrist” Democrats.

“Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid seem conciliatory,” she said. “I will be happy if the Democrats rise to the occasion, but I think our attitude now is let’s wait and see.”

She also said she felt that the vote nationally reflected a huge sense of frustration with the war in Iraq. She agreed that the war had exacted a terrible toll, but she quoted a caveat from George Orwell: “People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand to do violence on their behalf.”

Only 38.19 percent of registered voters in Malibu precincts voted last week, a little less than the 44.7 percent turnout statewide.