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Posted on 09/28/2003 11:22:49 AM PDT by kattracks
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California's recall election offers voters on the left some tantalizing choices, including a media-savvy independent who favors public financing of campaigns and a Green anti-war activist with socialist roots.At first, it seemed that with so many candidates splitting the vote, the race might provide an opportunity for someone outside the political mainstream to get elected.
As the campaign nears its conclusion, however, liberals are facing a more conventional dilemma.
Do they vote their hearts, voting to recall Gov. Gray Davis and picking independent Arianna Huffington or Green Party candidate Peter Camejo? Or their heads, choosing the middle-of-the-road Democrat, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, as their best hope of keeping Arnold Schwarzenegger from muscling in a Republican takeover?
"I had to play it safe because a lesser bad is better than Arnold," said Chris Wetzel, a registered Green and a sociology student at the University of California, Berkeley, who reluctantly cast his absentee ballot against the recall but for Bustamante.
For a bastion of the state's disaffected left, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, stopping Schwarzenegger also outweighs idealism. The weekly newspaper went with Camejo over Davis last fall, but this time editor Tim Redmond said Schwarzenegger, "who not only disagrees with us politically but is utterly unqualified to run the state," poses too big a threat. The Guardian came out against the recall and endorsed Bustamante.
"We are like a lot of progressives looking at this race," Redmond said. "What do you do?"
Conservative Republicans face the same issue — do they support their indefatigable champion, state Sen. Tom McClintock, or stake their party's future on a politically moderate actor who is pro-choice and supports gay rights?
The soul-searching seems particularly deep for die-hard liberals still smarting from the last presidential election, when Green Party candidate Ralph Nader is thought to have siphoned votes from Democrat Al Gore and helped put George W. Bush in the White House.
With California's Democratic establishment portraying the recall as a Republican-led power grab encouraged by the Bush White House, the ghosts of 2000 have haunted Camejo and Huffington.
Huffington's sharp wit and enthusiastic role as a recovering Republican wife have made her a favorite of liberal Hollywood, and she found a receptive crowd at Berkeley when she promised to roll back tuition hikes by cutting the prison budget. But even some of the most committed Berkeley liberals weren't willing to commit to her.
"It's tempting," said Starlie Dianant, a part-time student. "But it's difficult, especially after the 2000 election, to go for the person you really want because you might get stuck with the worst alternative."
Camejo supports the recall as a bold exercise in populism even if it was pitched and paid for by a conservative, Rep. Darrell Issa. But he saw the quandary coming — he predicted early that his campaign would thrive if Bustamante surged way ahead of Schwarzenegger, but would stall if the Democrat and Republican ran neck-and-neck.
Still, Camejo sees a silver lining in the ideas he's been able to promote during the campaign, and the bills Davis has signed lately that appeal to the state's liberals.
"What you need to register is not what the vote is, but how many people have been won over to your platform," Camejo said.
Hopes for Huffington and Camejo may have been high in August, when "there was a notion that somebody could win with 15 percent of the vote," but they "evaporated very, very quickly" once it became clear that only a fraction of the 135 candidates would command any serious consideration, said Roy Buhr, a campaign strategist for Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
"There is a reason we don't elect a lot of independents in America, and it's because there is a built-in perception they can't win," Buhr said.
Still, some liberals are determined to go for the candidate they like most.
Matthew Ettlin, 23, a communications and philosophy student at San Diego State University, said he's thinking about switching from Bustamante to Camejo since watching them debate.
Camejo "just seemed very well versed in all the issues and he didn't go on personal attack," Ettlin said.
The L.A. Weekly is advising its readers to vote No on the recall, but also is endorsing Huffington rather than settle for a "so-so" alternative "to the bad that the Republicans so unflaggingly offer."
"Since Bustamante barely clears the so-so bar, in this election we're looking elsewhere," the paper explained.
Camejo says his supporters have his sympathy.
"Vote Green if you've got the courage. If not, vote for Bustamante," he says. "I'm not angry. I understand."
Why is it that the clueless college students (communications and philosophy; now there's useful training for an independent life!?) always lean towards socialism in the world sheltered by mommy, but once out in the real world, realize that if mommy isn't around forever they need to do something useful and develop more conservative realism?
And they do it over and over and over...
Ya can't make this stuff up. This story statisfies on Soooo levels....
It is truly frightening that Bustamante can be classified as this, compared to someone else running for public office in this country.
He cannot be. It is a lie. A flat-out lie.
And if a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his ass on the ground. This is begging the question.
Cough,bullshit cough.....
Yeah, as middle-of-the-road as Karl Marx. And as impressive as Zeppo Marx.
Lets not forget folks -- this wannabe butcher is a racist communist!
McClintock doesn't even ragister on their radar.
Why McChickentock doesn't drop out and accept reality is beyond me.
It's because McClintock is a man of principles if you listen to Bustamante or Arianna talk about McClintock!
It's scarey that they are thinking of compromising by voting for Bustamante instead of their first choise: Camejo or Arnianna.
Another good reason for Tom to drop out.
He didn't personally attack the other candidates.
He personally attacked me.
A white, male, successful, high-earning taxpayer. The kind of taxpayer who creates jobs in California. The kind of taxpayer who pays Sacramento's bills.
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