Steve Rocco

November 8, 2004 12:08 PM

"Absolutely nobody, but nobody has seen this guy," said Paul Pruss, a middle school teacher who is president of the union. "The whole thing is just bizarre."
Steve Rocco, a 'mystery candidate' / unknown recluse, won a seat on the Orange Unified School District by 54%, beating out Phil Martinez, a park ranger who raised contributions, attended forums and sent out a political mailing to homes of voters in the district, none of which Rocco did.
What might have helped him this time around was that he identified himself as a writer/educator on the ballot, though he offered no proof of those occupations.
posted by Lizc (22 comments total)

The election code has a provision to challenge proposed occupational identifications. I guess that the next time around people will take that a little more seriously.

I doubt that anti-Latino bias could have played a role, if only because the kind of trologdytes who'd vote against someone just because he was Latino wouldn't know that "Rocco" isn't a Latino name...
posted by MattD at 12:35 PM on November 8, 2004

There was a segment about this guy on a Pasadena-based NPR station (KPCC) this morning. Apparently, he is credentialed at least well enough to be a substitute teacher, though he's filled that role only once. He also sounds like an extreme conspiracy-filled loon.
posted by Slothrup at 12:41 PM on November 8, 2004

The system works.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:43 PM on November 8, 2004

What was that problem Sean Penn had with Trey Parker urging only informed voters to come out to the polls again?
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:48 PM on November 8, 2004

if only because the kind of trologdytes who'd vote against someone just because he was Latino wouldn't know that "Rocco" isn't a Latino name...

I don't know, I imagine even trologdytes might assume that "Rocco" was Italian. And a porn star.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 12:48 PM on November 8, 2004

Here's a slightly more detailed article at the LA Times (reg required?).

It's a funny little story, but I just feel so, so bad for Martinez. He really sounds like a qualified candidate.

Just goes to show that even if you do everything right, sometimes you can do everything right and the other guy will still win because ofan ignorant electorate.
posted by rafter at 12:48 PM on November 8, 2004

Another one? She won by 53% - 47%.
posted by carter at 12:55 PM on November 8, 2004

Martinez could still have a bright future. Perhaps the Governator will off him a cabinet position. After all, Ashcroft lost his race to a dead man!
posted by sixdifferentways at 1:48 PM on November 8, 2004

Setting aside all the dire implications about the fidelity of the average American's reasoning skills and the related lack of motivation to become informed about those political issues on which they're willing to vote:

this is awesome.
posted by cortex at 2:15 PM on November 8, 2004

Another one? She won by 53% - 47%.

If you read one of the articles, it appears Ms. Chavez won the old-fashioned way by doing door-to-door politicking. She had a huge extended family (30+ people) who provided a built-in free and enthusiastic campaign staff. On the other hand, it is possible Chavez was a "shill candidate" put up by the GOP, but Chavez decided not to do what she was told by running an actual campaign.
posted by jonp72 at 2:33 PM on November 8, 2004

Duh, they voted for Rocco because of his awesome professional skateboarding career.
posted by freebird at 3:21 PM on November 8, 2004

I love it. The second link says Chavez was at her opponent's victory party when she found out she'd won.
posted by MetalDog at 3:27 PM on November 8, 2004

Great link freebird, BTW.
posted by NewBornHippy at 3:43 PM on November 8, 2004

or his awesome PUBLISHING EMPIRE

i was a huge 'big brother' fan. no idea what they're doing now, though.
posted by fishfucker at 5:34 PM on November 8, 2004

This is so how I'm going to start my political career. I'm going to enter a race, and then shut the hell up. It's really the only way I could win. ;)
posted by dejah420 at 5:58 PM on November 8, 2004

dejah, I think too many people WILL understand the 420 reference for you to take that tack. Sorry.
posted by billsaysthis at 6:17 PM on November 8, 2004

Never underestimate the power of being first on the ballot paper. No idea why, but there are plenty of people who step into the booth, mark the first box they see, and step out again.

Going way back to my student union days (with a single transferable vote system and a team of 8 to elect) any old loony could get elected if they were drawn at the top of the ballot paper.
posted by simcd at 5:16 AM on November 9, 2004

A few coworkers scared me a couple weeks ago when they admitted that they didn't know much about a proposal, but they thought it sounded ok so they'd vote for it. I usually try to find out what's going to be on the ballot and do enough research to have an opinion, but there's always a couple boxes that I leave blank during a major election.

I'm not going to take any stance on an issue unless I know enough to make a judgement. That might make me unamerican, though.
posted by mikeh at 6:38 AM on November 9, 2004

I heard a story on All Things Considered last week about a man who won a city council election in much the same way: by doing nothing. Interview here.
posted by zsazsa at 7:10 AM on November 9, 2004

people WILL understand the 420 reference

Well, yes...but I wouldn't use my MeFi name, you see. I'd go with the one my parents gave me, which is particularly WASPy. ;)
posted by dejah420 at 10:48 AM on November 9, 2004

Dejah, how long do you think it will take your opponent's dirty tricks squad to find you using Google or similar?
posted by billsaysthis at 2:55 PM on November 9, 2004

Well, as for Mr. Rocco, there actually are three good reasons why he was elected over Mr. Martinez. First, there was a fight over a school bond measure which Phil Martinez championed. (That's why he earned the teachers' union endorsement.) Proposition A encountered a band of vociferous opponents who were unhappy that the school district board put out the measure for a vote in November after it had already lost in March. The school district spent $28,000 on pollsters to tell the board essentially the same thing that the March election results showed. Like many districts, there is waste and mismanagement going on and opponents didn't want a tax increase. Unsurprisingly, the bond measure went down in defeat again, but board members vow to resurrect it and put it on another ballot. There was a lot of anti-Martinez sentiment which translated into votes for the other candidate. That explains 25% of the vote margin.

The second reason is that in a presidential election you get a lot of new voters who don't care about the end of the ballot, where all the local races are. They are probably fatigued over voting on state propositions and confirming judges so they vote for whomever has the best sounding title. "Teacher/writer" sounds more qualified than "park ranger" when you don't know anything else about either of the candidates. That will get you 25% of the vote.

Finally, there are probably some racists who will vote against anyone with a Latino surname. Especially in Orange Unified (which includes such lily white enclaves as Anaheim Hills and Villa Park) where they find themselves as being the final frontier against the tides of Mexicans from Santa Ana, which borders the city of Orange. That was one reason given in an Orange County Register article, so I give the racist vote 4%.

And there you have it, 54%. Remember, Rocco didn't campaign, so people didn't know enough to vote against him either. But a lot of people knew that Martinez was just another establishment retread. If Steve Rocco had opened his mouth then maybe there would be fewer votes. Apparently, though, he is well known among long time members of the community as the local recluse who rides his bike and says hi to the kids playing baseball on Sunday, or buys professional baseball jerseys to play dress-up (two of the things radio callers allege to have seen him do).
posted by calwatch at 8:42 PM on November 9, 2004