SACRAMENTO, California (By Adrian Perez, Sacramento Examiner) June 12, 2010 ― California’s primary election has resulted in what is being described as an “epic” general election pitting state Attorney General Jerry Brown against mega-billionaire Meg Whitman.

The polls had barely closed on Tuesday when Steve Poizner, Whitman’s opponent for the Republican nomination, provided a concession speech to a room of about 150 supporters and essentially launching a gubernatorial campaign that will split and tug at the state’s ethnic and female voters until November’s general election.

Unfortunately, the 2010 primary election will probably go down as the lowest turn out of voters, with approximately 20 percent of all voters showing at the polls. A huge proportion of these missing voters were Hispanic, which mainly affected those Hispanics seeking constitutional offices, like Attorney General, Insurance Commissioner, etc.

There are nearly 17 million registered voters in the state, of which 5 million, or 29 percent, are Hispanic. A total of a little over 4 million voters showed at the polls on Tuesday. Those counties with the least number of participating voters also had the largest number of Hispanic registered voters and mostly Democrat.

What this means is that Hispanic candidates, like Gloria Romero, Larry Aceves (Superintendent of Public Instruction), Hector de La Torre (Insurance Commissioner), and Rocky Delgaldillo, Pedro Nava, or Alberto Torrico (Attorney General), could have won if all registered Hispanic voters alone would have voted. But that wasn’t the case. They all lost except Aceves who will be facing a runoff this fall against Tom Torlakson. The poor turnout has left many of us asking, “Where was the Get-Out-The-Vote effort?”

On the Republican side, Abel Maldonado, a moderate, easily won his party’s nomination for Lt. Governor. We know there aren’t that many Hispanics registered as Republicans, so was it the undeclared voter that put him on this November’s ballot? Or, are Republican voters realizing there is a need to promote a moderate agenda? We hope answers to these questions will unfold as the campaigns begin targeting the different voter demographics.

According to the California Department of Finance population projections, Hispanics and Asians increased their share of the population between 2000 and 2008 by 4.7 percent, while the White and African-American population declined 6.4 and 0.7 percent respectively. Hispanic and Asian growth was due primarily to natural growth (births versus deaths) and not immigration (which experienced a decline over the same period). White and African-American population decline was attributed to more deaths than births and out-migration.

Since Hispanics and Asians typically gravitate to the Democratic Party, most would figure the majority of its officers and elected officials would be either Hispanic or Asian. Instead, there is strong control by White males. In the meantime, White women and Hispanic small business owners are making a significant break into the Republican ranks. The end result, a gubernatorial candidate picture few would have predicted a year ago: two White males (Brown and Gavin Newsom) running on the Democratic ticket and a White female (Whitman) and Hispanic male (Maldonado) running on the Republican ticket.

This is an ironic and historic visual picture considering the decades of courting and cultivation the Democratic Party has spent on women and Hispanics. But many feel the political philosophies and agendas will clearly distinguish the candidates as the campaigns evolve, including the candidates themselves.

In Brown’s acceptance speech Tuesday night, he appeared nervous and unprepared yet set the tone for this fall’s campaign: experience versus inexperience.

"It's not enough for someone rich and restless to look in the mirror one morning and decide, hey, it's time to be governor of California," Brown told a very jubilant crowd in Los Angeles.

Not to be out done, Whitman fired back in her acceptance speech, which was delivered with a backdrop of supporters reflecting various ethnic groups.

“Jerry Brown has spent a lifetime in politics, and the results have not been good,” Whitman said. “Failure seems to follow Jerry around everywhere he goes.”

Perhaps “epic” may be an understatement in describing this fall’s gubernatorial campaign, considering Whitman’s support will undoubtedly come from big business, while Brown’s will come from the unions. There will be tens of millions of dollars that will be spent, and voters can only hope the winner will be able to handle a state many have declared un-governable.

In the meantime, the campaign between Maldonado and Newsom (the Mayor of San Francisco) may not be as lively as that of governor, but definitely spirited since Newsom’s support base undoubtedly will come from the politically strong gay/lesbian/transsexual and transgender community. His policy of allowing same-sex marriage in his city will become an issue and bring back to the forefront 2008’s Proposition 8, which denied same-sex marriage in California. On the other hand, Maldonado, being a small businessman and Hispanic, will probably bring out the big anti-same-sex marriage groups and tug hard on business owners and Hispanic family values.”