It's easy to get so caught up in the fight for the presidency that we lose sight of thousands of races being run all across the country. The media is partially to blame — it hyperventilates over the latest insignificant daily gaffe, real or imagined, and breathlessly concludes that this newest controversy might spell the doom/seal the fate/save the skin of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), especially among black voters/white voters/soccer moms/NASCAR dads/blue collars/white collars/terminally ill Albanian tuba players.
But the truth is, there are a lot of great and interesting campaigns being run that get little to no national attention, despite their having national implications or simply being good examples of our democracy in action. Here's one.
California Proposition 8: In 2004, 11 states passed ballot initiatives or amendments to their state constitutions that banned gay marriage, almost all by wide margins. When the California State Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the state's constitution required permitting gay couples to marry, California joined Massachusetts as one of two states in the country to legalize the practice. Opponents of the decision quickly mobilized to get an initiative on the ballot this November, which, if passed, would amend the state constitution and illegalize gay marriage.
This makes California ground zero in the nationwide fight over gay rights. Recent polls have shown the "No" (pro-gay marriage) side has a 17-percentage point advantage over the "Yes" (anti-gay marriage) side. Gay marriage activists take this as good news, seeing as ballot initiatives need a large margin in the polls to pass since they inevitably lose support as Election Day draws near. They believe part of the reason California may buck national opinion and throw its support behind gay unions is the fact that instead of banning a legalization of gay marriage, voters are being asked to reverse the rights gay couples currently have (the state's Supreme Court decision went into effect immediately).
One interesting aspect of this race is that because it isn't a federal race, the $2,300 contribution restriction doesn't apply. Truly epic amounts of money are being tossed around by opponents and supporters of the ban; the Catholic group the Knights of Columbus went in for $1 million, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and its congregants have tossed in close to $5 million to pass the amendment. On the other hand, an ex-Mormon Utah millionaire, Bruce Bastian, has pitched in $1 million to fight the initiative, joining dozens of wealthy opponents who have dropped six-figure checks against the proposition. Even Brad Pitt helped out to the tune of $100,000.
The fight rages on, and there are still enough undecided voters on the question to give either side a chance at victory. But a dispassionate analysis of the polling data, the performance of California ballot initiatives in the past and the campaign finance reports suggest that after November there will still be two states in the country in which gay men and women can legally marry.
As for the vice presidential debate tonight, here's my very abbreviated take: 1.) VP debates are fun to watch but have never in modern presidential history caused an appreciable change in public support for either ticket. 2.) Joe Biden's (D-Del.) job is to avoid seeming like a jerk to Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska). He doesn't need to go in for the kill, and he will probably just be content to let Palin dig herself into a hole without his help. 3.) The media's (and general public's) expectations for Palin are so low that if she manages to form complete sentences and not drool on herself, she will be credited with having held her own.
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Michael Sherry is a senior majoring in political science. He can be reached at Michael.Sherry@tufts.edu.
