calgov2002:
 calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register |
Posted on 06/24/2003 11:44:20 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Gray Davis, the unGovernor of California, managed to survive last November's vote by proclaiming the California budget crisis solved. He lied, of course, and with a $38 billion sinkhole staring the state in the face, voters are flocking to RescueCalifornia.com to sign up to help toss Davis from the train.
Congressman Darryl Issa has financed the largest portion of the effort to place the recall vote before the electorate – which probably will occur in the early fall barring mischief by Davis allies or the Democratic Secretary of State.
Thus far a few office holders who could have challenged Davis have issued tepid, "how can it get worse" condemnations of the recall, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein and state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, but these declarations have an air of "my fingers were crossed" about them. If Davis loses the up or down vote, the bottom of the ballot asks who replaces him, and the plurality winner is the new chief executive. Will California's power hungry Democrats risk not having any candidates below the line?
Davis appears doomed. Just last Friday he pushed through a tripling of the state's much despised car tax. Some estimates put the average tax hike at around $150 a car, but surely more than 50 percent of the state's drivers are going to pay substantially more than $150 in new taxes on their vehicles. My radio producer Duane – an avowed motorhead – saved and saved to purchase a Trans Am in 2001. It is his selfish pleasure, his indulgence, his passion.
Duane paid $230 in California car tax in 2002. He will be paying $690 in 2003 – and every year thereafter that Gray Davis stays in office. Try telling him or any other new car purchaser in the past few years what the "average" driver will be paying. Ask instead what their family will be paying total. This massive hit on ordinary Californians is a political disaster for the governor, which is why he made the move on a Friday. He was hoping that the state media might downplay the story.
The Los Angeles Times obliged, omitting mention of the $4 billion tax hike from the first section entirely, and headlining the section two story with the title, "State Triples Vehicle License Fee." Although the story began by noting that the "Davis administration" had triggered the fee – not Davis, of course, but his administration – the paper did not even mention that the state's non-partisan Legislative Analyst had opined on Thursday that the tax could not be raised. In short, the paper of record bounced the story into the second section, gave it a headline that covered for Gray, and left out the key argument about the hike – that it was considered illegal, not by partisan opponents of the governor, but by the analyst of record for the state.
Therein lies Davis' real hope of retaining his hold on power – the blocking power of a sometimes blatantly biased, and at best supremely supine state media. Most of the television stations in the state couldn't care less that the job losses in California, which at 21,500 jobs in May alone was higher than the rest of the country's losses combined, shows no sign of abating. It took the New York Times on Monday of this week to run a story on the worker's comp fiasco in the state. When the Los Angeles Times even bothers to look up it seeks the evil hand of the state's eight Republicans everywhere.
California is a test-tube for rule by one party – the Democrats. Its chaos and its collapse are Democratic storylines, and the tiny band of Republican legislators who are trying to hold back a proposed tide of new tax hikes pushed by Davis are routinely identified by the left as the problem, even though only a crazy man or a socialist would raise taxes on a state where businesses are fleeing.
This is the problem with California: Its lame-duck governor, its hard left legislative majorities, its wildly biased or indifferent media are an awesome combination of willful ignorance and ideological vehemence. It is an epic of political self-immolation, and Gray is the No. 1 guy, California's fiscal Nero.
He will be removed though the partisans of the left and the Times fears this change. A Republican governor, probably Issa, though Arnold may jump in, will provide a crucial check on the nuttier laws that have been streaming out of Sacramento for five years. Reconstruction can only begin once a serious chief executive is in charge with a willingness to take an axe to a bloated public sector and a veto pen to the wish list of the trial lawyers It cannot come soon enough.
calgov2002:
|
calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register |
CA: Davis recall backers collected 376,008 signatures, state says [official count]
We may have collected enough signatures!
I trust that you are right.
To get onto that ballot there are no primaries, and candidates only have to pay $3,500 and collect 10,000 signatures. Moreover, if the recall passes, whoever gets the most votes - even if that's not a majority - wins. It's a potential back door to the governor's office: less than 30 percent of the electorate could show up, and the winning candidate could garner as little as 30 percent of the vote. "It will be a free-for-all," says Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California.
Already, Democrats have taken steps to ensure that doesn't happen. All the major Democrats - including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), who faced a failed recall while mayor of San Francisco - have said they will not put their names on the ballot.
By closing out the Democratic field, they hope to make history repeat itself. "What they want is a stark choice between Davis and a bunch of conservative Republicans," says Bruce Cain, a political scientist at the University of California at Berkeley. "That's what they learned from the last election - that Gray Davis wins not because people love Gray Davis, but because the other choice is out of step with [heavily Democratic] California."
It is a calculated risk, though. If organizers collect 900,000 signatures by mid-July, a special vote will be held this fall, when anti-Davis voters might predominate. If organizers need until the final deadline on Sept. 2, the vote would be held next March, when the Democratic presidential primary would likely bring out more voters who are pro-Democrat - if not pro-Davis.***
Does anyone really believe that Davis and his Secretary of State will not do any mischief in the recall situation? Can anyone believe that Davis will not file suit in court to deny the recall petitions? Will a judiciary that has overturned voter passed referendums, refuse to overturn recall petitions? The most the throw out Davis camp can hope for is an election next spring as part of the Democratic Primary vote.
With the state so screwed up with billions of dollars in debt, any one who replaces Davis will have to cut the heck out of state progams... making tons of enemies. The governor will have to combine that with big tax increases making even more enemies. Can you imagine any Democrat saying, "Hey I want to replace Davis as the most hated person in California... I will run and replace Gray Davis."? Can you imagine any electable Republican saying the same thing? Replacing Gray Davis in 2004 would be worst dead end job in political history. It is guaranteed to end anyones political career. NO sensible Democrat or Republican would come with in 500 miles of taking it.
Also Bush and Rowe don't want Davis replaced. They want Davis and the Democratic party in California to take all the blame for this mess. If only Democrats are in charge, only Democrats can take the blame. That just might make California competitive in 2004.
And if Davis and the Democrats in the legislature have to make all the hated decisions to fix this terrible mess everyone in the state will hate them. That will allow a Republican governor and Republican legislature be elected in 2006. They would be quite likely to get re-elected in 2010 just in time to Gerrymander California for the Republicans. Don't think that is lost on Bush and Rowe.. It is not.
All this most likely means is that Issa will be the only Republican on the replacement ballot.....that is if you don't count the KLan, Communist and NAZI candidates that get on this very easy to make ballot. Davis with the election held in the spring of 2004 should easily hold on to the office. That will let the media paint Davis as the man who defeated the VRWC not once .... but twice.
People who think some popular Democrat will be on the replacement ballot can't read political tea leaves. And anyone that thinks an electable Republican will defy Bush and in addition accept the blame for not being able to fix California is smoking some of Clinton's good stuff.
Whoever serves as California Governor from 2004 to 2006 will go down in history as one of the most hated politicians ever. He will have to do things that every voter hates. Major Democrats and Major Republicans would prefer that man be Gray Davis. And that is who it most likely will be.
The author of this diatribe needs to get real.. even a bad lawyer can keep the validity of the petitions in court until after the fall deadline. A 30 day injuction to delay the special election based on challenges to the recall signatures should be an easy task to do. That will delay the certification until mid August. And mid august is too late for a fall special recall election The absolute most the anti Davis people can hope for is next springs Democratic primary.
Both parties are about to get the finger from CA voters.
I agree and expect noting less from the Democrats. I've seen it at work in Houston elections.
That makes no sense at all. The legislature will still be in solid Democrat hands after the recall election. All you have to do is look at what Daschle is doing with federal Senate to stopp Bush to see what Democrats in the California legislature could do to the Terminator. The Democrats have a lot more control of the California legislature than they do of the federal Senate. Arnold could get nothing changed and nothing done. He would be blamed as the state slipped into bankcruptcy and worse during his first and second years. Bush and Rowe have told Arnold they don't want him to run. It seems almost anyone could understand that when a someone defies Bush he gets zero help from the federal government.
The state under a helpless Terminator in 2004 and 2005 would be toast.
Now use your brain for just a second and think like a Democrat. When the legislature had blocked all fixes and the condidtions in California had gotten even worse, who would start a recall on the Terminator. Quick now .... 3 guesses. Then Diane would run to replace the Terminator on the new recall ballot and the Terminator would have his career terminated in far less than 2 years.
Schwarzenegger is not nearly as stupid as that.
Right ... just like Simon was going to teach Davis a lesson in how to win.
All types of idiots told me I was wrong about the result of the 2002 election. I predicted the result and the turn out in the early summer of 2002... 4 months before the election.
I have a real track record of being right. Bush cares about California. But before the democrats can be defeated in California the death wish Republicans have to be driven from the California Republican party. Bush and Rowe will get that done.
Today's California Republican party keeps yelling that if Davis just rams a red hot poker up their Republican Rump a little harder and farther he is going to burn his hands. They never notice Davis is wearing welding gloves.
Bush is not into party suicide. And that is what you are all about. You just don't know it.
You are smoking that good stuff again. What will Arnold do when the Democrats with media help get 900 thousand valid signatures to recall Arnold? NO matter what Arnold would or could do it will take 2 years for the economy in California to improve...no matter what. With cuts or tax increases or both or nothing done it will get worse in California before it gets better. Reagan learned the lesson in 1982. Reagan got his program passed in 1981 but the economy was worse in 1982 than it was in 1980. The Republicans lost both house and senate seats in 1982. Reagans approval rating was under 43 percet. Thank goodness the Democrats could not recall Reagan in 1982. They would have gotten it done. After a year or two of worsening conditions is when the Democrats would recall Arnold.... and then Feinstein could get elected just in time to take all the credit for the fixes.
With this recall thing out of the bag, there is no way recalling Davis helps anyone but the Democrats.
The Democrats will have to cut spending and raise taxes. So would Arnold, but before the fix could work they would recall him.
Try thinking that anything you can do to Davis, Democrats in a Democrat state can do far worse to Schwarzenegger.
Does that give you a clue? The public has to blame Democrats enough to throw them out and not want them back...or else any Republican governor will get recalled too.
The Democrats have to get the blame for the problem and then be charged with blame for the pain of fixing it.. That would make California into a competitive state and not a leftist Democrat state. You are very opposed to that happening.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.