The Bronco hosts heated proposition debate

By Jeremy Herb

Even broken microphones could not stop students from debating abortion and other controversial issues from the upcoming California special election in The Bronco Tuesday.

Despite some technical difficulties, the College Republicans and College Democrats debated three of the propositions from California's upcoming special election, 73, 74 and 75, in an event sponsored by the Political Science Student Association.

"I think the people that came here tonight will feel much more inspired to go out and vote because they're going to have a clearer understanding about how young people feel about the issues," said College Democrats Co-President Jenica Mariani, one of the Democrats' speakers.

About 95 people watched the debate, cheering (and sometimes heckling) with each point.

"It was incredibly valuable, especially for those who are registered to vote in California," said sophomore Brad Speers, who spoke for the Republicans. "It was predicted by some people in the administration that people wouldn't want to hear this kind of debate in the Bronco, but people showed up for it, people participated."

Donning suits and ties, three speakers from each side took turns arguing, one for each proposition. Most in the audience anticipated Speers and Mariani's debate on Proposition 73, the measure that would require minors who are getting an abortion to have parental notification first.

They both argued passionately, each exhibiting annoyed facial gestures while the other made an argument. When they arrived at the abusive parents issue, they zealously defended their positions, and the issue became the prime topic.

Speers argued that Prop. 73 would open up a line of communication between abusive parents and their daughters, while Mariani countered that the law would really make the abused child's life worse.

At one point during the abortion debate, Speers declared that it was against the law for minors to have sex, which he used to provide justification that parents should be notified of abortions. The crowd scoffed at the notion that it was against the law, yelling and arguing with him from their seats.

However, despite the crowd's protests, he was correctly stating a little known California law, which says that minors cannot consent to having sex until they are 18.

Mariani responded that using the argument as justification was "immature and dangerous," because underage sex happens. She added that Republicans were trying to "sweep the issue under the rug, like with everything they try to do."

The temptation to make inflammatory remarks towards opponents wasn't one sided, as members of both parties made statements that incited some of the rowdiest responses from the audience.

Later in the debate, Santa Clara Republicans President Grant Cassingham quoted Democrats' Vice President Roey Rahmil's comments from an issue of The Santa Clara, in order to make the point that the Democrats were only opposing the propositions to oppose Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"He puts his own party's political game of stopping the governor over the initiatives," Cassingham said.

Rahmil said in rebuttal, "I think the process is political, but we didn't start the process. Arnold did, and I stand by the quote."

The panelists' energetic responses constantly had to be stopped short by the preset time limit. Even after the debate, they argued with each other and any audience members who wanted a chance to voice an opinion.

"I think a lot of people came out and realized that there is political activism on this campus, and hopefully they'll take the chance to get involved," Rahmil said.

California's special election will be held Tuesday Nov. 8.

Contact Jeremy Herb at (408) 554-4546 or at jmherb@scu.edu.