WombatNation

8/11/2003: 7:30 pm: RobertEverything Else

The 2003 Statewide Special Election Candidiate Status Report is now available. I signed for Garrett Gruener, who is a close friend of one of my neighbors, but is probably better known as the founder of AskJeeves.

2 Responses

Richard Berger Says:
September 15th, 2003 at 4:15 pm
So what is the average/median degrees of separation to a gubernatorial candidate? Let’s see – I am now at 3: you/your neighbor/Garret.
Robert Stewart Says:
September 15th, 2003 at 11:45 pm
I remembered reading an article about this in the Oakland Tribune. Unfortunately, Ang Newspapers charges money for access to old articles, but I managed to find the article in Google’s cache.

Here are some quotes:

The average Californian probably has only four or five “degrees of separation” from one of the 135 candidates seeking the governor’s office, according to Mark Newman, assistant professor of statistical physics at the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Complex Systems.

A 1989 study concluded the average number of acquaintances a person has is 290, so factor that in and you end up with “about 4.5 steps from a random person to someone who is running for governor,” Newman wrote.