Words and photography by:
Dionesio C. Grava
www.pinoywatchdog.com
A recent poll has indicated that during the past 12 years the white non-Hispanic face of registered voters in California has been taken over by mostly Latino and Asian voters.
Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, said that during that period the state’s voter rolls have increased by over 1.3 million, all of it coming from the perstate’s ethnic voter populations. The proportion of California’s registered voters who are Latino increased from 16 percent to 22 percent.
The share of Asian-Americans and other ethnicities have grown from 6 percent in 2000 to 8 percent or an increase of 478,000 voters this year. On the other hand whites who are non-Hispanics have gone down from a 72 per cent share of registered voters to 64 percent or a loss of 407,000. African-Americans are steady at 6 percent but the actual number of voters decreased by 50,000. DiCamillo discussed California’s changing voter population and the growing importance of ethnic voters in state elections during a May 4 presentation held inside the downtown headquarter of the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (MALDEF). It was co-hosted by New America Media (NAM) and MALDEF.
It may be noted that the U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that the country’s population has grown by 9.7 percent to 311,591,917 from 281,421,906 in 2000. California has a 10 percent growth, the number increasing from 33,871,648 to 37,691,912 in the same period.
Residents of Asian descent comprised 5.6 percent of the total U.S. population. Among them are 3.4 million Filipinos, the second largest Asian community after the Chinese. Last year 42,520 Filipinos
have become U.S. citizens, a number next only to those coming from Mexico and India, said the Department of Homeland Security.
Meanwhile, the population in Los Angeles County has grown by 3.1 percent to more than 9.8 million while the city of Los Angeles increased by 2.6 percent to reach 3.8 million, according to the L.A. Daily News. The surge, the report says, was driven by Latinos and Asians. Latinos grew by 28 percent to 14 million while Asians increased by about 31 percent to 4.8 million. In contrast,
non-Hispanic whites decreased by 5 percent, and the black population is down by 1 percent.
The following table shows the breakdown of registered voters in the various regions in California.
Party preferences of California voters in the November 2012 Congressional elections are 46 percent for a Democratic candidate and for the Republican, 35 percent. In contrast to national preference, 52 percent in California support Obamacare while 37 percent oppose. Regarding the proposed initiatives, 63 percent would vote yes if the California Federation of Teachers’ “Millionaire’s Tax” initiative will make it to the ballot as opposed to 31 perstate’s cent who would vote no. On Governor Brown’s tax increase initiative, 58 percent would vote yes while 36 percent, no. The Munger tax increase initiative, 45 percent yes and 48 percent, no.
California voter opinions about Governor Brown’s public pension reform proposal is 24 percent “Goes too far;” 51 percent “Strikes the right balance;” and 14 percent “Doesn’t go far enough.” Voter preferences for the sentencing of someone convicted of first-degree murder: 48 percent for “Life in prison without parole” and 40 percent for “Death penalty.” Voter opinions about allowing same-sex couples to marry: 59 percent approve; 34 percent disapprove.
DiCamillo, however, conceded that predicted results are not etched in stone because the quality of the campaign, advertisement materials, who the messenger is and other characteristics of the election process may still factor in the outcome. Also overtime, as young voters now will
become old voters, perceptions will change.
The demographics of California is very different and will continue to be different in the future. However, it is not a bellwether of how the rest of the nation’s voters behave, he said.
