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In Case You Were Wondering
Gray Davis [original link, 10/26/10] is still the governor of California. He has not been recalled. I had to explain this to a fellow Californian the other day.
California has three legislative reform measures in place; their purpose is to give power to the populace in the face of corruption among elected officials.
If you're wondering what it takes to force a recall of an elected official less than a year since the last election, a year that was marked by no significant scandal, the answer is somewhere around $1.7 million, all from one man, Darrell Issa. You've probably heard Issa before; he made his disposable fortune creating the Viper car alarm. Yes, he was the one mechanically demanding that you "please step away from the vehicle."
A recall has to happen for "sufficient reason," but that reason is judged sufficient or insufficient by the voters who confront the petition. Signing one's name means that one agrees with the reason. According to this petition the reason for recalling Davis are:
Now, Davis is by no means the best governor in the country, but there's been nothing since the last election that warrants a recall. Davis' worst bunglings, like the horrible mismanagement of the energy crisis, occurred in his first term. The term that happened before he was reelected. There's been no startling revelation, no further travesties of legislation. Everything alleged by Davis' opponents was alleged less than a year ago. (I'm not going much farther than that in defense of Davis because I think he's an idiotic schlemiel. I was prepared to vote for Republican Richard Riordan who, though I have many disagreements with, did a good job of administrating my home town of Los Angeles. However, thanks in no small part to the intervention of America's Mayor, Bill Simon [dead link to changed Internet Archive, 10/26/10] became the Republican candidate instead, and proceeded to make himself look more incapable than Davis. No mean feat. (I realize that the link for Simon is not horrible official, but I was amused that it was one of the first ones on my Google search.))
It's important to note that, although Issa is a Republican, the GOP did not formally back this movement, which was smart. If this kind of hijacking of the system were to become standard, the Republicans would be on the bad end of the stick. California is still a Democrat-heavy state, and there are plenty of millionaires who'd be willing to sink some money into harassing any Republican who makes it into office. Now, of course, the party is moving in to take advantage of the opportunity, and in the short months until the election, things are going to get very nasty.
As for the election on Oct. 7, there will be two questions: Should Gray Davis be recalled as Governor of California? and In the event that Governor Davis is recalled, who should be his successor. The first question needs a majority to effect a recall. For the second, whoever has the plurality take office if a majority voted in favore of recall. It appears that there will be no Democrats on that ballot, but it is unclear which or how many Republicans, Independents and others will show up.
SunNYTX: 21. The theme was ho-hum, but I really loved this grid. SunLATX: 17.
California has three legislative reform measures in place; their purpose is to give power to the populace in the face of corruption among elected officials.
- Initiative. "The initiative is the power of the electors to propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution and to adopt or reject them." Cal. Const. art. II, sec. 8.
- Referendum. "The referendum is the power of the electors to approve or reject statutes or parts of statutes except urgency statutes, statutes calling elections, and statutes providing for tax levies or appropriations for usual current expenses of the State." Cal. Const. art. II, sec. 9.
- Recall. "Recall is the power of the electors to remove an elective officer." Cal. Const. art. II, sec. 13.
If you're wondering what it takes to force a recall of an elected official less than a year since the last election, a year that was marked by no significant scandal, the answer is somewhere around $1.7 million, all from one man, Darrell Issa. You've probably heard Issa before; he made his disposable fortune creating the Viper car alarm. Yes, he was the one mechanically demanding that you "please step away from the vehicle."
A recall has to happen for "sufficient reason," but that reason is judged sufficient or insufficient by the voters who confront the petition. Signing one's name means that one agrees with the reason. According to this petition the reason for recalling Davis are:
Gross mismanagement of California Finances by overspending taxpayers' money, threatening public safety by cutting funds to local governments, failing to account for the exorbitant cost of the energy fiasco, and failing in general to deal with the state's major problems until they get to the crisis stage. California should not have to be known as the state with poor schools, traffic jams, outrageous utility bills, and huge debts....all caused by gross mismanagement.
Now, Davis is by no means the best governor in the country, but there's been nothing since the last election that warrants a recall. Davis' worst bunglings, like the horrible mismanagement of the energy crisis, occurred in his first term. The term that happened before he was reelected. There's been no startling revelation, no further travesties of legislation. Everything alleged by Davis' opponents was alleged less than a year ago. (I'm not going much farther than that in defense of Davis because I think he's an idiotic schlemiel. I was prepared to vote for Republican Richard Riordan who, though I have many disagreements with, did a good job of administrating my home town of Los Angeles. However, thanks in no small part to the intervention of America's Mayor, Bill Simon [dead link to changed Internet Archive, 10/26/10] became the Republican candidate instead, and proceeded to make himself look more incapable than Davis. No mean feat. (I realize that the link for Simon is not horrible official, but I was amused that it was one of the first ones on my Google search.))
It's important to note that, although Issa is a Republican, the GOP did not formally back this movement, which was smart. If this kind of hijacking of the system were to become standard, the Republicans would be on the bad end of the stick. California is still a Democrat-heavy state, and there are plenty of millionaires who'd be willing to sink some money into harassing any Republican who makes it into office. Now, of course, the party is moving in to take advantage of the opportunity, and in the short months until the election, things are going to get very nasty.
As for the election on Oct. 7, there will be two questions: Should Gray Davis be recalled as Governor of California? and In the event that Governor Davis is recalled, who should be his successor. The first question needs a majority to effect a recall. For the second, whoever has the plurality take office if a majority voted in favore of recall. It appears that there will be no Democrats on that ballot, but it is unclear which or how many Republicans, Independents and others will show up.
SunNYTX: 21. The theme was ho-hum, but I really loved this grid. SunLATX: 17.
One question.
Besides, there's no guarantee Davis will be recalled when the election is actually held anyway. All of Issa's time and money could just go down the drain. I don't know what the likelihood is that Davis will be recalled, to be honest. Do you have any feelings about what it might be? I guess I really can't see Californians electing a Republican governor right now, but I don't really know for sure. Given some of the scary things about what I've heard about what Davis has been doing, I'd certainly be voting him out if I lived in California, but I'm not sure if a majority of Californians are likely to feel the same.
Re: One question.
As regards the hijacking of the system, if this recall effort had come up in the third year of Davis' first term, I would not be talking about hijacking the system. I might disagree with whether or not the reasons cited were "sufficient" to warrant a recall vote, but it would be a timely response to some very bad decisions on Davis' part. However, there already was an election in response to those decisions. It was the election that happened at the end of Davis' first term of office. One of the reasons we have terms is so that we can evaluate the incumbent and decide if we really want him to continue running things. Davis did win that election, and there hasn't been anything to change since then. It would be similar to pushing for a recall (if one were allowed) of W. Bush, after he had won reelection, on the grounds that he unfairly led the country into war it did not want. That accusation is going to be made a lot during the coming election, and if the people still elect Bush, then that's just too bad. If the recall were pushed now, then there'd be some debate; two years from now, and it's an abuse of the (nonexistent) system.
As for the likelihood of an actual recall, it's all going to turn on voter turn-out. Democrats aren't very excited about Davis, and the main worry is that they'll stay home in droves while Republicans, who don't care for Davis and who will have a shiny slate of viable Republican candidates to choose from, will turn out in enough numbers to win a majority. Issa's campaign worked very hard to get the signatures certified early enough that the recall would not be folded in with the next regular election. The next regular election in California will be the presidential primaries, where it will be the Democrats with the shiny field of contenders and the Republicans who will have less reason to turn out. Davis is going to have to work the Democratic majority into lather over this issue to get them out on a date that wouldn't normally be an election.
Finally, it's not just Issa's money that's going down the drain. Twenty-five to thirty million dollars will be drained from the already dry California coffers to fund this special ballot. Focus has been drawn and will continue to be drawn from the sitting governor who will have to continue running the state while running a political campaign less than a year since his last.
Amazingly, although the upcoming election will be, this recall push is not a partisan issue. It's another data point in the disturbing trend in California politics where rich individuals of any political persuasion use their personal fortunes to finance pet projects. But while in the past, it's been limited to people spending absurd amounts of money to get elected (Huffington, even though he ultimately lost) or spending absurd amounts of money to drive lobbying groups to enact pet legislation (Reiner, who has pushed Californians hate of second-hand smoke to dizzying new legislative heights), it's reaching further, abusing the system to the point where even elections can be made moot. If this effort succeeds, I fear for any public officer whose public opinion may dip even slightly, having to battle the onslaught of money-men who want to use California's reform measures to suit their own whims.
Wow, I actually wrote a lot. Sleep now.