[Rat] Shelley slows the Gray Davis recall count

Sacramento Bee ^ | 6/26/03 | Dan Weintraub

[heleny]

remind Mr. Shelly - HE CAN BE RECALLED OR IMPEACHED

He's safe from impeachment; I doubt the democrat-dominated legislature will try to impeach one of their own.

If people try to recall him, is he in charge of all aspects of the recall, such as accepting the petition to recall?

[Congressman Billybob]

The games have begun. Why shouldn't election officials lie, cheat and steal for Davis? Their careers are dead meat when Davis goes down, anyway. This step guarantees a public backlash that will put the signatures over the top, if there ever was any question about that.

The first step is for all those who support the recall, and all considering running to replace Davis, to demand publicly that all Democrat officials from California, including their Congressmen and Senators, to take sides on this issue. Are they defending Davis and his henchmen? Or do they support the people of California in using their Constitutional right to have a recall election?

Most will hide like rabbits in a hole while they wait to see how the public and press reactions to this build, or don't build. Having been through a few of these, I expect the public reaction to be strongly against Davis and henchmen, and the press reaction to be about half and half. That will be enough.

As Sherlock Holmes said, "The game is afoot."

Congressman Billybob

[ladyinred]

This is exactly what we thought he would do. It is not necessary, but he is playing politics as usual for a democrat.

[ladyinred]

This is looking more like a mirror image of Florida every day. Instead of a Republican Secretary of State fighting to slow a recount and elect a Republican president, we have a Democratic Secretary of State acting to slow a signature count to prevent the recall of a Democratic governor.

I am rather surprised by this statement. Harris wasn't trying to slow a recount,she was going by Florida law. This is a case of ignoring the law by Shelly.

[Imal]

I am rather surprised by this statement. Harris wasn't trying to slow a recount,she was going by Florida law.

Like I said, this guy is on some very bad drugs.

[John Jorsett]

This is why Ted Costa and company's "verification" (read: building a future direct-mail list) of the signatures is such a bad idea.

They have to verify them for purposes of paying the signature gatherers only for valid signatures. It's also useful in order to expedite the process. The counties will take samples of the turned-in petitions and if the valid signatures are above a certain level (I forget what it is, but let's say 85%), then they know statistically that there are enough and won't bother to verify every single signature. So Ted's group is making sure that the percentage of valid signatures turned in stays high.

[BlueNgold]

I love this - Harris goes strictly by the book and gets called partisan when she wont bend the rules for the Dems. Then the Dems bend and 'interpret' deadlines, and somehow she gets thrown in with them. I think that with all of the stink made over FL in 2000 the Dems made so much noise they won't be able to support a whole lot of shenanigans by a 2nd tier state official. That doesn't mean they won't try ...

[lainie]

KFI AM640 is going over this column right now.

[lainie]

The guest (Sal Russo) is talking about filing suit against Shelley immediately. He is one of the Republican consultants working on the recall campaign.

[ambrose]

how about filing a recall against Shelley as well? too bad we don't still have Bill Jones... or even too bad March Fong Eu didn't win the 'Rat primary... she always ran the SOS office in a nonpartisan manner.

[eureka!]

"As Sherlock Holmes said, "The game is afoot."

In a big way. History is being made and there is nothing, including Shelly, that will stop it. The punditry and press that this thing is getting now is also much more than I expected. Grayout, known for being a little weird to begin with, has got to be going nuts as he watches this happen, powerless to stop the revolution. I would love to be party to the threats (an promises) his office is probably making to his unions and lefty groups. I am just loving it....

[lainie]

It would be nice. The unmitigated gall of this guy Shelley (and all the rats in Sacramento) is truly remarkable.

The radio guys are now going over Governor Doofus and his mismanagement of the energy crisis. All old news but certainly worth saying again.

Arnold being introduced by Jay Leno as "the next governor of California." God help us.

[lainie]

Lefty friends of mine are claiming that this whole crisis is the result of power-mad Republicans in Sacramento holding the state hostage for their own political agendas. 'They refuse to allow a budget to pass, because it's effective in hurting Davis.'

Three months ago these friends were fully aware of what's truly happening, and now they've been indoctrinated to the Davis message. There's no point in telling them and arguing the point. People have to claw their way out of cults on their own. I just listen and report back to FR. :)

[pogo101]

Shelley would not have the power to thwart his own recall, at least in theory. Under the state constitution, once a recall of the California secretary of state "is initiated," the secretary of state's "recall duties" transfer by operation of law to the state's Controller. Cal. Const. art. II, § 17.

The Controller, however, is Steve Westly, who although a capable man (UNLIKE Shelley) won the 2002 election over state Sen. Tom McClintock in a squeaker, and only by pounding away on the issue of abortion, which is utterly irrelevant to the Controller's office. In other words, a naked partisan.

[eureka!]

Re#33 And the presstitutes are helping them. Every article is "Republican led" recall effort. No surprise there. I do give the GOP some credit for standing strong on the no new taxes point. It is driving the Rats nuts. This sucker will make the ballot and it will be a free for all. The Rats will have a huge GOTV effort but so will the GOP, Greens, Libertarians, Pedestrians and any other party that wants their candidate to make a showing. All of them will vote for recall (as well as more than a handful of Rats). Hehehe....

[lainie]

No doubt. Strictly speaking, I'm fine with the gridlock. It leads to less heinous legislation coming out of Sacramento overall.

What this tells me is that, apparently, our state was ripe for the right GOP message two years ago, after all. Contrary to the conventional wisdom at the time. Don't you think?

[CyberCowboy777]

Shelly's info...
916-653-7244

kshelley@ss.ca.gov

[eureka!]

Yep. Even now, moreso. Gotta run. Have a great weekend and enjoy the demise of the Grayout machine. ;^)

[ambrose]

Update from Weintraub. Now there's talk of scrapping sampling:



June 27, 2003

A sign of things to come

Aside from the dueling interpretations of the law, county registrars are
telling me that they are facing at least one technical obstacle to
verifying the recall petitions. Normally with ballot measures, they
check the signatures on petitions all at once, and their computers tell
them when duplicates show up. That is, if a voter has signed more
than one petition. But with the recall, they are getting signatures in
batches. If they verify one batch, and then another, and another, the
same person might have signed petitions in each batch and their
computers would never catch it. Several counties are trying to get a
quick software patch to fix that glitch.

In the meantime, the state association of county clerks and elections
officers has gathered up a list of questions about the process and will
be forwarding it to the Secretary of State’s office next week. They
want all the counties to be on the same page before they move
forward. Among the queries: can they do a random sample or must
they verify every signature? I thought it was long-since settled that
they could do a sample. Apparently not.

Bottom line: we’re not going to be getting any updates on signature
verification for a while.

P.S. A friendly reader suggests that as I start portraying Kevin
Shelley as a partisan Democratic operator, I should also note that
Shelley recently went out on the limb trying to ensure that President
Bush would be listed on the 2004 ballot in California even though Bush
won't be re-nominated until after the ballot deadline here. Suggestion
taken.

Posted by dweintraub at 04:10 PM

[lainie]

Very interesting.

(I don't get the P.S.)