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“As California has become more solidly Democratic, the name [Left Coast]—with its political connotation—is most closely associated with that state. (Oregon and Washington are still up for linguistic grabs.) 

—William Safire,  

New York Times Magazine,  

Oct. 1, 2000, on the origins of the term “Left Coast.” 

A Mandate?  

I don’t believe anyone ever predicted Arnold Schwarzenegger’s actually obtaining more votes than Gray Davis in the Oct. 7 recall election. But he did. And out of all 58 counties in California, only 15 voted not to remove Governor Davis from office. And out of those 15, only 8 did not vote for Arnold. Is this a mandate? Well, maybe and maybe not.  

Maybe, because if you consider that turnout for the election—over 60 percent—was significant. More voters tends to equals more democracy. Maybe not, because the actual number of eligible state voters who cast a ballot for Arnold was fewer than 17 percent, according to the New York Times. Kind of startling isn’t it?! 

And what of this notion of the “Left Coast?” There were eight counties that voted no on the recall, led by San Francisco at 80 percent, and yes on Cruz Bustamante, also led by SF, where Cruz obtained 63 percent of all votes cast. The election results reveal an astounding polarization between a couple of geographical regions. It is not hard to find a real California “Left Coast” when perusing through the state-wide recall results. If this state is the last bastion of leftist politics in our nation, and it might be pretentious to think so, then it is the north left coast eight counties which are to be held responsible for such a reputation. If you look at the numbers it really is remarkable that these eight counties exist in the same state as a Kern County, an Orange County, or a San Bernardino County. Kern County, just east of San Luis Obispo County, might be San Francisco’s ideological opposite. Kern County voted to recall Davis with almost 76 percent marking yes.  

The PC Left Coast 8  

In case you are wondering who would make up the Left Coast 8, get out your California counties map. Beginning from the north and heading south this elite eight includes: Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties. (A footnote to this is that all of the other counties voting no on the recall but yes on Arnold, except Los Angeles, are contiguous to the Left Coast 8—Humboldt, Napa, Yolo, Solano, Contra Costa, and Monterey.) 

If California were ever to split up, the Left Coast 8 might be the most potent geo-political force in forming a new separate state. It would not be overblown to say that when taken together, this eight-county swath of the California coast is perhaps more politically left of center than anywhere else in America. Does it mean this Left Coast 8 is somehow moving toward socialism with a human face? Probably not yet.  

What it most likely means is that this more educated and higher income geographical grouping shares some very similar political and social concerns: environmental protection (clean air, clean water, anti-logging, anti-sprawl, slow-growth, a love-hate relationship with the automobile), a great compassion for the those less fortunate, and a general belief that things can be better if we only do something about it, i.e. “people make history, but often not under conditions of their own choosing.” So when New York Times Columnist William Safire, or anyone else, refers to the Left Coast, it is really these eight counties, the Left Coast 8, to which they are referring.  

Of course many questions arise about what it is that has this part of California voting in droves in the exact opposite direction of the rest of the state. The water? A 60s hangover? The spectacular scenic coastal environment created by an array of micro-climates? Hard to say exactly. In Berkeley you will hear some say, ‘Oh, all of you live inside of some kind of bubble, Berkeley is just not part of the real world.’ Well folks, if the results of this election are any indication, the Berkeley bubble is a helluva lot bigger than many critics thought. 

But Is There a Real Left Coast?  

Finally, consider the fact that the real left candidate, Peter Camejo of the Green Party did not do very well in this election. While he holds many positions similar to his Democratic rivals, he parts company with them when it comes to how things get paid for. Camejo is solidly in favor of 1) publicly financed elections, and 2) rich people paying more taxes for the simple reason that they have more of the money. What is telling about this election is that many Greens and green-Democrats seemed to make a conscious choice to defect from Camejo in favor of Bustamante for fear that Schwarzenegger would win. Camejo actually received a hundred and sixty thousand fewer votes (213,087) than he did last November (381,700). It would be interesting for us who live on the Real Left Coast if the exit polling had included questions about what candidate you would vote for in an ideal world, or who is the most principled candidate. Camejo might have done exceedingly well in such a poll. 

In the case of the Left Coast 8, this election clearly presents a picture in which Berkeley has much in common with many other Northern California cities. In other words, progressives in Berkeley can take heart, for they are not alone. And, look out Southern California! 

Christopher Krohn is a former mayor of Santa Cruz.