McClintock Seeks to Be Listed in Voter Brochure

State Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) won’t be mentioned in the voter information guide unless his attorney can persuade the state Supreme Court that he has a constitutional right to be included.

McClintock will ask the California Supreme Court today to order Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to publish his statement along with all the others.

McClintock’s lawyer, Richard D. Ackerman, said McClintock did not realize he would be excluded from the voter information guide when he said he would not agree to follow new voluntary campaign expenditure limits. When he sought to change that position, Ackerman said, state officials did not allow it.

“It’s a huge 1st Amendment concern,” Ackerman said.

McClintock checks the same box on the Fair Political Practices Commission form each time he runs for elected office, Ackerman said. But under Proposition 34, the 2000 ballot initiative that limited direct donations to candidates, there are new consequences.

So far, McClintock’s request has been thrown out of the state trial and appeals courts in Sacramento.

A spokesman for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said all the secretary of state’s office wants is a resolution to the legal dispute before the guide goes to press Sunday.

Latino Group Hopes to Put Voting on the Menu

One vote, one taco.

That’s the message a Los Angeles Mexican organization is sending to Latino voters in Los Angeles as part of a plan to give Latinos a free taco if they vote in the Oct. 7 recall.

“You know, us Mexicans love food, and we need to speak to our people in our language,” said Martha Ugarte, spokeswoman for the Council of Presidents of Mexican Federations. “The language is, ‘Help us vote, and here’s a taco for you, for being a good Latino.’

“Our Salvadoran friends are also going to donate pupusas,” she added.

Council President Gustavo Santiago said at least three small, locally owned taco shop chains have agreed to donate enough to feed thousands of voters.

More are expected to join the effort, he said.

The federation is an umbrella group for local organizations that advocate and provide cultural activities for residents from specific Mexican states, such as Oaxaca or Zacatecas.

While there is some humor attached to the campaign, Santiago said the group hopes to communicate to voters the level of influence of Latino votes and Latino issues in the recall election.

The federation hasn’t decided whether it will urge a “no” vote on the recall, or what candidate to endorse to replace Gov. Gray Davis, but it does plan a major push to get Latinos to the polls.

“Through one vote, one taco, we want to send the message: we’re putting all our efforts to get Latinos to vote,” he said.

Registration Up, but Total Voters Decline

Voters are registering at a brisk pace in advance of the October recall election, but the overall number of voters is still down a bit from last year, according to the secretary of state.

Voter rolls throughout California are down by about 300,000 voters from November, to about 15 million, the secretary of state’s office reported.

The difference is largely the result of a routine purge of ineligible voters, part of a regular review of the rolls that election officials last conducted just after the 2002 general election.

People can be dropped from the register if they move to another voting jurisdiction, die, are convicted of a felony or are deemed mentally incompetent.

The next report from the secretary of state will be issued after the Sept. 22 deadline for new voters to register in time to participate in the recall election.

From Staff and Wire Reports