CAMPAIGN TALK : A weekly window on the California elections

17 days left to register to vote before the May 7 deadline. 46 days left until the June 5 primary election.

INTELLIGENCE Oops: It was with great fanfare that the Democratic candidates for governor announced their agreement this week for a pair of historic prime-time televised debates to occur May 13 and 21, the first in San Francisco and the second in Los Angeles. Too bad they forgot to tell the television stations that are supposed to carry these hourlong poli-dramas.

KCBS in Los Angeles says it offered different dates and no prime time. KPIX-TV said it had expressed interest in debates, but knew nothing of any agreement about any Sunday prime time until the morning papers landed on the station’s doorstep.

The trouble, it seems, is that the month from April 25 to May 23 is a critical ratings sweep to determine advertising rates for the months ahead. And debates are known losers in drawing viewers. The campaigns of John Van de Kamp and Dianne Feinstein say they are working to reach a new agreement for debates sometime, someplace.

No ecostroika here: Ecologist and population expert Paul Ehrlich doesn’t have a high opinion of California’s campaign for governor. “Never has so much money been spent to say so little,” Ehrlich, author of The Population Explosion, said in asking the three major candidates to speak to the question of making life here livable at the turn of the century.

“With a highway system already in a state of gridlock, schools overwhelmed with too many students, exhausted water supplies, unbreathable air and unaffordable housing, how can California possibly be prepared for almost one-third more people?” Ehrlich asked.

Looking Ahead: Absentee voting will significantly affect the wind-up pace of the 1990 campaign. In the past, candidates planned to “peak” right before the first Tuesday in June, election day. But that was when absentee ballots amounted to about 5% of the vote. In 1988, that jumped to 14% statewide. And in recent special elections, absentees have reached half of the total ballots cast. That means that candidates who wait until that last week in May to raise last-minute charges, or air that final heroic round of TV commercials, will miss a great number of voters.

For this reason, watch for the crescendo to begin begin about the second week of May when the first absentee ballots are being marked up. Voters can request their ballot as soon as registration closes May 7.

WHERE THE VOTERS ARE Counties With Highest Percentage of Registered Voters

Sierra 83.45% Contra Costa 82.90 San Francisco 82.58 Marin 81.77 Mendocino 80.22

Counties With Lowest Percentage

Lassen 50.21% Kings 57.33 Tulare 58.21 Madera 61.74 Merced 61.34

Southern California Perspective Voter registration in Southland counties

San Diego 77.15% Orange 73.90 Ventura 70.01 Riverside 68.13 Los Angeles 64.79 San Bernardino 63.86

NOTE: Numbers represent the percentage of those eligible to vote in each county who are registered. Source: The Secretary of State’s Report of Registration for January, 1990. Compiled by Times Editorial Researcher Michael Meyers

SOUNDING

From Operation New Broom, an organization that wants to limit state politicians to two terms in office:

“Some people ask us, what about losing the ‘benefit’ of all that experience in office? . . . We answer this way: by November, our 40 state senators will have been in office an average of 17 years. In terms of ‘experience,’ then . . . has the drug problem gotten better . . . is the public health delivery system better . . . is the education of our children getting better . . . are state/local taxes higher or lower?”

EXIT LINE

“You don’t need to worry about me being on the take in Sacramento. I made mine before I got there.” --State Sen. John Seymour, an Anaheim Republican who is running for lieutenant governor.