There is a movement afoot to create a city council district encompassing UC students, the idea being to elect a student to the Berkeley City Council. Anyone who barely scratches the surface of city politics knows what nonsense this is, so much so that I wonder if there is an ulterior motive at work, i.e. I smell a rat.
UC STUDENTS DO NOT VOTE IN BERKELEY
The majority of the student body does not vote, and those that do remain registered in their home district, and do not reregister in Berkeley. I campaigned for public office, including UC students. If you are in a room of 2 or 3 dozen politically active students, consider yourself lucky if one in the room is registered to vote in Berkeley. Yes, there are tens of thousands of UC students, but I would consider it unlikely that as many as the mid-single-digits-percentage actually vote in Berkeley.
THERE IS ALREADY A STUDENT CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT
That is #7, currently occupied by Worthington. This is the south campus area, where most of the students live, including the dorms.
STUDENTS WILL NOT RUN FOR CITY COUNCIL
It would be quite easy (and has been since 1986), with a concentrated effort including a UC student voter reg drive and GOTV, to elect a student in #7. Yet, since districts were invented in Berkeley, there has been one (maybe 2) student candidates in #7, and even these were symbolic, and not serious, challenges to their city council seat. A student has never been elected to #7 because no one has ever seriously wanted the seat. As a practical matter, no successful candidate in 7 (including Worthington) has been elected to this seat without significant student support.
So there.
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