Mark your calendars

The Mercury News reports: The election to recall Gov. Gray Davis will be held on Oct. 7, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante announced at a Sacramento press conference Thursday morning. Bustamante also said voters will get the opportunity to select a new governor from a slate of candidates at the same time, should Davis lose the … Continue reading “Mark your calendars”

The Mercury News reports:

The election to recall Gov. Gray Davis will be held on Oct. 7, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante announced at a Sacramento press conference Thursday morning.

Bustamante also said voters will get the opportunity to select a new governor from a slate of candidates at the same time, should Davis lose the recall election.

So there you are, California voter, able to recall the governor you just elected nine short months ago. Will you? I don’t know. Should you? Of course, and here’s why:

  • Davis is an absentee governor who’s failed to live up to the duties of the office because he’s been too busy fundraising. He’s failed to make the appointments necessary to fill open slots on boards and commissions, he’s failed to engage the legislature — where he’s widely hated, even by members of his own party — around a common agenda, and he’s failed to use this line-item veto to keep the budget under control.
  • Davis is a quirk of the political process, a candidate who’s great at campaigning, where his primary technique is sliming his opponent, but bad at actually doing the job he was hired to do.
  • Davis doesn’t stand for anything, relying on polls and fundraising numbers to arrive at policy positions.
  • A caretaker governor simply filling the chair until the next regular election would be an improvement.

    With all that going against him, Davis could very well survive the recall and emerge stronger, because the California Republican Party has such a strong death wish. Their best shot at removing Davis is to have Dick Riordan in the race rather than Arnie Schwarzenegger, but the Hollywood charm factor may prevent that.

    Davis’ biggest challenge is that his well-honed campaign technique — sliming the opponent — really only works in a head-to-head contest. With a number of Republicans and Greens in the race, Davis would have to tout his own accomplishments, which are meager to say the least. So sign up Dick Riordan, Darrell Issa, Bill Jones, Tom McClintock, and Peter Camejo and lets see the fur fly.

    If nothing else, it should be entertaining.

    • 4 thoughts on “Mark your calendars”

    1. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of Davis, but he sounds like he’s the model governor for the State of California. If they don’t oust him, they’ll get exactly what they deserve, a slow (but certainly gaining speed) downward spiral.

      -kd

    2. The recall should be interesting, in the “living in interesting times” sense. I’m generally in favor of the recall, but maybe what we need is to hit rock bottom and, to paraphrase Jackie Goldberg, feel some pain. Maybe those who vote for “progressives” would one day wake up, look in the mirror, and decide to start going to meetings.

    3. These are all good reasons to recall Davis, but they are also reasons that were known before he was re-elected. I’m still considering it.

      And why, Karl, does California deserve a “slow downward spiral”?

    4. Doug,

      That was a conditional thought.

      If they don’t oust him, then they’ll get the spiral.

      The latter depends on the former. They will deserve the spiral as a result of their choice not to remove him from office.

      -kd

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