UCI to continue election candidate forums

UCI students kicked off the election season with a panel discussion on the 2008 campaign Monday evening, featuring a speaker’s panel that included local politicos, academics and party operatives.

The event, organized by Associated Students of UCI, drew just under 100 people. Speakers included Irvine Mayor Beth Krom, Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley, UCI’s Director of Unconventional Security Affairs Richard Matthew, UCI history professor Jon Wiener, Republican Party Chairman’s Appointee Adam D. Probolsky and Democratic Chairman Frank Barbaro.

“This is definitely our first event, and we will be doing candidate forums throughout the year,” Kathy Eiler, director of state governmental relations at UCI said.

The university will also provide a number of services to students, including early voting, sample ballots and an online survey where students can determine which candidates best suit their personal views, she said.

A 40-minute discussion on issues and elections law delved into a short Q&A; session, where organizers gave students the opportunity to pick the brains of their presenters.

The question “What do you look for in a candidate?” was given particular consideration by the panel.

“I think it’s very difficult to get a lot of traction with new ideas, although it’s new ideas that we need in areas of climate change, security, and such,” said Matthew, whose expertise lies in international affairs. “I’d like to see the issues that are going to become relevant in the next 20 years — climate change, transnational crime and terrorism, the rise of China — and I’d like them to go beyond what they are doing now: caricatures and simplistic explanations.

“What is shocking,” he concluded, “is that a lot of them don’t have a good grasp on these ideas.”

Matthew did see some hope, however, in the emergence of the Internet, and the cynical, yet optimistic, world view he said was typical for the 18-25 year old voter.

“It’s really important for 18-25 [year olds] to re-invest themselves into politics,” he said. “You people are colonizing a whole new information terrain, and there is an opportunity there to migrate into the political process and really reshape it a bit.”

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at [email protected].