Sacramento voters – all dressed up with nowhere to go

Katy Grimes: Sacramento has a reputation for not exactly having much night life. In the past decade however, something resembling night life in the capitol city’s downtown has evolved. Even a couple of bars stay open past 2:00 a.m. (And I’m not counting the bars that open at 6:00 a.m.)

One would think that with all of the state political races – Governor, Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor, Insurance Commissioner – that there would be plenty of partying in Sacramento on an election night.

But nooooooo.

Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown will be partying at the Los Angeles Club Nokia, the only music club and bar exempted from a state law barring liquor sellers from receiving financial incentives from liquor suppliers – courtesy of Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles (AB 813 )

Meg Whitman will be in Universal City, and Steve Poizner in Irvine.

Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado will be in Beverly Hills partying with the “Yes on Proposition 14” campaign – power to the people, Abel. Sam Aanestad will be in the notorious college party town of Chico, Janice Hahn will be in Los Angeles, and Gavin Newsom will be partying in San Francisco.

Attorney General candidates John Eastman, Steve Cooley, Ted Lieu and Pedro Nava will all be in Southern California. Kamala Harris is hanging out closer to home in San Francisco, with Chris Kelly in San Jose. No word on where Tom Harman will be groovin’ tonight.

Senate Candidates Campbell, DeVore and Fiorina will be in San Jose, Tustin and Anaheim respectively. Barbara Boxer appears to not be partying in the state but her representatives will be found at the same Los Angeles club with Jerry Brown’s party.

Karen Bass is going to be with “United Teachers Los Angeles” on Wilshire Blvd. But the campaign asks “please RSVP so we have enough refreshments.”

The rest of the candidates appear to be partying in their districts up and down the state – Hanford, Chico, Lincoln, Reseda, Chula Vista and Concord, to name a few hot political party spots.

It’s as if the politicians couldn’t wait to get as far away from Sacramento as possible.  Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson won’t be happy.

Only a couple of candidates are breaking from the southern California crowd. Insurance Commissioner candidate Dave Jones, who currently represents the 9th Assembly district and already resides in Sacramento, is partying tonight at a restaurant on Sacramento’s fearfully blighted K Street- it’s scary enough during the day, much less having to navigate the abandoned store fronts and light rail tracks at night.

AD 9 candidate Kevin McCarty, currently a Sacramento City Council member, will be partying close to home in Sacramento.

And the “No on Proposition 16” campaign will be in Old Sacramento hopefully celebrating.

For Sacramento voters, tonight’s political parties offer very few choices. It might be better to invite a few friends over for dinner or go to a movie. Save the party clothes for November.