Campus news

Media Advisory: IGS postmortem on 2010 California governor's race

By Kathleen Maclay

WHAT

“The 2010 Governor’s Race: The Inside Story,” a two-day conference sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) and analyzing last year’s gubernatorial race in California. The election postmortem, hosted by IGS since 1990, is free and open to the public.

The conference will bring together campaign advisors, pollsters, political reporters, academics and others to critique the most expensive non-presidential race in United States history, which also was a contest for leadership of a state with a whopping $25 billion deficit and a daunting range of restrictions on raising taxes.

Experts will explore how Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman emerged as their parties’ top candidates and the critical turning points for each of them; the effectiveness of political polling; increasing popularity of voting by mail and other issues; the use of social media and micro-targeting of voters; whether campaigns really matter considering the state’s Democratic registration advantage; and why Brown won.

WHEN

1-5 p.m., Friday, Jan. 21
10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 22

WHO

California Treasurer Bill Lockyer will be the keynote speaker, at noon on Saturday, Jan. 22.

Panelists looking at the primaries will include Steve Glazer and Sterling Clifford of the Brown campaign, Peter Ragone of the Gavin Newsom campaign, Jamie Fisfis of Tom Campbell’s Republican nomination bid, and Jim Bognet, Lanhee Chen and Jarrod Agen of Steve Poizner’s Republican campaign. For the first time in the IGS event’s history, the losing camp in the general election declined to participate.

A panel discussing the measurement of public opinion will include pollsters Mark Baldassare, Mark DiCamillo and Jay Leve, as well as Darry Sragow of the Los Angeles Times/USC Poll.

Discussing why Brown won will be Duf Sundheim, former chair of California’s Republican Party and Jim Brulte, former California Senate and Assembly Republican leader, and Steve Glazer, Joe Trippi and Sterling Clifford of the Brown campaign, as well as Roger Salazar of the California Working Families’ independent expenditure campaign.

Whether campaigns really matter will be discussed by UC San Diego political scientist Thad Kousser, associate professor of government Ken Miller of Claremont McKenna College and government professor Kim Nalder of Sacramento State University, along with Tony Quinn of California Target Book, which analyzes state politics.

WHERE

The Shattuck Hotel Plaza, 2086 Allston Way, Berkeley, two blocks from the UC Berkeley campus.

DETAILS

Reporters can contact Kathleen Maclay in UC Berkeley Media Relations at (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.ed. There is more information and registration details available online at http://igs.berkeley.edu/events/governor/index.php.