April 21, 2004
By Justin Pritchard, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's not just Election Day. Nonwhite Californians are under-represented in nearly every phase of the daily civic-political process, from attending rallies to writing campaign checks, a sweeping new study reports.

As a result, the disproportionate political influence white Californians wield in a state where they are no longer a majority is unlikely to change for a generation, according to researchers at the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California.

"The situation already involves significant racial inequality,'' said Karthick Ramakrishnan, lead author of the study on public participation released today. ''What's significant about this report is that we can see these trends persisting.''

Historically, whites have been more likely to vote than nonwhites. That has held in recent years, when about 60 percent of white adult Californians say they vote, while it's closer to 50 percent of blacks and 40 percent of Hispanics or Asians, according to the study.

But the disparities went beyond voting. The study used a survey of more than 5,000 Californians to highlight stark differences by race in a range of grass-roots activities.

Whites were up to twice as likely as Hispanics, blacks or Asians to sign petitions, write elected officials, contribute to a campaign, attend a rally or volunteer for a political party. Whites also were almost twice as likely to volunteer for nonpolitical organizations as Asians or Latinos -- though their rate was only 30 percent.

Though whites make up less than 50 percent of the state population, they represented 63 percent of California's total adult citizens in 2002. Even so, they accounted for roughly 70 percent of all the political activity the study measured.

The consequences go beyond egalitarian ideals. Whites often set the political table in California and may decide ''what are legitimate issues, and what are not legitimate issues,'' said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute.

On the flip side were Hispanics, the state's second largest group but one that hasn't yet asserted political clout commensurate with its numbers. Though Hispanics were more likely than any group -- including whites -- to attend meetings on local or school issues, they were less likely to participate in every other aspect of the democratic process.

The study's broad findings roughly track what's known nationally about civic-political participation rates among nonwhites. But in California, the issue is even more significant because of how heavily the state relies on ballot initiatives to craft public policy, Ramakrishnan said.

While Hispanics will rally against a perceived injustice such as the denial of benefits or drivers' licenses to undocumented immigrants, they are not proactively crafting an agenda, according to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles.

''We know very clearly what we're against, I think we have a much more difficult time defining what we're in favor of,'' Nunez said. ''Obviously, we need to do a better job to encourage young people to be involved.''