Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 08, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 9, 2000 Page: 3 of 8
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California voucher proposition fails; drug reform passes
Monique Simpson
LaTimes.com
Al Gore with wife Tipper, campaigning earlier this year in Southern California.
University of California
(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES -
Californians voted Tuesday to halt
a school voucher initiative by a
wide margin, while changing the
state’s policy on drug offenders.
In one of the most contested
proposition races this year, voters
overwhelmingly defeated Proposi-
tion 38, the school vouchers initia-
tive.
If passed, the proposition would
have given parents a $4,000
voucher to send their children to
private schools.
“It’s clear that Californians
prefer improving their public school
instead of abandoning them,” said
Jon Lenzner, spokesman for the No
on Prop. 38 Committee.
Lenzner added this was the
second time in seven years that
voters did not approve a school
voucher initiative.
Opponents of Proposition 38,
which included the California
Teachers Association, charged the
proposition of taking tax funds
away from public schools. But sup-
porters contended vouchers would
strengthen public schools by hold-
ing them more accountable for stu-
dents’ performances.
In another closely watched prop-
osition race, Californians voted to
change the state’s drug policy by
passing Proposition 36 which will
allow most first- and second-time
drug offenders to be sent to treat-
ment programs instead of prison.
“We knew Californians were
ready to do this,” said Whitney
Taylor, spokesperson for Campaign
for New Drug Policies. “The war
on drugs has failed and we need to
look for something different.”
The proposition will provide
those convicted on nonviolent drug
possession offenses with court-
supervised treatment and probation
for up to a year.
But not all voters were pleased
with the proposition's outcome.
“Sadly, the voters have been
misled by three out-of-state bil-
lionaires who are trying to legalize
hard drugs throughout the country,”
said Jean Mu"oz, spokeswoman for
Californians United Against Drug
Abuse.
Proposition 34. the campaign
finance reform initiative, pass' J bv
a wide margin.
Campaign donations to state-
wide offices, except governor, will
now be limited to $5,000 and a
$3,000 limit will be placed on con
tributions to the state legislature.
In 1998, Proposition 208.
another campaign reform initiative,
passed but has been contested in
court for two years.
With the passage ot Proposition
34, the provisions of Proposition
208, which had lower limits for
campaign donations and spending,
is nullified.
Proposition 39, a school bond
measure, passed try a small margin.
Now to authorize a bond for
improving school facilities, onlv
55 percent of the local vote must
approve. Before, two-thirds of the
vote was needed.
While Propositions 32 and 35
were approved, Propositions 33 and
37 failed to pass.
Green Party election goals fall short with Nader
Angela Williams
University of New Mexico
“There are 29,000 absentee and
early-vote ballots to be counted,
and a lot of those votes were
cast before the Gore fear campaign
(U-WIRE) ALBUQUERQUE, began or went into high gear,” he
N.M. - Despite heavy pre-election said at 11:30 p.m.
discussion of Ralph Nader’s factor “There is a good chance we can
in this year’s presidential election, pick up another percent in those
the Green Party fell short of the ballots.”
impact it was hoping to gamer. Ulrich said the unexpected loss
Unofficial election results indi-
cated that Nader only garnered 3
of federal funding would make the
Green Party organizers’ job more
percent nationally, while the New difficult, but would not stop them.
Mexico Green Party only earned 4
more damage by bashing Nader
than people thought. He said he
was disappointed and had trouble
accepting the numbers, but was not
discouraged.
“Electoral politics is only part
of the political process,” he said.
“We’re marching for 2002 and
2004.
It’s two steps forward and some-
times one step backward, but even-
tually the people will prevail against
the corporate electorate who have
bought the election.”
Daniel Kerlinsky, the write-in
sill
Jit
m
- / He said the Green Party was a
percent in the state election. pre-eminent force in America and _______ _____RH
Nationally, Nader needed 5 per- was on the 2000 election ballot for Green Party candidate running for
cent to earn federal funding. State- twice as many states as in the 1996 the House of Representatives 1st
wide, the Green Party also fell short election. Congressional District seat, earned
of the 5 percent it needed to obtain Uhrich said that if it had not about 8 percent of the vote. He said
/ major-party status. * been for Gore’s fear campaign in he felt his campaign was a suc-
New Mexico Green Party can- , the last week of the campaign, cess. •
didates said they were disappointed Nader would have captured the 5 He said he had a great campaign
with the unofficial returns, but percent he needed. and the Green Party is now the
“Either way, Greens are in a major third party in the country,
much better position than when we He also said he felt this elec-
first started,” he said. tion pushed the Green Party to the
Marvin Gladstone, the Green forefront, making itself known as a
Party candidate for Court of threat to tf\p two-party system.
Appeals, captured II percent bf “We’ve really got the Democrats
the vote, and said he considered so hungry for the Green Party vote
his campaign a victory because he that they will work much, much
broke double digits. *' harder on environmental issues for
Gladstone said Gore had done the next 20 years,” Kerlinsky said.
remained optimistic that the voting
process is not over yet. /
Jack Uhrich, co-chairman of the
New Mexico Green Party, said
thousands of absentee apd early
ballots need to be counted, with
many of those votes cast before
‘^Democratic presidential jUndidatc
Al Gore launched his anti-Nader
mmm
JF
Features
11,
November 9, 2000 3
rinF
Senior capstone takes closer look at election
JL ■
Lacy Klosterman
Megaphone Staff
Election day has come and gone.
Most of the votes have been tallied
and the United States is still on hold
for the final verdict. If you took
the time to predict the outcome of
this election, will your prediction
be correct?
The Political Science Capstone
Seminar was held on Tuesday,
November 7 in the Caskey Com-
munity Center. Three students and
two professors from the department
tuned into CNN Live to watch elec-
tion coverage, and discuss what
was happening with voting.
The discussion between the pro-
fessors and colleagues consisted
mainly of predictions, poll out-
comes, and opinions.
As the polls closed and electoral
votes were tallied, th^students kept
score on a United States map and
checked to see if their predictions
were correct.
Each student had previously pre-
dicted which state would go to
which candidate.
Each of the students from the
Capstone class was assigned an
aspect of this year’s election to
research prior to Tuesday night’s
seminar. Topics discussed were
those of state governor and senate
elections as well as Presidential
predictions.
Senior Jeff Fowler was assigned
the topic of Presidential predictions.
Prior to the seminar, Fowler read
newspapers from Florida, Michi-
gan, and Pennsylvania.
“I felt that these three states
were key, and I wanted to get a
local perspective on the candidates
from these states.” Surprisingly,
Fowler found that as of Tuesday
evening, voter turnout was higher
than expected in these states.
Sarah Meyer/Photo Ehi i
Seniors sit with their professors during the Capstone in Political Science. They predicted, discussed, and debated issues while watching the returns
Thirteen years ago, the political
science department adopted their
first Capstone format.
In the form of a senior seminar,
each member of the department
teaches a different Capstone.
of the closest pres-
idential campaign “J fee| that [{ has been
races in history. We
are able to discuss the 3 Very beneficial
election using politi-
cal science as well as
closure to my time
year.
As part of their
assignment, the
students will be
writing term
_________ _ __________ __r_______ ____________________ . # . papers predicting
‘America’s Future’ was the title of prediction theories.” in the political Science what' American
this year’s Capstone class. O’Neill said. department” politics will be
Dr. Tim O’Neill came up with One senior, Niki like in 20 years.
Leontaritis, com- At the end of those
mented that the class “integrates 20 years, the students will be asked
this idea two years ago as he
thought about the 2000 presidential
election.
“I thought that this would be one
everything we’ve learned about
American Politics since freshman
to come back to Southwestern and
present their papers at a Collo-
quium.
When asked what she thought
of the class, Leontaritis said, “I
think that it provided the oppor-
tunity to relate knowledge from
courses that I’ve taken for the last 3
years, especially Political Science
courses. You definitely have to do a
lot of work, but I like it. Look at the
title, America’s Futures, it allows
you to be an analyst using the
knowledge you learned at South-
western to determine the future of
the country."
“Personally I think that I’ve
learned an incredible deal in th<
class. 1 feel that it has been a uia
beneficial closure to mv time in the
political science department, (h ei
all it has been a very good experi-
ence,” said senior Brian Brown.
Five seniors were enrolled in
this Capstone class. They were.
Brian Brown, Jeff Fowler, Niki
Leontaritis, Sylvia Mayer, and Ana
Sykes.
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Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 08, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 9, 2000, newspaper, November 9, 2000; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth634227/m1/3/: accessed July 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Southwestern University.