TO:   CVF-NEWS
FROM:   Kim Alexander, CVF President
DATE:   October 30, 2000
RE:   Districts to Watch, Campaign Web Site Index



Hi Folks,

It's getting down to the wire and we are keeping busy here at the CVF headquarters. We are working on updating our Top Ten donors and summary figures for the California proposition campaigns, and will email CVF-NEWS subscribers as soon as our research is complete. We are also getting ready to publish an impartial analysis on each of the eight ballot measures and will be sending that out soon too.

In the meantime, we've gone through our entire California Online Voter Guide and compiled an index of all the official campaign web sites in California for state and federal contests. (Links to local campaign web sites are not featured in our guide but many can be found at the League of Women Voters' Smart Voter site, at www.smartvoter.org.)

Below are links to 250 sites sponsored by presidential, congresssional, legislative and proposition campaigns. Overall, we found that almost 50 percent of all 525 federal and state candidates running in California have campaign web sites.

These gross figures don't tell the whole story, however, since in many districts incumbents do not face a serious challenge. To get a better sense of how the Internet is being used in contested races, we reviewed all 52 California congressional and 100 state legislative contests and identified 35 districts where there appears to be a serious competition underway for the seat, based on news and campaign finance reports. In those 35 races, we found candidates were much more likely to have a campaign web site. Overall, we found that about 80 percent of major party candidates in contested races have campaign web sites.

The competition over these key seats is fierce, as the Republicans and Democrats are vying for control over Congress as well as state legislatures, where new political district maps will be drawn in the next term. Voters living in hotly contested districts are likely to receive lots of mail and phone calls in the coming days, and can expect to see lots of last-minute attack ads as well as independent expenditures from outside groups.

Below is CVF's list of "Districts to Watch", which identifies the major party candidates and their party affiliation. Complete lists of candidates are available through our online voter guide. CVF's California Campaign Web Site Index can be found in our voter guide at http://www.calvoter.org/2000/general/websiteindex.html.

* * * * * * * * * *

CALIFORNIA DISTRICTS TO WATCH:

U.S. CONGRESS

CD 10 - Ellen Tauscher (D - inc.) / Claud Hutchinson (R)
CD 15 - Mike Honda (D) / Jim Cunneen (R)
CD 20 - Cal Dooley (D - inc.) / Rich Rodriguez (R)
CD 22 - Lois Capps (D - inc.) / Mike Stoker (R)
CD 27 - Adam Schiff (D) / James E. Rogan (R - inc.)
CD 36 - Jane Harman (D) / Steve Kuykendall (R -inc.)
CD 38 - Gerrie Schipske (D) / Steve Horn (R - inc)
CD 46 - Loretta Sanchez (D - inc.) / Gloria Matta Tuchman (R)
CD 48 - Peter Kouvelis (D) / Darrell Issa (R)
CD 49 - Susan Davis (D) / Brian Bilbray (R - inc.)

CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE

SD 5 - Mike Machado (D) / Alan Nakanishi (R)
SD 7 - Tom Torlakson (D) / Dick Rainey (R - inc.)
SD 21 - Jack Scott (D) / Paul Zee (R)
SD 27 - Betty Karnette (D - inc.) / Marilyn Lyon (R)
SD 39 - Dede Alpert (D - inc.) / Larry Stirling (R)

CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY

AD 10 - Debra Gravert (D) / Anthony Pescetti (R - inc.)
AD 15 - Greg Rolen (D) / Lynne Leach (R - inc.)
AD 16 - Audie Bock (Ind. - inc.) / Wilma Chan (D)
AD 17 - Barbara Matthews (D) / Greg Aghazarian (R)
AD 21 - Joe Simitian (D )/ Deborah Wilder (R)
AD 24 - Rebecca Cohn (D) / Sue Jackson (R)
AD 28 - Simon Salinas (D )/ Jeff Denham (R)
AD 35 - Hannah-Beth Jackson (D - inc. )/ Robin Sullivan (R)
AD 37 - Roz McGrath (D) / Tony Strickland (R - inc.)
AD 41 - Fran Pavley (D) / Jayne Murphy Shapiro (R)
AD 43 - Dario Frommer (D )/ Craig Missakian (R)
AD 44 - Carol Liu (D) / Susan Carpenter-McMillan (R)
AD 54 - Alan Lowenthal (D - inc.) / Rudy Svorinich, Jr. (R)
AD 56 - Sally Havice (D - inc.) / Grace Hu (R)
AD 61 - Gloria Negrete McLeod (D) / Dennis Yates (R)
AD 68 - Tina Laine (D) / Ken Maddox (R)
AD 69 - Lou Correa (D - inc.) / Lou Lopez (R)
AD 76 - Christine Kehoe (D) / Michele Nash-Hoff (R)
AD 77 - Todd Keegan (D) / Jay La Suer (R)
AD 78 - Howard Wayne (D - inc.) / John Steel (R)


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This page was first published on October 30, 2000 | Last updated on November 17, 2000
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