Election Season

A hot topic at the moment and one which will continue to be in the weekly headlines is the race for the California Senate seat. In the race for the Senate seat, Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer is running against Republican Carly Fiorina. With the elections in November quickly approaching the candidates running for senate are watching the election numbers closer than ever. According to a recent poll by the Los Angeles Times published on Saturday, Senator Barbara Boxer, has built a comfortable lead over her opponent, Carly Fiorina. The poll showed that Barbara Boxer was supported by 51 percent of “likely voters”, compared with 43 percent support for Carly Fiorina. Now these numbers are just an estimate as not all of the “likely voters” will vote, and some voters who weren’t “likely voters” may turn out and vote as well. Also, the results of this poll may have been affected by some hard-hitting advertisements which were being aired by the Barbara Boxer campaign. These advertisements showed Carly Fiorina talking about lying off 30,000 workers during her time as head of Hewlett-Packard. This advertisement would certainly shift favor towards the Boxer campaign as every American and Californian would be against the laying off of workers. Although there may have been good reason behind the lay-offs the advertisement, Boxer surely didn’t highlight these as it was an anti-Fiorina add.

Another hot topic is the race for the governor of California between the Republican candidate Meg Whitman and the Democratic candidate, attorney general Jerry Brown. The same poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times that reported the numbers for the Senate race also recorded statistics for the gubernatorial race. According to the poll Jerry Brown has 49 percent support among “likely voters”, compared with 44 percent for Meg Whitman. Meg Whitman invested $119 million of her own money into the race but despite this she is still having trouble winning the support of Californians. This is a rare case as often the candidate who is able to raise and invest he most money into his or her campaign is the one who comes out victorious. The money she has invested in her campaign efforts is an all time record as it shatters the amount invested by Michael R. Bloomberg when he ran for mayor of New York. Although he appears to be ahead of Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown also has problems of his own, as his campaign has been criticized by some Democrats as being low-energy and underfinanced.

In the Wrong Hands

One important current political issue is one concerning Governor Charlie Crist and the ongoing financial scandal with the Republican Party of Florida, that he is involved with. It was concluded by auditors that Crist and Greer spend nearly $500,000 that probably had little to do with official Republican Party business. Thousands of dollars were spent on trips to New York City and Walt Disney World that included Crist, his wife and her family. Party spending, including the use of credit cards by many elected officials, has come under increasing scrutiny in the last two years. This increase in scrutiny is because of this scandal and many others as this is not the first time there has been an abuse of spending privileges. Previously there was a criminal investigation into former Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom that showed that he used his card to pay for travel, trips, and visits to electronic retailers such as Best Buy.

My opinion on this subject is closely aligned with the opinion of the Republican Party of Florida chairman John Thrasher. Chairman Thrasher called the audit an “affirmation of the despicable exploitation and gross financial mismanagement of donor funds that occurred” under Mr. Crist and his “hand-picked chairman.” First off I agree with how Crist’s actions were despicable and extremely exploiting. I often wonder why these politicians are given so much power and are enabled to spend so much money on everything other than their politics. The article did not detail where the money came from but I’m assuming a large portion of it came from the hard working tax payers of Florida. It’s entirely unfair that these politicians are given the power to use the tax payer’s money on personal joys that will never have a positive influence on the lives of the people who really bought them. Second I am glad that Chairman Thrasher pointed out the fact that the man who assisted in wrongly spending the money, Crist’s chairman Mr. Greer, was handpicked. It’s sad that characters like Greer and Crist are even given power in government and can make bad decisions that have no negative effect on themselves. According to the Atlanta-based law firm of Alston & Bird who reviewed over 150,000 documents, “there was little control over a wide array of spending”. I also find this very disheartening as there should be a group of people who hold control over all this spending and can collectively vote in ways to protect the money of tax payers. Overall I think this article reveals one of the crucial flaws in our political system and that is the fact that the power over tax payer’s money is often placed in the wrong hand.

The Fourteenth Amendment

One very controversial issue which is currently at hand is the repeal of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States. The reasoning behind this idea of repealing the Fourteenth Amendment is that it would discourage immigrants to come to this country in hopes of giving birth to a child who would then be a United States born citizen. This discouraging factor would then have an overall affect on the number of immigrates and it would reduce the number of illegal immigrants who are currently flooding into the United States. However a report published by the Migration Policy Institute on September 8, 2010 provided information that made a case contrary to the beliefs of those fighting for the repeal. It was concluded by this institution that the repeal of the Fourteenth Amendment would cause big increases in the population of illegal immigrants. The report estimated that the population of immigrants could grow to 14 million by 2020 and by 2050 the population of illegal immigrants could even 24 million. This growth would occur if citizenship were denied to children born in the United States who have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant. The group which published these reports was a nonpartisan research group which leaves no reason for suspicion that these numbers were in any way manipulated.

I believe this repeal is entirely unnecessary as its sole purpose is to fix the “problem” of immigration which is my mind is far from a problem. The repeal of the Fourteenth Amendment seems like it would also cause more problems that it would fix. If people born in the United States were not immediately guaranteed citizenship, it would cause problems for everyone, not just immigrants coming from Mexico or any other country. So in my opinion changing an important aspect of the constitution is not the solution to the “problem” of immigration which the United States continues to have.

The Race Card

Race plays an influential and impactful role in many aspects of life, including politics. The affect that race has on politics is evident in the House race in Pennsylvania’s Sixth Congressional District. This House race is between the Republican incumbent, Representative Jim Gerlach and the Democratic challenger, Manan Trivedi. The racial controversy here comes from the spokesman’s of the Republican incumbent, Representative Jim Gerlach accusing Mr. Trivedi of playing “the race card”. Mr. Campell, the accuser and spokesman, said that because the Democratic challenger Manan Trivedi was an Indian American and had been “going to Indian-American groups to raise money”, he was playing “the race card”. Mr. Campell complained that Mr. Trivedi’s use of his race to associate with and gain support from others of the same ethnicity as him was wrong. Mr. Campell’s statement was quoted in an article in The Hill newspaper and he drew outraged responses from a number of Democratic representatives. Mr. Trivedi see’s Mr. Trivedi’s words and actions as downplaying the Indian-Americans who have donated to his campaign. Mr. Trivedi explains, “I’m so proud of my heritage and grateful for all of the support I’ve received” and “believe absolutely no one, for any reason, should ever feel shut out of the democratic process.”

This issue brings up a very interesting question, “Is it wrong for a politician to use his or her ethnicity to connect with a group of people that share that same ethnicity?” I think that it is perfectly acceptable for politicians to use their ethnicity to relate to the people whose votes they are campaigning for. Although in all situations in which one is dealing with ethnicity and race one should be extremely careful because sometimes an attempt to reach out to relate can be misunderstood as an attempt to separate from the many other groups who are not part of that race. However in most cases, this misunderstanding does not take place. Representative Michael M. Honda, Democrat of California shares the same beliefs as I. As a Japanese-American and chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus he sees Mr. Trivedi’s actions in a far different light than Mr. Campell. Mr. Honda’s sees tremendous fault in Mr. Gerlach suggestion “that political fund-raising within an ethnic community is somehow illegitimate”. Mr. Honda points out, “Our great democracy promises many fundamental freedoms”. These freedoms include our “freedom of speech and association” and our “right to equally participate in our electoral process.” These freedoms are all valid points which refute any ideas that Mr. Trivedi’s was in any way playing “the race card”.