Calblogger is as irritated as I am with Arnie and Dick’s little game of gubernatorial indecision:
We’re not looking at Riordan getting ready or Arnold trying to decide. We’re watching two men playing hot potato with the governorship with the belief that it belongs to one of them and only one of them.
Look, boys, the governor’s office doesn’t have either of your names on it yet, and if you keep this up it never will. For all the muscles, Arnie is a obviously a momma’s boy who can’t make a move without his wife’s permission, and Dick is a dilettante who’d rather sip martinis and tell stories than get down to business. While this tea-party is taking place, serious candidates like Tom McClintock are in the race and running hard, and the Dems have started a “Draft Dianne” movement that’s gathering steam toward a more plausible replacement.
If the race comes down to Feinstein and Riordan, the karma factor will be intense because both have been slimed by Davis so intensely, Feinstein with the Leona Helmsley ads and Riordan with the $9M in ads during the Republican primary.
Well said!
You are right on about Arnie and Dick. The California Republicans are experts at losing elections and this screwing around just runs down the clock and makes it less likely for Californians to rally around them.
A slightly off-topic question:
I assume this is legally possible but could the California Dems do a similiar trick that the NJ Dems did with Torricelli/Lautenberg? In effect, could Davis wait until a week or so before the election, realize the polls are against him, and resign just days before the election, leaving control of the state to Bustamante? It seems to me to be a likely scenario particularly if the Davis campaign is able to persuade other Democrats against running.
No, that’s not possible. Once the recall qualified for the ballot, there’s no stopping it.
There is a question about the voters getting to pick the replacement vs. the Lt. Governor taking over, but if it’s decided that the Lt. Governor succeeds Davis, it doesn’t matter whether he resigns or is recalled, except for the cost of the election.