Election 2022 analysis: Right-wing contenders ghosted by traditional media

Retired judicial staff attorney Ted Stroll ran for AD 25 this November. He reflects in the California Globe on how local media outlets refused to respond to his requests to share his platform (in particular, Treatment First for unhoused SJ residents). Despite this acute media partisanship he observed, Stroll is hopeful that he stimulated productive conversation and relationships—and “may run again.”

Against odds that the Public Policy Institute of California pegged at 200 to 1, I ran as a Republican in California Assembly District 25, which takes in central and eastern San José.

The Republican registration in this district of some half-million residents was 15.68% shortly before the November 2022 election. I garnered 29.96% of the vote in November, almost doubling the natural base….

Knowing that winning was unlikely, I ran to stimulate debate. The Legislature’s Democratic supermajority seems well to the left of the average Californian and acts accordingly. The Economist magazine noted recently that “there are 37 ‘trifecta’ states, about double the number in 1992.” California is one such state, with Democrats controlling both legislative chambers and the governorship. Such states can “create partisan policy experiments that do not reflect voters’ will.” All too true in Sacramento.

I thought I would get coverage to energize the debate I sought. But aside from a 20-minute interview on community television, I got none, despite ardent efforts. I was ghosted by both the legacy media and newer outlets. I submitted an op-ed to and/or requested an interview with public-radio station KQED, KCBS radio, the San José Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, the San José Spotlight and San José Inside online news services, and local TV stations. None replied.

This article originally appeared in the California Globe. Read the whole thing here.