Final election wrap-up

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Are we in Malibu as fiercely independent as we like to think we are? Or, in fact, when we go to the polls, do we punch the same holes as most of the rest of the county and the state?

All the election numbers are in and the verdict would seem to be that we’re probably not quite as different as we thought. We’re a bit more conservative than L.A. County and a bit more liberal than the rest of the state, although both depictions are subject to some exceptions.

In the presidential race, Malibu was definitely not Florida. It was Vice President Al Gore all the way in California with 54 percent of the vote, but in Malibu he did even better with 58 percent of the vote. In L.A. County, which is generally the most liberal overall, he reached 63 percent to Bush’s 32 percent. If California represented the nation, Gore would be picking the menu for his inaugural dinner right now.

When it came to the re-election bid of Sen. Diane Feinstein, she showed strong bipartisan support and she pulled almost identical percentages in Malibu as in the rest of the state, beating Tom Campbell 57 percent to 37 percent.

In other races, Malibu resolutely chose Congressman Brad Sherman, Sheila Kuehl for Senate and Fran Pavley for State Assembly, as did the rest of the districts.

Countywide, we chose Rick Auerbach for County Assessor and went overwhelmingly for Steve Cooley for District Attorney, giving him 73 percent of the vote to Garcetti’s 27 percent, which is not just a win, it’s a blowout.

On statewide propositions, we were exactly the same as the rest of the state. Everything that won statewide also won in Malibu, and everything that lost statewide also lost in Malibu. On a whole, as usual, we tended to be a little more easygoing about spending money, particularly for bonds and particularly for education. Locally, Proposition Y (the school parcel tax bond) won easily with 77 percent of the vote here in Malibu.

There was one surprise — Proposition 36, the drugs and probation proposition that is intended to decriminalize certain drug offenses and put them into rehabilitation instead. The entire political, correctional, prosecutorial, rehabilitative, parole and probation system was against this proposition, yet it passed easily statewide, with 61.1 percent Yes votes and 38.9 percent No votes. In Malibu, it passed with even higher numbers with 74.4 percent voting Yes, while only 25.6 percent voted No. It is a vote that may indicate, statewide, people’s attitudes are changing, and quickly. In fact, politicians and the law enforcement community are trailing behind a public attitude shift. In the past, it’s been an unquestioned truth that no politician could go wrong by being tougher on crime. However, the enormous cost of this policy — the large numbers of people we now have locked up in state prisons and the disproportionate amount of minorities in prison on drug charges — seems to be causing a change in public attitude.

On the local scene, Sharon Barovsky won the open council seat, and Propositions N and P passed, although N got 100 more votes, which may mean, depending on who you ask, N knocked out P. The results were not necessarily uniform throughout the city. If you want to compare how your neighborhood voted compared to the rest of the town, go to the precinct-by-precinct breakdown chart below.

In the race for City Council, Barovsky took the race by capturing 11 of the 13 Malibu precincts against Robert Roy Van de Hoek, a new face on the Malibu political scene. Van de Hoek, a militant environmentalist, ran well, perhaps an indication that militant environmentalism is still alive and well in Malibu.

In this election the big race and the big dollars, more than $200,000 total, were spent on Proposition N (the development deal), Proposition O (the $15 million bond advisory) and Proposition P (the right-to-vote on development initiative).

In a close series of contests, Proposition N, which had the support of the entire council, many of the park and ball field advocates, many seniors and the Malibu Bay Company, just eked out a 100-vote victory over Proposition P, the competing proposition sponsored by many from the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy Group, the Wetlands Action Network and the Sierra Club. The 13 Malibu precincts were split with Proposition N winning support in 8 of the 13 precincts and Proposition P, even though it garnered 100 less votes overall, managing to win in 9 of the 13 precincts.

Malibu, apparently just like the rest of the nation, seems to be split right down the middle.

In total, 5,108 ballots were cast in Malibu out of 9,003 registered voters, which is a turnout of 56.7 percent. This is higher than the previous two-candidate City Council race, which had a turnout of approximately 40 percent. The difference in the turnout is probably due to the fact that turnouts in Presidential years are almost always higher, bringing out more occasional voters.