A handful of states, including California, send pamphlets to all registered voters in advance of an election that include information about candidates for state office. The California Official Voter Information Guide has been mailed to all registered voters. Surprisingly, 40% of the candidates for one of the seven partisan statewide offices did not submit a statement for this booklet. Candidates must pay $25 per word for their statements, but that is a bargain, considering that the booklet is send to approximately 17,700,000 voters.
Some incumbents who are running for re-election did not submit a statement: Jerry Brown for Governor, Gavin Newson for Lieutenant Governor, and Kamala Harris for Attorney General. Also, some major party candidates who are thought likely to either win, or at least place second, also did not submit a statement: John A. Perez (current speaker of the Assembly) for Controller, Greg Conlon (the only Republican for Treasurer), Phil Wyman (the Republican for Attorney General who has the most name recognition of any Republican running for that office).
All the minor party candidates for statewide office submitted candidate statements, except for Jena Goodman, the Green running for Lieutenant Governor. To read the candidate statements, use this link.
In order to be eligible to place a candidate statement in the statewide voter information guide, a candidate for statewide office must accept the voluntary campaign spending limits (of $8.166 million for Governor, $5.444 million for the other statewide offices, for the June election campaign). All of the incumbents and prominent major party candidates that Richard mentions as not having candidate statements did not accept the spending limits and so could not put candidate statements in the voter information guide. Some other prominent candidates who also declined to accept the spending limits are Neel Kashkari and Ashley Swearingen.
What percent of the pamphlets add to CA pollution – burned or dumped in a land fill ?
A voter may receive the voter’s pamphlet electronically.
To my mind, this is a matter of the electorate deserving information about the choices before them. All candidates should be required to submit a statement, and all should be given 100 words and not charged. Their valid signatures of registered voters should be payment enough. Any candidate who refuses to submit a statement should not be listed on the ballot. By the way, Amos Johnson, Peace and Freedom Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor, does not have a statement in the booklet. It is telling that a**holes like Jerry Brown don’t bother to let voters know their stance on public policy.
Casey,
Because Jerry Brown didn’t accept the voluntary campaign spending limit of $8.166 million for the primary, he wasn’t allowed to include a statement in the ballot pamphlet. Of course, even if a candidate has a statement in the ballot pamphlet, it doesn’t necessarily tell voter’s the candidate’s stance on public policy.