[mod.politics] California Election Results

wmartin@ALMSA-1.ARPA (01/20/87)

Does anyone have any explanation why the national TV coverage of some
of the California referenda was extensive before the election, but
seemed to drop off to zero afterwards, without even publicizing the
results as much as they publicized the existence of the questions in
the first place? I had been wondering the fate of the "English as the
officla language" and "AIDS quarantine" measures, both of which were
discussed extensively on various media prior to the election. I never
heard the results in the days after the elction, and finally got a
Wall Street Journal issue from the library that contained a summary.
(The English-as-official language passed overwhelmingly; the AIDS one
failed, but they didn't say by how much.)

Maybe those of you with local CA coverage can post some comments on
just how the "English-as-official-language" principle will be
implemented and the actual effects it will have (or has had). The
pre-election coverage speculated on that, but now that it is for real,
there should be more hard data.

Will Martin
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