California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres' Surprisingly Frank Discussion at the Institute of Governmental Studies

One of the questions asked of Torres was where is the money being spent on Democratic campaigns.

“We’re short of money and we’re trying to put resources into the field and get the voters out,” said Torres. “For one week of television it costs $1.9 million.” He indicated that despite press reports, the Democrats in California had a superior get out the vote operation and that this was the most cost effective expenditure of resources.

Torres said this election cycle between candidates and initiatives over $400 million dollars will be spent.

Because so much money is raised and campaign finance laws have made raising money more cumbersome, Torres said, “Twenty-five percent of our staff is hired to deal with fundraising and contribution laws.”

On a national outlook Torres is very confident with Democrats chances of taking back Congress. Torres compared polling numbers between 1994’s Republican take over of Congress to this year’s potential Democratic take over of Congress.

“In 1994 there was a six point spread that Republicans should take over,” said Torres. “In a Wall Street Journal poll that number is 15 points today” for the Democrats.

In California Torres pointed to two Republican Congressional incumbents Democrats are going after, Representative John Doolittle (R-Rocklin) and Representative Richard Pombo (R-Tracy). Doolittle is being challenged by Charlie Brown and Pombo by Jerry McNerney.

Torres said two things are happening in each of these districts to make them more liberal. Bay Area residents are moving east into Pombo’s district and commuting into the Bay Area, and Bay Area retirees are moving further east to retire in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Doolittle’s district.

Torres spoke to a concern that Democratic turnout might be suppressed because of Angelides’ low numbers or a lack of competitive Congressional races and Legislative races across the state.

Torres responded that Democrats will come out and vote, especially if Democrats take back the House before California polls close.

“At 5’oclock California time we may find out if Nancy Pelosi is Speaker and this may affect turnout in California for Republicans.”

In 1980 when Jimmy Carter lost the Presidency to Ronald Reagan before polls in California closed Democratic turnout in California dropped. Democrats felt they had no reason to go out and vote since Carter had already announced that he had lost.

Torres made the correlation that if Republicans lose the House before California polls close, Republicans will have no reason to go out and vote.

Ben Allen, 28, co-President of the Boalt Hall Democrats said Torres was, “a little more candid than I thought he would be.”

“I would have loved to hear more of his thoughts on campaign finance,” said Allen. “For the amount of time we had though, a lot of interesting things came up.”

Nik Bonovich is a political analyst and writer. He has written for the California Target Book, The Hotline, Campaigns & Elections Magazine, California Political Almanac, Capitol Weekly and Political Pulse. He has also done non-partisan polling analysis for the firm, Polimetrix. Prior to this Nik worked in politics. He got his start in politics while at C.K. McClatchy High School in his hometown of Sacramento as an intern for two Assemblymembers at the State Capitol. His experience in government brought him into the campaign arena working on various State Assembly, State Senate, U.S. House, U.S. Senate and statewide Proposition campaigns. He is currently a graduate student in Journalism at UC Berkeley and holds a bachelor’s degree from UCLA in Political Science.