11-14-22: By the Numbers

Squeakers can be seen all over the political map, from Senate contests to school board races. Citizens in two of California’s largest cities—Los Angeles and San Jose—still don’t know who will prevail in mayoral races.

In Santa Cruz’s first-ever mayoral election, voters were more decisive; almost three-quarters marked their ballot for veteran pol Fred Keeley. Far tighter are the supervisorial races, with Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson and Felipe Hernandez leading by less than 700 votes in District 3 and District 4, respectively.

But the steepest cliffhangers are in the smallest cities. In Watsonville’s District 7, incombent Ari Parker was ahead by just 33 votes as of the weekend. Yvette Brooks seemed assured of a berth on the Capitola City Council, but the three top contenders for the other two seats were separated by 14 votes.

Though margins could grow, it’s sobering to contemplate just how much weight each ballot carries. And where does the electorate learn about candidates? Traditional media still matters, as does door-to-door campaigning. But one can’t discount the constant chatter on social media, where friends, family and the candidates themselves expound on Facebook, Instagram, NextDoor and, of course, Twitter.

In last week’s newsletter, California Local’s Jonathan Vankin covered Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. This week, he looks at some social media platforms that aren’t owned by billionaires.

One of those alternatives—Mastodon, a micro-blogging platform akin to Twitter—also caught the attention of California Local cofounder Chris Neklason, In a blog post he writes, “when it became clear that the change in ownership of Twitter was veering in unfavorable directions, I immediately started looking into Mastodon.”

Neklason explains his plans for integrating Mastodon into California Local’s platform. Why? Because, he says, “Mastodon is a great platform for information exchange, one which exemplifies the ethic of the free-speech town square.”

And given the weight that each vote can carry in a close election, we’d like to see as much information as possible being exchanged in our virtual town squares.