Urban Voters Get a Chance to Be Heard : A non-binding referendum on presidential candidates will appear on some city ballots.

The decline of American civilization proceeds from the neglect of its cities. The fabric of the whole country is threatened by urban problems--violence, homelessness and social breakdown. But our presidents tragically ignore the root causes of decay, exploiting popular fear for political gain. Or they propose grandiose and unworkable federal programs, while disregarding local initiatives that actually work.

A fundamental reason for this national dereliction of duty is political: We elect presidents from places like Hope, Ark.; Kennebunkport, Maine, and Plains, Ga., because the political machines that once produced urbane candidates like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy have been scrapped by political reforms. Today, the road to the White House leads through rural Iowa, snow-white New Hampshire and the “Super Tuesday” South.

In 1992, New Hampshire was so distant from the problems facing America that its Democratic primary was dominated by steamy tabloid coverage of Gennifer Flowers--anything to warm up the frigid Puritan temperament. When liberal Democratic candidate Larry Agran, the former mayor of Irvine, injected urban issues into the primary, proposing to send the so-called peace dividend directly back to cities, his qualifications were questioned and he was excluded from the debates.

Urban issues finally caught the nation’s attention on April 29, 1992, when Los Angeles exploded into flames in the worst urban riots in American history. Only then did George Bush and Bill Clinton drop into L.A. to mouth a few empty promises. But Californians didn’t get to vote until June, when the nominations were already sewed up. To bridge this gap, California’s primary will be moved up to March in 1996.

Voters in metropolitan areas across this country, who comprise 80% of the electorate, must have a primary role in choosing the first president of the 21st Century. Agran dreamed of a national urban primary while waging his quixotic campaign. His candidacy failed, but his dream gained support among mayors, struggling to balance city budgets starved by federal budget cuts. In mid-1992, the U.S. Conference of Mayors recommended a national urban presidential primary. “We must invent the means” for presidents to hear urban voters, said James Scheibel, former mayor of Saint Paul, Minn.

Last month, that dream came closer to reality: CityVote, Agran’s nonprofit, nonpartisan election group, announced that at least six cities--Pasadena, Baltimore, Minneapolis and St. Paul and Tacoma and Olympia, Wash.--will host presidential preference balloting three months before the New Hampshire primary.

CityVote will work like this:

On Labor Day, 1995, declared presidential candidates will be invited to participate in four televised debates. On Nov. 7, 1995, voters in municipal elections in a dozen cities (at least) will also register their preference for president. The balloting will be non-binding--no convention delegates will be selected as a result--but the outcome will be widely broadcast.

Agran, himself out of the running, has taken pains to make sure the CityVote forum rules will be fair and inclusive.

The goal of CityVote is to provide a diverse mix of urban voices from big and small cities, on both coasts and in middle America. Pasadena is the first California city to sign on; San Bernardino and Santa Barbara are considering it.

Undoubtedly, some pols will quail at the idea of a national urban primary and may try to stop it. Luckily, CityVote won’t need approval of party organizations or political authorities.

There are drawbacks. CityVote will extend the campaign to a full year, and it’s vulnerable to being ignored, which would further erode city dwellers’ faith in the democratic process.

But these risks are worth taking for urban voters to play their rightful role in the nominating system. If 5 million Americans participate in CityVote, as Agran predicts, both Democratic and Republican candidates might have to answer difficult questions like these:

What happened to the peace dividend for our cities? What about revenue sharing, which gives local control of spending, in lieu of unwieldy federal programs? How do we put people to work rebuilding our cities or deal with the root causes of social problems? How can we make cities safe?

CityVote is a significant attempt to enfranchise urban voters and invigorate municipal elections by putting presidential hopefuls on the same ballot as local candidates and measures. America’s first national urban primary could change the face of presidential politics.