San Diego Union Tribune: For-profit 'voters guides' called misleading

For-profit 'voters guides' called misleading

Mailers not backed by political parties

By John Marelius
STAFF WRITER

June 5, 2006

Ronald Bonn doesn't belong to a political party, so it probably came as no surprise when the “Official Nonpartisan Voter Guide of California” turned up in his mailbox last week. But Bonn quickly became irate as he examined the card and even checked out its Web site. The mailer recommended nothing but Republican candidates and the Web site advertised itself as “your first choice in reaching conservative and independent voters.”

“Right-wing skullduggery,” concluded Bonn, who teaches journalism at the University of San Diego. “It calls itself the 'Official Nonpartisan Voter Guide of California,' which would lead the unwary recipient to believe it is official, nonpartisan and a voter guide,” he wrote in an angry note to The San Diego Union-Tribune. “In fact, it is none of these.”

Jess Durfee was equally incensed when he received the “Voter Information Guide for Democrats.” It recommended Phil Angelides, Dianne Feinstein and a full slate of Democrats for statewide offices and Congress. The “Voter Information Guide for Democrats” also recommended the re-election of San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts, a Republican. Most voters have no idea about the party affiliations of candidates for local nonpartisan offices. Durfee isn't one of them. He is chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party. Particularly galling to Durfee was that the “Voter Information Guide for Democrats” endorsing Roberts landed in mailboxes the same day as an official mailing from the county Democratic Party touting Richard Barrera, the only Democrat running against the incumbent.


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Larry Levine, a Democratic political consultant in Sherman Oaks, produced the Voter Information Guide for Democrats and a generic Voter Information Guide that recommends the same candidates and propositions but is sent to “decline to state” voters. Levine said he never sells space to Republicans running for partisan office. But he sometimes does for local nonpartisan offices, as was the case with Roberts, after consulting with Democratic campaign managers or labor union leaders in the area. “It could be a district where a Democrat can't win and we're looking to help the most responsible Republican in the race,” Levine said. “We'd always prefer to have a Democrat with solid credentials who could win the seat. That isn't always possible.”

State law requires the true nature of slates be explained on the mailers themselves. Whether any but the most discerning voter can read the tiny print or figure out what it means is another matter. Voters are told that the endorsements are not those of an official political party organization, that the candidates and issues are not necessarily endorsing each other, that candidates for nonpartisan offices could be of any political party and that candidates marked with an asterisk paid to be included. “It's like the fine print at the bottom of your credit card bill,” said Hodson at CSU Sacramento. “You don't know what it says and you probably don't want to.”

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