California Insider Daniel Weintraub points to a remark by Gray Davis’ creator, DemOp Garry South, on Total Recall, the Election:
Let’s say you run and you win: what have you won? You get no transition period. You take over a staff appointed by Gray Davis. There are seven constitutional officers who are Democratic — all of whom can investigate you, audit you and have press conferences on the steps of the Capitol against you. The budget deficit doesn’t go away. Not one more job is created. It doesn’t bring the economy back. It doesn’t pay back the millions you’ve lost in homeland security. Except now the gum isn’t on Gray Davis’ shoes — it’s on yours. The highlight of your career will be the day you are elected. It will be all downhill from there.
Let’s look at it another way: the economy is improving, tech companies are starting to hire again (I’m getting a face-to-face interview every week now), everybody knows the Dems are responsible for the budget mess, and a smoking gun shows they’re doing their best to make it worse instead of better. You have line-item veto power over the budget, and you can therefore shape the direction of state government in some very significant ways, while credibly being able to blame all the problems you face on your predecessor. So what do you have to lose?