San Gabriel Valley : City Stops Funding Presidential Poll

In a major setback for a non-binding, 20-city presidential straw poll next month, Pasadena--the only California city to participate--has withdrawn after the City Council refused to fund the primary.

Organizers of CityVote canceled plans for balloting Nov. 7 in Pasadena after the council voted 5 to 2 Monday night to deny a request for $15,000 needed to hold the election. The city had already invested $30,000 in CityVote balloting, a canceled forum and fund-raisers and had expected to be repaid.

“Voters in Pasadena will not be a part of CityVote next month. That was the council’s decision,” said Richard Janisch, a member of the Pasadena CityVote Task Force on Tuesday.

Council support for the contest that hopes to snatch some of the limelight from Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary dwindled after organizers Monday canceled an Oct. 29 candidate forum because the major presidential candidates refused to attend. Organizers said they had raised only about a third of the $100,000 needed to broadcast the forum statewide.

“Politics has a way of finding real elections,” said Pasadena City Councilman William Crowfoot. CityVote “is largely uncontested by any of the major candidates and in my view is not going to yield the kind of debate one would expect in a presidential election.”

Mayor William Paparian and Vice Mayor Chris Holden voted to support CityVote. Holden said, “We’ve already invested $30,000, which we are going to flush down the toilet.”