California Primary 2000

On March 7, 2000, Californians went to the polls to cast their votes for presidential candidates to be nominated by their parties for the November 2000 election. This is the first time Californians selected presidential candidates through the open primary law passed in 1996. In an open primary system, all the candidates appear on the ballot regardless of the political party in which the voter is registered. Learn more about the open primary system at the California Secretary of State's Open Primary Question and Answer page.

California has 23 candidates on the ballot this year representing 7 political parties. Meet the candidates as they appear in order on the ballot.

The following is a list of issues of concern to many Americans. Discuss this list as a class. Either add to the list or narrow it to the top five issues, whichever seems to best match the interests of your class. Use the class' list to focus your web research and to address the classroom activities at the end of this website.

• Environment
• Abortion
• Taxes
• Military strength
• Immigration policy
• Trade policy in general
• Trade policy with China
• Role of government in social policy
• Religious expression in schools
• Crime/Death penalty
• Gun control
• Health care
• Education policy

 

Surveys have shown that young voters are turning more and more to the Internet for information. The Internet has become an important medium through which voters are finding information. Knowing this, candidates and their opponents have begun using the Internet as a powerful and relatively inexpensive campaigning tool. Explore the advantages and disadvantages of this new campaign medium by completing the classroom activities at the end of this web page.

There are now many sites that track the statements and work of political candidates from a non partisan perspective. The three listed below are some of the sites with the most extensive information.

Project Vote Smart

Project Vote Smart is one of the premier sites for tracking all types of political information. It has been on the Internet since 1992 at HTTP://www.vote-smart.org/ This non partisan organization is a national library of political information. Review their statement HTTP://www.vote-smart.org/index.phtml?func=front&style= of why their information is to be trusted by voters. Do you think that the information on the candidates will be accurate?

Select President under the list of topics on the left hand section of the Project Vote Smart. Take a look at the list of candidates at HTTP://www.vote-smart.org/vote-smart/candlist.phtml?dtype=P&state=&electionid=223&style= After reading the biographical information, selection "Public Statements." This will lead you to information from newspapers, speeches and other sources on what the candidate has said about his beliefs on the issues.

GoVote.com: America's Political Portal

GoVote.com provides information on each of the presidential candidates, updates on the primaries, voter registration, and a special feature called Vote Match Presidential Selector where you can input your political opinions and they will be matched to the corresponding presidential candidate.

Democracy Network

Democracy Network http://www.democracynet.org/ is a project of the League of Women voters. This site allows users to enter their zip codes to find information on local candidates. The League describes its mission and political perspective at this URL http://www.democracynet.org/About_DNet.htm

Votenet

Votenet http://www.votenet.com/ is a third political information site. It has a different look from the ones above. It not only offers to provide nonpartisan information but offers help in running campaigns.

News Sites

News sites offer important information but the candidate data is mixed with all the other news. The advantage is that it has not been double filtered, first by the news reporting agency itself, and then by the voter information site seeking to post what it considers relevant.

ABC News.com
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/

CNN
http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/index.html

New York Times
http://nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/national/index-politics.html

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/elections/

 

 

Many candidates also have websites of their own. These sites will provide that candidates views of their opponents as well as their views on the issues.

Harry Browne

http://www.harrybrowne2000.org/

 

Bill Bradley

http://www.billbradley.com/

 

George W. Bush

http://www.georgewbush.com/

 

Gary Bauer

http://www.bauer2k.com/

 

Larry Hines

http://www.gaywired.com/larryhinesin2000/

 

John Hagelin

http://208.55.148.202/

 

Joel Kovel

http://www.greens.org/ny/kovel/

 

Alan Keyes

http://www.keyes2000.org/AlanKeyes/whois.html

 

Lyndon LaRouche

http://www.larouchecampaign.org/

 

Al Gore

http://www.algore2000.com/

 

George D. Weber

http://www.georgedweber.addr.com/home.html

 

John McCain

http://www.mccain2000.com/

 

 

 

Opponents of the candidates understand the power of the Internet to promote their ideas. So when you do a search, remember that websites which come up by the candidate's name may have been developed by opponents of the candidate. George W. Bush tried to have this site removed because he thought it would confuse people. http://www.georgebush2000.com/ What do you think?

 

1. Select one of the issues of concern from the list above. Check the position of 5 candidates from at least three different parties to determine their views on that issue. Check their position in two ways

• on one of the official campaign sites
• on one of the news or nonpartisan sites

What were the differences in information? Which was easiest to use? Which information do you believe is more reliable and why?

 

 

2. Make a classroom chart on all the California candidates. Select five key issues and make a column beside the candidate's name for that issue. Research his position using two sources. Record the position on the classroom chart. Hold a mock election on March 6 at your school. Compare your results with that of the voters in California.

 

3. Each one of the candidate sites has an e-mail link. After you have researched the candidate's point of view on one of the key issues, e-mail what you like about his position or suggest another point of view and why the candidate should change his stance.

 

4. Conduct a formal class debate on one of the issues at the top of the webpage. Compare the issues raised in and the final outcome of your class debate with the position of the candidates. This website http://www.americanpresident.org/lp_cldebate.htm provides a step-by-step procedure for running a class debate.

 

5. Create your own Political Analysts: Talk Show. Link to http://www.americanpresident.org/lp_talkshow.htm and follow this step-by-step role-playing activity from the American Presidency website.

 

 

Bibliography  

Monnahan, Ted. Voter Education: Election information sites are starting to register with voters Access Magazine, October 31, 1999.

http://www.accessmagazine.com/scripts/review_template.cfm?reviewCategoryID=343

 

California Secretary of State http://www.ss.ca.gov