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• <br />RAY: Yes, why don't we do that. Okay. Good idea. And then we'll do <br />`others' after we go through the 19. <br />So, on non-partisan elections. In my mind, the comments have been generally <br />favorable, generally in support of, and generally non -controversial in terms of people <br />being able to understand and then relate to this issue. <br />IRVINE: I guess I'd have to differ with that somewhat. I mean, obviously, the <br />Green Party is violently opposed to this because they feel that it is destroying the <br />attempts of third parties to get started. I was interested in what Roger Evans, <br />Republican, said up in Volcano, and that was that if it's truly non-partisan, we'd have to <br />outlaw parties from contributing to these people because otherwise, the one party in <br />our State which has been in power for many years, would finance the two top• <br />candidates that would be on the ballot. I wondered if Chris had any comment. Is it <br />possible to say a party cannot give money, or something, to a candidate? <br />RAY: I would just look to the fact that close to 80% of all municipal <br />governments in the whole United States are non-partisan. Every other jurisdiction in <br />the State has voted non-partisan elections, so I don't think that's a particularly <br />controversial issue. I couldn't even understand what Roger was talking about. <br />IRVINE: You didn't understand what he - He said that if parties can give to <br />candidates, then the one party that runs our State - he is a Republican. I think he <br />always runs as a Republican - will provide money to two of their members to be the top <br />candidates in the General Election, and I don't know whether other jurisdictions have, <br />or whether it's even legal or anything, to say - <br />RAY: <br />limited. <br />IRVINE: <br />Well, it's not. The amount of money that the parties can give is <br />Okay. <br />RAY: And that was upheld in the last Governor's election, if you'll recall, <br />when the Lingle campaign was talking about bringing in outside party money, so I don't <br />think there's a way that the party can overly influence in terms of their contributions. <br />It's my understanding that the Republican Party can only give the same limits as the <br />individual. Isn't that right, Roland? <br />HIGASHI: Right. <br />IRVINE: Okay. <br />HIGASHI: Well, I'm not sure, but as a practical matter, on the County <br />elections, the parties don't give monies to the candidates. They support them in other <br />ways, rallies and stuff like that. But if it's a non-partisan, they still can belong to a party <br />but run as a non-partisan. They don't have a label. But, as far as giving money, it's not <br />17 <br />