Bill Jones
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William Leon Jones (born December 20, 1949) is a U.S. politician from California who served in the California State Assembly and later served as California's 27th Secretary of State. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Governor of California in 2002 as well as an unsuccessful candidate to the United States Senate from California in 2004 against incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer.
Early life
Born in Coalinga, California, Jones earned his bachelor's degree in agribusiness and plant sciences from California State University, Fresno in 1971.Member of the California State Assembly
Jones was a California State Assemblyman from 1983 to 1995 and served as Assembly Republican Leader during the 1991-1992 session. During his tenure in the State Assembly, Jones authored Proposition 184, California's three-strikes law, which passed with the 71.9% of the people voting to support it. No other state has a three strikes law as sweeping as California's, and in 2000, 60.8% of the people voted to scale it back by supporting drug treatment instead of life in prison for many of those convicted of possessing drugs.California Secretary of State
Jones left the State Assembly after being elected the Secretary of State, serving two terms in that office, from 1995 to 2003. During his tenure, he was the first California Secretary of State to place campaign finance information on the Internet. In addition to providing instant Internet access to campaign finance reports, Jones launched the nation's first Internet site that carried live election returns on Election Day. Following the 2000 presidential election, Jones developed a 10-point election reform plan to modernize voting systems used in California. The plan was soon adopted as the national model for other states to use.Role in the 2000 vote pairing controversy
During his tenure as the California Secretary of State, Jones may have played a very crucial role in the outcome of the 2000 Presidential election by charging that vote pairing internet web sites were illegal.
In 2000, Jones charged that the vote pairing web sites were illegal and threatened their creators with criminal prosecution. Many of the vote pairing web sites were hosted in California, and were shut down as a result of Jones' threats. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) got involved to protect the web sites, seeking a restraining order, followed by a permanent injuction, against Jones, alleging that he had violated the consititional rights of the web site creators. The issue could only be resolved after the 2000 election had already occurred, when the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the legality of vote pairing.
Jones' actions did not shut down all the vote pairing web sites during the 2000 election, but rumors started to spread that the web sites were illegal, and this may have discouraged more people from signing up with the remaining web sites. This perhaps changed the outcome of the election, as the election outcome was extremely close.
Run for California Governor
In 2002, Jones ran in the Republican Gubernatorial Primary, finishing third, at 16%, behind former Mayor of Los Angeles Richard Riordan and businessman William Simon, Jr., who went on to be defeated by Gray Davis in the General Election.During his unsuccessful primary campaign, Jones drew criticism for spamming (sending bulk emails) not only potential voters, but people around the world. Jones hired a professional spammer who hacked into South Korean computers used to help teach school children. The spammer used the commandeered Korean school computers to send out millions of spam emails throughout the world with Bill Jones' spam. After the spamming incidents, Jones spokesman Darrel Ng denied spamming was wrong and strongly defended the use of mass email for campaigns as an "innovative way to use the Internet."[link] The hosting provider of the Jones campaign web site terminated its services for the last few days of the campaign, although no e-mails were sent through its servers. However, Jones was not leading in any polls before this incident, so it is unclear if the spamming had any impact on Jones' ultimate placement in the Republican Gubernatorial Primary.
Run for U.S. Senate
Following his unsuccessful run for governor in 2002, Jones tried a run for the U.S. Senate. Although Jones won the 2004 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate over former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, Jones lost the General Election to Senator Barbara Boxer, with 38% of the vote. His campaign was so ill-funded, that he did not run a single television commercial to promote his candidacy.External links
- [Website critical of Bill Jones]
- [2004 League of Women Voters Biography]
- [1998 League of Women Voters Biography]
- http://www.nvri.org/library/cases/Porter_v_Jones/9th%20Cir%20opinion.pdf February 6, 2003 federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision against Bill Jones, on how he threatened criminal charges against the creators of vote pairing web sites in the 2000 Presidential election
- [Bill Jones Election Results]
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