HERHOLD: AT LAST, CALIFORNIA MAY MATTER THIS TIME

Excerpt from Mercury News, 01/04/2008, Scott Herhold Editorial

This might be the year. After decades of disappointment, this might the year that California voters matter in the selection of a president. The year when candidates have to pay attention to something more than our wallets. The year when things aren't cut and dried.

The eighth-grade civics student in me says hurrah. The journalist in me is doing backflips. And the ordinary voter in me is wondering whether we might regret what we wish for.

The results from the Iowa caucuses Thursday night were evenly spaced enough - with Barack Obama leading the Democrats and Mike Huckabee winning among Republicans - that the arithmetic of nomination inevitably swings toward California.

With a handful of primaries between now and Feb. 5, the date that California and 21 other states go to the polls, it seems unlikely anyone will have a lock on the nomination. What we decide will matter.

See the full article in Friday's edition of San Jose Mercury News or online at http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_7879177?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1

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