Rose Institute Fellow Douglas Johnson was quoted in a recent article at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin on Claremont’s City Council race. Titled “8 at the plate,” the article was published on February 26 and discusses the eight candidates running for three spots on the City Council.
Johnson says, “”open seats really tend to bring out a lot of candidates, at the same time, it is hard to stand out.” Johnson also thinks that Sam Pedroza, the single incumbent in the race, is “all but guaranteed re-election.”
Discussing other possible advantages, Johnson says, “if they’re the head of a big community organization or involved in Kiwanis, it gives them a pool of votes they’re fairly sure of…They will have the advantage over someone just trying to win by simply standing out in a campaign.” He also says, “November is pretty recent in election times…People active on either side (of the school bonds voted down in November) have a network of people who know them and are willing to vote for them this time … The combination of it being difficult to stand out (in a field of eight candidates) and the turnout is so low that it puts a premium on people who have a big circle of automatic votes for them.”
Johnson also notes that, “social media is very handy for rallying and informing your supporters…It’s not so useful in winning new votes, especially in a low-turnout election like the Claremont city election. It’s getting to people who are going to vote, and that is a relatively older population. There are a lot of people, a lot of older people on Facebook and things like that, but most of their friends are kids and grandkids. They don’t use it the same way 20-somethings do.”
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