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Posted on 06/24/2003 11:08:54 PM PDT by LdSentinal
With the Associated Press reporting that the California county-to-county, down-and- dirty signature count of residents endorsing the Gov. Gray Davis recall is officially only halfway to the magic number of the near 900,000 needed, state-wide political figures on both sides of the aisle are being variously mum, circumspect, or outspoken on the controversial effort to strip the beleaguered governor of his office.
Proponents have been spinning that the raw signature count is more like 800,000.
Many of the 53 members of the U.S. House of Representatives hailing from the Golden State are of the mind that the local state legislators, who must day-to-day grapple in the budget policy pits with Davis in somehow taming the $38 billion state deficit, are the better folks to publicly debate the case for the looming historic recall.
Bucking the trend and one of the early outspoken is U.S. Rep. Doug Ose, R-Calif., who at the state party convention proclaimed, “If the petition were put in front of me, I’d sign it.”
Representing the carefully circumspect is U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., who in a canvassing by the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call, revealed only, “I think the people of California will have to make that decision.”
Meanwhile, the mum include at least four members of the U.S. House of representatives, who simply have no public comment at this time, telling Roll Call through spokespersons, “No comment.”
Not Behind Issa
The California delegation to Washington includes 20 Republicans and 33 Democrats. Significantly, the Democrats are not vociferously supportive of their colleague and only declared recall replacement candidate U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., voicing for the most part only general opposition to the recall as a partisan sour grapes Republican tactic to cancel Davis’s recent election.
Singular in the Democratic field of U.S. legislators from California, however, is the U.S. Congresswoman from Garden Grove, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., who is advocating a novel approach to the recall: vote against the recall in the slot indicated – while at the same time choosing a Democratic replacement.
Sanchez’s solution to the dilemma is a viable one because California’s ballot format would allows folks to vote “yes” or “no” on recalling Davis – then select from a list of candidates of any political party. The votes of the “no” voters would still count in the final tally for the replacement candidate.
There is presently, however, a built-in glitch to the Sanchez formula: to date, in a show of Democratic solidarity, there are no formidable Democrats who are willing to have their names placed on a recall ballot.
Despite the dearth of candidates, Sanchez’s personal druthers would be Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. “I’d be voting no on recall and yes for Dianne,” she said, according to an Associated Press report.
Jumping Off the Bridge
Sanchez’s pragmatic advice runs contrary to many of her fellow Democrats, who still see the best solution to the potential California chaos as working against the recall per se. “We’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it,” U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said.
Unlike bridge-jumper Harman, U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., only wants to “cross that bridge when we come to it,” according to Roll Call. “Right now, I think Democrats should fight the recall, because it is about injecting instability into a state. If a Republican governor were there, I would give you the exact same answer. I think the Democrats must stick together.”
The California constitutional language is vague as to the reasons that must be manifest for a recall, saying in a recall provision approved by voters in 1911, “The sufficiency of reason is not reviewable.”
Also vague or at best noncommittal or smacking of frustration have been some of the public stances of the U.S. California congressional delegation.
U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., said, “It’s beyond established political circles to be able to stop this thing,” according to an AP report.
Some California delegation reactions gleaned by Roll Call recently:
Rattling Cages
See this:
CA: Davis recall backers collected 376,008 signatures, state says [official count]
My county clerk just advised us that she has been notified by the CA Secretary of State's Office that the recall effort against Gov. Gray Davis, has qualified for the ballot.
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Thank you, my sentiments about these two "conservative" commentators exactly. You need to add William Safire to that list of pretentious, arrogant, sophits who dirty the name conservative. Safire's rant on Davis I mean Safire actually quotes Emerson...referring to himself! We need to pull in these premaddonnas like Ruddy, Novak, and Safire, they are scaring people on the order of the worst DNC campaigning.
Um... aren't you one of the "people of California"? Or have you been in DC long enough to consider your "home" district as a foreign locale?
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