Gray Davis recall vote on the horizon
Well it looks like the petition drive to recall Gray Davis is complete :
- Supporters of the drive to recall Gov. Gray Davis (news – web sites) are expected to descend on the state Capitol Monday to announce that their petition drive is complete.
Organizers say they have gathered enough signatures to put the recall on the ballot, and are calling for state officials to hold an election sometime in the fall.
. . .
The next big announcement in the recall drive will come in about 10 days, when the secretary state will announce whether enough of the signatures gathered are valid, and if so, the lieutenant governor will have to decide whether to hold a special election in October or wait until the March primary election.
When they actually hold the special election is going to be the next big scandal. Next March is the senate primary, so if the Davis recall is thrown onto that ballot, then even if the almost exclusively senate voter turnout favors recall, they’re likely to vote for whatever senate candidate that’s vying for the job. For that reason, expect the pro-recall forces to be pushing hard to hold the special election as soon as possible.
But once again, I gotta say this whole recall business is horrible. Despite all the complaints about the budget and the sluggish economy, California has been especially hard hit for three reasons :
The Burst of the “Tech Bubble” – The epicenter of the technology boom of the late 90′s was the San Francisco bay area. In the last few years, the massive loss of jobs in the technology sector has not only given that area a higher unemployment rate than the rest of the country, but has made San Francisco the fastest-shrinking city in the U.S.
The California Energy Crisis – Bush’s buddies stole billions from the state treasury that we’ll probably never get back.
Homeland Security – One of the dirty secrets of homeland security is that a lot of the costs have been passed onto the states. As I pointed out a few months ago, federal funds to cover some of these costs aren’t handed out according to need (ie. shouldn’t we protect the places that are likely targets) or population density. As Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said “If you put extra personnel on bridges, you’re taking money from public schools or telling scholarship students they can’t go to college or taking medicine from elderly people. We’re beyond the point of inconveniencing people. We’re close to hurting them.” And that’s Arkansas. Just imagine the costs involved in protecting the U.S./Mexican broder, the Bay Bridge, the port of Los angeles, etc.
So what should be done about all this? I’m not convinced that Gray Davis is doing a great job, but I can’t imagine any Republican could emerge from this process and have any luck pushing a revised budget through a senate legislature when a 2/3 majority is required.
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I sort of want Arnold to get the job (or Issa, as I doubt he’d be much better).
With the budget shortfall just accepted as a deficit by the legislature, the state is financially screwed. Let a republican (especially an inexperienced one like Arnie) take over, and watch as the California Republican Party goes down in flames.
Comment by JoeF — July 14, 2003 @ 12:30 pm
the bottom line is that our surplus was handed over to rich people in the form of locking in energy contracts at prices that were one and a half standard deviations from the mean. i know energy companies were playing dirty, but to guarantee them such high rates in such a low demand season either means he was in on it or he’s too stupid to govern.
BUT!
who else has been governing by giving away our surpluss to the rich and creating the biggest deficit in history?
until these republicans are willing to recall the w. for the exact same behavior they are impeaching gray for we need to reisist this recall. even though it is so hard for me to defend him, i will not join with issa and take the same “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” approach that made such monstrousities as the talaban, mujahadeen and saddam…
Comment by josh — July 14, 2003 @ 2:28 pm
i love the way people are willing to blame bush’s cohorts– as if he’s always hanging out with them– for taking the surpluses, federal and state, when the surpluses were imaginary to begin with. those projected surpluses were based on estimated tax reciepts which would not have- could not have- measured up anyway. as soon as people realized that the tech companies were just throwing money away, they stopped giving, and when people stopped giving, these same companies simply pretended to be making money. i’ve got news for you- the surplus was gone before we got it, and you can blame both parties for that. i will have more on the recall at my site.
lobudget.com/mellifluent
Comment by earnest — July 14, 2003 @ 6:34 pm
Recall Brouhaha
Greg at The Talent Show has put up a post about the recall effort underway in this state. Though his entry is overly-protective of our governor, I agree that the recall is simply a bad idea. The recall effort has…
Trackback by Mellifluence — July 14, 2003 @ 8:07 pm
i love the way people are willing to blame bush’s cohorts– as if he’s always hanging out with them
Well, it is Enron we’re talking about. The ties between Bush and Enron are pretty extensive. Considering that Bush and Cheney blamed the energy crisis on conservation and then unveiled an energy plan that was practically written by the energy companies, I think the Bush reference is valid.
taking the surpluses, federal and state, when the surpluses were imaginary to begin with.
It’s not like progressives are the only ones talking about surpluses. The biggest argument against Gray Davis is that he squandered California’s surplus and is leaving us with a record deficit (Hmmm…that sounds familiar). The biggest reason that Bush was elected (other than Florida) was that he used the surplus as an excuse to give a massive tax cut.
Comment by greg — July 15, 2003 @ 10:24 am
i think we should be able to agree, then, that any discussion of people stealing surpluses is moot unless we are talking about the corporations who falsified their earnings. i still can’t believe that enron would ask for income tax refunds for the years that it falsified its earnings.
Comment by earnest — July 15, 2003 @ 10:37 am
True. What’s even more disturbing about all the corporate corruption is how much people are acting like the outrage of the left (and some of the right) is somehow politicized. There’s nothing political about hating a company for withholding billions of dollars in tax revenue. That should piss everybody off.
Comment by greg — July 15, 2003 @ 10:50 am