Davis, Alioto campaign in Stockton
By Dianne Berth
The Stockton Record
September 10, 1998
Two Democratic candidates for statewide office stumped in Stockton Wednesday, looking to sway some Central Valley conservative voters and raise campaign money from loyal supporters.
Michela Alioto, the 31-year-old scion of one of San Francisco�s most powerful, most popular Democratic families, a candidate for secretary of state, described her plans to improve voter turnout to a packed lunch meeting of the Stockton Rotary Club.
A few hours later, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gray Davis was feted at a Morada fund-raiser where hundreds of Northern California prosecutors and San Juaquin County Democrats raised nearly $20,000 for his campaign.
Davis made law enforcement and education the focuses of his 15-minute speech.
“None of us in Sacramento can catch criminals. You do,” he said to prosecutors and other lawyers at the event. “I will try to give you the tools and resources and will listen to you. I understand our obligation to keep people safe.”
Davis referred to the 1989 fatal shootings of five children on the playground at Stockton�s Cleveland School. “I will enforce an assault-weapons ban,” he said.
Davis also said he hopes to reduce the fees students pay to attend state universities and to devote more money to primary education.
The fund raiser was sponsored by Prosecutors for Gray Davis, a broad coalition of 350 district attorneys, assistant district attorneys and deputy district attorneys. Among those who attended were San Francisco District Attorney Terrance Hallihan and numerous Bay Area and Central Valley prosecutors.
The fund-raiser was hosted by a group of San Joaquin deputy district attorneys who said Davis best represents their interests in prosecuting crime.
“He supports local government fighting crime,” San Joaquin County prosecutor N. Allen Sawyer said, adding that he swung his support toward Davis one night after prosecuting a difficult domestic-violence case.
Sawyer said he turned on the television and saw Davis� Republican opponent, Attorney General Dan Lungren, holding an emergency news conference on medicinal marijuana.
“It just seems like he didn�t have the right priority to me,” Sawyer said. “He�s wrapped up there in Sacramento. Davis seems less divisive and more likely to back us down here�He supports helping counties and local government fighting crime.”
The group�s support comes less than a month after a group of district attorneys blasted Davis for suggesting they had not invested enough resources in speeding the judicial process in criminal cases.
Earlier this week, Lungren charged that Davis, who is leading by 12 points in the most recent Field Poll, has been taking credit for tough criminal laws he didn�t write or even support.
Davis, who was chief of staff for Jerry Brown when Brown was governor, has worked to distance himself from Brown�s liberal agenda and campaigned hard on his record of backing the death penalty and the state�s three-strikes law.
“We know Dan Lungren thinks he has the lock on law enforcement, � but this event shows how much support Davis really has from the prosecutors,” said Jim Askew, a Stockton attorney and a member of the fund-raising committee.
“This event is not just Democrats. It�s the prosecutors supporting someone they think will do the best job,” he said
Earlier in the day Michela Alioto championed programs to make it easier for citizens to vote and to teach young people the importance of citizenship and political participation.
Of the 20 million Californians eligible to vote in the June primary election, 15 million were registered, and only 6 million actually cast ballots.
Those least likely to vote were young: Just 8 percent of citizens in their 20s voted, according to the secretary of state�s office.
“I think the message is a very clear one, Alioto said. “we are not doing what we need to do to invigorate and pull young people into the political process.”
She cited improvements in other states as examples California could follow. Alioto said she would consider vote-by-mail, a program that churned up the vote in Oregon; same-day registration and voting, a successful project in Wisconsin and Maine; and online voting, such as is offered military personnel in Florida.
“Technology is our invention. It belongs to California, and we can do more with it,” said Alioto, who two years ago waged an unsuccessful campaign for a Bay Area congressional seat after working on Vice President Al Gore�s domestic policy team.
Alioto may not win many votes from the Stockton Rotary, where a member joked that there were no more than two Democrats in the crowd and bragged about “being to the right of the Hun.”
But members said Alioto inspired the liveliest discussion they�d seen lately. After giving her presentation, Alioto asked for questions, suggesting the group turn the event into an open discussion.
“This is an opportunity for me to learn,” she said, “and I�d like to take it, to be frank.”
Many members said they supported her plan to review the way civics is taught in schools to foster better voter participation. “It seems to me there needs to be a much more serious focus on responsibilities of citizenship,” Stockton lawyer Chris Papas said, adding that he didn�t think Alioto won many votes from the crowd.
Several members questioned the need to try harder to get people to vote, suggesting it would result in more registered Democrats. Others wanted to hear her support voter identification, a Republican-backed plan.
The discussion lasted beyond the lunch, winning Alioto support from several members. “I think she got people involved in discussion, and discussion is what this country is all about,” former Stockton librarian Ursula Meyer said. “This club is very concerned with youths, and she got them talking about that.”
Businesswoman Kathryn Rousek didn�t say for whom she�ll vote Alioto or incumbent Bill Jones, but she said Alioto “was outstanding.”
Alioto, behind Jones by 6 percentage points in the latest Field Poll, released two weeks ago, is campaigning throughout the state during the next several weeks.
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