He didn't fry on it for his reelection as mayor. Also, the LAPD was a problem before he got there, and has ben a problem since. It's weasily something he could have shaken. Not to mention police wantonly abusing minorities plays rather well in the sticks, and they vote in better numbers. As for the abortion stance, he changed his mind, it would be good enough for people looking for an alternative to Davis, anyway. Do you really think all those Latino devout Catholics that always vote Democratic are pro-choice?
No Dems jumping in http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/20/MN125830.DTL Democrats are playing some high-stakes chicken in the recall battle. Every state-wide executive branch office holder has pledged not to run. I'd like to know what folks think is going on. Are they rolling over? Do they not care if a Republican wins their seat? Do they think that a Recall effort is going to fail if it makes the ballot? Are they relying on the Secretary of State to go all Kathleen Harris on the petition signatures? Where's Dianne Feinstein? Where's Willie Brown? Where's Jerry Brown? What valiant Democrat is going to selflessly immolate his or her career to save us all from Gov. Haider (oops. Schwarzenegger)? This homer handicapps as follows: Camejo wins with < 20% of the vote. Democrats and Republicans gerrymander California so that it can be split between Oregon and Arizona.
Ooh. I wonder what particular farm animal they had pictures of Cruz Bustamante making sweet, sweet love to. That statement doesn't give him much wiggle room. The Democrats may have polling info showing Davis beating Issa, since Issa doesn't really have much going for him except money, and Davis has plenty of that, too. But it would be a certainty that almost any other Democrat in the state...hey, wait a minute, the place is crawling with Congressmen...and Assemblymen...and State Senators.... In any case, I don't buy the "undemocratic" argument. It's a law, it's on the books. It's not being forced down anyone's neck, although maybe in a state this huge the petition signature limit might be higher. If Davis didn't want to be recalled, he shouldn't have sucked.
Even if they officially oppose the recall I can't imagine the Dems failing to get some kind of candidate in there, but it's a tough way to campaign, as pretty much any Dem candidate will have to appear party-loyal and say "I oppose the recall, but vote for me just in case!" I would expect if someone emerges that Dem donors will put their money toward a candidate rather than Gray's anti-recall campaign. It hasn't been mentioned explicitly in this thread, but any number of candidates from any party can be on the ballot. All it takes is a $3500 filing fee. Whoever gets a plurality wins, so the ballot could have 5 GOP, 3 Dems, 2 Libertarians, 2 Greens, a Natural Law, and maybe a few others mixed in. If the big parties don't each coalesce around a major candidate, the votes could be split every which way and someone could win with 25% or less of the vote. The SF Chronicle article that is linked above mentions a hypothetical of Davis resigning if the polls look bad before the recall election. That would void the election and make Bustamante governor. Maybe this is why Bustamante isn't running. Davis' last laugh would be to make the GOP spend tons of money on an election that never happens.
True irony would be this election going to a third-party candidate, causing the Dems and the GOP to decry pluralities as "un-democratic".
I like the Chrons scenario. If this recall does qualify - and it looks like it will - Gray Davis should do what's best for California, save us lost tax dollars in a recall election, and resign. That way, the recall is voided, a Democrat (Bustamante) is still the governor, and Darrell Issa's power trip or the possibility of a Govnah Ahhhnold will have to wait until 2006. Of course, it ain't gonna happen... because IMO Davis is a greedy b****rd. Now consider this, though: if Issa or another Republican becomes gov, he only inherits Davis' messups. And with no guarantee that CA voters will drive Dems from the Legislature en masse in 2004, we will be looking at yet more gridlock in Sactown than we already have now. Bad enough that the CURRENT state budget is being held hostage by un-budging Dems & Reeps.
FYI Details on the recall process from ap via the SF Chron. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/06/16/state0309EDT0008.DTL
Gray Davis Recall For a political junkie like myself stuff like this is just too much fun. Entertaining as hell. On the balance politics in the West is just so much more interesting because of the Initiative and Referendum process (noticed I said INTERESTING not BETTER). That said, this recall process is just freaking wacky...so if you got $3,500 or 10,00 sigs OR A COMBINATION you can be a candidate for Gov. in California with a VERY good odds on actually winning the damn thing? I also noticed this If it fails, Davis is reimbursed for his election costs and there cannot be another recall election for six months. Who reimburses? Isaa? The Republican Party? The State of California? Maybe the reason the Dems. are all staying out of it is that they are going to try to seed the damn thing with alot of Republican options, split up the vote on that side, and since it is winner take all to the top vote getter a lone D would have a better chance. Kind of what the Republicans did in Lousiana to Mary Landreiu in 2002 in order to force a run-off election. BTW- Oregon would only take Northern Cali from Santa Cruz North. Arizona and Nevada can fight over Central and Southern California
Re: Gray Davis Recall Ahh, but would there be a lone D? There is the possiblity that the Dems may just try to fight it and not run a candidate, which would be a massive mistake, methinks. San Francisco part of Oregon? San Jose part of Oregon? SACRAMENTO part of Oregon??? Nahhhh. You're free to take anything north of Chico. Hell, people in places like Redding & Eureka are already de facto Oregonians.... Then again, if the state line were Santa Cruz, that would mean I'd only be a 1/2 hour drive away from no sales tax and legal assisted suicide (should the need arise).
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/richlowry/rl20030624.shtml Utah should just take over California; kind of like the lower peninsula of Michigan runs the upper peninsula. Half the people who live here are from California anyway & I wouldn't have to drive to Wyoming to get my booze. Above is a link to an article from the Paleoconservative townhall.com about state financial problems. But it does refer to a USA Today article that has much of the same information, without the rightward slant. The state that financed a Porn Czar is one of the best financially managed states? Utah is the best at skiing, snowboarding, polygamy, Olympic bribery and USL D3 soccer. Financial management, we aren't too good at.
Google News is absolutely priceless. I'd gotten some e-mail today on a GPCA list about the recall, suggesting its impending doom. Fact: 389,337 signatures had been turned into the S of S office on June 16th. The OC Register's headlines suggest this is "Almost Half". The North (San Diego) County Times hail this as meaning the effort is "Almost Certain to get on the ballot". Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, most Bay Area papers are suggesting that the initiative will certainly not make the deadline for a special election, but may well make the November elections. BTW, if we do get gerrymandered, I'm moving up north. Of course, the gerrymandering could simply divide east-west along, say, the San Francisco Bay, making sure San Francisco and Alameda counties are in seperate states. I'd be in the Western half, which might go to Oregon.
You mean the March primary ballot? I'm not sure there is anything statewide this November, only a few local elections. The Lt. Gov. has to call for the election within 180 days after the Secretary of State certifies the signatures. That means recall proponents have until late September (i.e. less than three months) to have the recall done as a separate special election. Otherwise, Bustamante will lump the recall in with the primary, which gives somewhat of an advantage to Democrats. Bisect the Bay Area? Rich people on the Peninsula in one state and the po'folk and middle-class rabble in the East Bay in the other? It's a joke, yeah. Still not sure I like that idea. Besides, the bridge tolls across the Bay would absolutely jump if that were to happen. It's $6 to cross from New Jersey to NYC on the Port Authority's two bridges and two tunnels. The Golden Gate is a whopping $5, but the other three Bay crossings are still only $2.
My bad... Yes, I meant the March primary, and yes, that can only help the DNC. When John Eder (G) won a seat in the Maine Assembly, the GOP and DNC got together and changed his district to make sure that would never happen again. That was the reference. The original joke was that Camejo would take the seat with 15% of the vote, and Congress would gerrymander California.
California is a perfect example of how too much democracy can be a really bad thing. Referrendums have been the death of that state, wether it has been education, infrastructure or political function. Your state needs a recall of the referendum act, not the governor. Could it be that no matter what Davis wants to do, he can't?
I hate to resort to spelling corrections, but you misspelled "term limits," "money" and "Davis is a corrupt sleazebag bought and paid for by the industries he's meant to be regulating."
First, term limits should be unconstitutional. Although I don't doubt that this guy is a turbo sleaze, it seems to me to be a perversion of representitive democracy to remove a person from office by the peoples whim (with the exception of regularly scheduled elections, of course) Isn't that what they do in 3rd world countries? Is that what Cali. has become. If you want him out and he is that bad, he should go through the process of being impeached, then convicted and removed.
The referrendum has an important history here in the Golden State. Back in the late 19th/early 20th century, the entire state legislature, the state house, and therefore most other arms of govt were controlled by the railroad trusts. That machine was absolutely impenetrable, until Hiram Johnson (sp?) was elected on a wave of populist backlash. Johnson instituted this "direct democracy" that we have today. Normally, Matt, I'm with you. I think referrendums are even more easily purchased than elected officials (even though they cost more). This time, the dude just has to go. From the budget subterfuge to the pay-for-play, his term in office has been atrocious at best, criminal at worst. Because the duopoly has the legislature so polarized, nothing at all is going to happen in Sacramento, much less an impeachment. These jackasses have configured their districts within an inch of their lives to ensure a minimum of contested races, so we're going to have sacramento gridlock for the foreseeable future. BTW, kudos on the LP sig. I know so many Republicans who are really Libs, but don't know about your party.
http://www.rppi.org/cacitizensbudget.html Speaking of Libertarians, the Reason Institute says they can balance California's budget. Of course, the Reason Institute also thinks that Yosemite should be sold to the highest bidder if Nike forks over enough dough to paint a Swoosh on Half Dome. Wouldn't it be funny if California's economy got so bad that the Oklahoma Highway Patrol had to station officers at their western border to prevent destitute Californians from moving in?
Fat lot of good it did us out here. Can we ask the CHP to start kicking people out of the Golden State? I vote to first weed out the New Yorkers who constantly complain about the fact you can't find good pizza in LA.
Well, the underground economy still seems to be doing well. That is why people keep coming to the state, and maybe the only way to succeed here. It is law abiding citizens like me who are trying to fulfull all the idiotic legislations, regulations and pay all the taxes who will probably end up taking our businesses out of State. Las Vegas (even with its 110 degrees) is looking better and better.
Don't send them back here. We have no use for wishy washy think you are still New Yorkers but you left so screw off douche bags. And your pizza does suck. But your jewish delis are surprisingly good
Sorry, I have no plans to move back to the New York area at the moment, and I reserve the right to complain about the pizza in general. There are a handful of places out here that come close... no chains, though.
You should HEAR them, though. Blah blah New York blah blah - God. You don't hear me yammering on about how great Iowa City was, and how you can't get real corn on the cob out here. Not as much as your Mexican food. And our bagels have come quite a long way. Like pulling teeth getting these transplants to admit it though. "Canters is good, but it isn't as good as blah blah blah"