Third-party governor for California?
There’s an interesting post at the Volokh Conspiracy about how the Gray Davis recall movement could open the doors to a third-party candidate being elected governor :
- Here are an interesting collection of facts about the movement to recall California Governor Gray Davis:
- It looks like the recall petition will qualify for the ballot.
- Voters must vote whether or not to recall Davis and vote for a replacement (contingent on the recall passing) on the very same ballot.
- If Davis is recalled, the replacement candidate who garners the most votes will be governor. No majority needed; no runoffs. (If I understand the rules correctly). Depending on how many candidates run — and it only costs $3500 to get on the ballot — it is conceivable that the winner could receive fewer than 20% of the votes cast. Maybe even far fewer.
- All of the Democrats who are well-known statewide have announced they will not be a candidate to succeed Davis
- Few Republican politicians have significant statewide name recognition.
Most voters are furious at all California politicians of both parties for the electricity debacle, the enormous deficit, and the failure to enact a budget. All of these factors suggest to me that it just might be the right time to elect a governor not affiliated with either major party — a “Jesse Ventura moment.”
I haven’t commented on the recall movement yet, but it’s pretty much a farce. The whole thing seems to be an effort by Darrell Issa to boot Gov. Davis out of office. So far he’s contributed more than $1.75 million towards the recall campaign. Have I mentioned that he’s also running for governor? Basically, this dick knew he couldn’t win a real election, so he’s trying to buy his own election. It’ll probably happen too, but I really doubt it’ll succeed. If there was a huge public outcry about all this, they wouldn’t be struggling to get the million signatures necessary to put this on the ballot.
That said, I think the whole third party candidate thing brought up at Volokh’s is an interesting point. Even if Davis is recalled, Issa won’t have a chance to win if he’s matched up against a “real” candidate or anyone with some name recognition. Of course if Arnold Schwarzenegger, then California will certainly be the Kindergarten Cop state for a few years. But if he doesn’t run, it’s anyone’s guess. There’s plenty of politically active celebrities that could easily walk away with the election. Anybody have any ideas on who would be masochistic enough to try it? Warren Beatty maybe?
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FYI on Issa - he’s got a history of stealing things.
Comment by moira — June 25, 2003 @ 12:55 pm
issa also (allegedly)brought a gun to his business to threaten two employees…
just so everyone knows, the green party candidate last year, peter camejo (who got well over 5% of the vote and nearly double the amount of votes as registered greens in the state) will be holding a press conference on monday announcing his candidacy and also calling for a public audit to examine our current financial troubles.
while i’m not a davis sympathiser (frankly, i voted for camejo and even canvassed for his campaign), but i find it reprehensable to piggy back a campaign on something issa is spearheading.
i didnt consider the implications of this being so wide open a field that the greens might have a shot, however. while this is positive, succumbing to the recall vote opens the pandoras box of making this commonplace. this is why i dont support perpetuating a cycle of impeachment by going after bush. i guarantee that if camejo got elected, they’d blast his progressive ideals and recall him, too.
so, lets get a third party in there. but not this way.
Comment by josh — June 25, 2003 @ 2:13 pm
The whole process is anti-democratic (the political process, not the party) and a farce.
Davis has to get more than 50% of the people to vote no to a recall, but if they don’t, someone can win his place with the support of as small a plurality as is possible, and you don’t even have to show you can raise signatures to get on the ballot - you just need to have $3,500 to put up. The whole thing is insane, and there’s a good chance that it’s going to lead to some serious problems for stable government in California if this isn’t the last attempt at it.
Comment by JoeF — June 25, 2003 @ 2:45 pm
Isn’t the whole thing necessarily democratic then? If the fate of the people’s government is controlled ultimately by th people- then that’s democracy. Too much democracy is actually a nad thing. It reeks of inefficiency- thus we have our latest problem of the recall.
Comment by Earnest — June 25, 2003 @ 10:05 pm
Earnest, it’s not. If 48% voted to not recall Davis, and 52% voted to recall, then the recall would happen. Then, the guy with the largest chunk of votes would win - and with a field that could sport 4 or 5 candidates, that number might be only 30% or so.
So Davis would actually get a larger number of votes than the guy that would replace him. That defeats the purpose of democracy.
Comment by JoeF — June 26, 2003 @ 10:50 am