Posted on 08/30/2003 2:57:01 PM PDT by george wythe
Bald, pudgy and short, Cruz Bustamante until recently did not even have a college degree. But the Mr. Ordinary of California politics could prove the terminator to Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger in the race for governor.
Until a few weeks ago, Bustamante, 50, was working largely out of public view as lieutenant governor, a job that rarely makes headlines. Then he became the only major Democrat to jump into a special recall election against Gov. Gray Davis, and some polls now show him leading movie star Schwarzenegger.
"I don't have his physique so I can't compete there, and I also don't have his checkbook, so I can't compete there," Bustamante told Reuters in an interview at his campaign headquarters, referring to "The Terminator" action hero.
"Even though I don't have Arnold's physique, my best ideas come from between my ears and not my biceps."
"I don't come to this naively. I've been here (in elected office) for 10 years. I understand that in many cases campaigns are in 30-second blurbs and it's the sort of showmanship that takes place."
With Bustamante fighting for the lead among replacement candidates, he has joked that he is actor Danny DeVito in a race opposite Schwarzenegger.
The contrasts are many. Unlike the former Mr. Universe, Bustamante has never made a movie, never posed naked, never had a pinball machine bearing his image, or -- as Schwarzenegger admitted in a recently resurfaced 1977 magazine interview -- participated in an orgy.
The grandson of Mexican immigrants, Bustamante grew up in California's Central Valley, the nation's ripest agricultural region. He worked as a political aide, then won a California Assembly seat in 1993, and eventually was chosen speaker.
Bustamante received a bachelor's degree in May from Fresno State University, completing his studies on the Internet.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
COLD FRONT WITH DAVIS
Since becoming lieutenant governor in 1998, Bustamante has suffered frosty relations with fellow Democrat Davis. Part of their feud stems from differences over Proposition 187, which denied government services to illegal aliens. Davis was slow in opposing the measure.
The governor also took away some of Bustamante's parking spots; they have rarely talked since.
In the interview, Bustamante twice declined to say anything positive about Davis.
"Gray Davis is a person who ... believes that he, along with his cadre of supporters and people he has surrounded himself with work very, very hard to be able to find the best answer to questions," he said. "It has not been a real inclusive style, at least as far as I am concerned."
The lieutenant governor's turn came when he defied Davis's call -- and his own earlier pledges -- for all Democrats to stay off the Oct. 7 ballot, which could make Davis the second governor in U.S. history to be run out of town in a recall.
Bustamante has proposed $8 billion in new taxes and fees to repair the state's finances and a repeal of a car tax increase Davis backed.
"The governor and many others have said that it is a right-wing conspiracy," Bustamante said. "The vast majority of those people who signed the petitions are not part of some right-wing conspiracy."
"They have basically said to people in the leadership in California, we want to see everything back on the table. Governor, we want to see what you have got to say, hear your proposals."
Bustamante's official line is that he opposes the recall, but he is largely focused on winning the second part of the ballot, which lists 135 replacement candidates should the recall succeed.
Busta should clean out his ears if he believes that trying to regulate the pump price of gasoline is a good idea. Unless he means to declare California as part of Mexico.
We can expect to see a lot more of these puff pieces from the so-called "mainstream" media. There may be some indications Bustamante isn't even a legal citizen, but as usual it's the tearjerker "grandson of immigrants" propaganda.
We'll leave it to the internet press and perhaps Fox network to get to the full truth about this guy, Reuters and the rest aren't going to do it.
Is that on Internet rumor like the people who get their kidneys stolen?
How can a person be a third-generation American (born in America of US-born parents) and not be legal citizen?
There are many reasons to criticize this buffoon, but I have not seen any credible report about Bustamante being an illegal alien.
If previous elections are a guide, Latinos do not vote according to their proportional representation.
According to the US Census, Latinos are one third of Californians, but Latino voters represent less than 10 percent of the California voters, if I recall correctly.
Bustamante's failure to distance himself from the racist MEChA might cost him votes, but who knows, Californians are a quirky bunch.
If Mexico got the Southwest US, that whole area's economy would deteriorate under Mexican law and governance. All these immigrants (legal and illegal) would have gone to a whole lot of effort just to be put back in Mexico.
I'd say so. They've done something similar in Mexico and it looks like he wants to impose those type of socialist policies onto California. That includes banning guns, another one of his dreams he'd like to force onto everyone.
Section 1.The name of this organization shall be the National Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA).
Section 2.The official symbol of this organization shall be the eagle with its wings spread, bearing a macahuittle in one claw and a dynamite stick in the other with the lighted fuse in its beak. The acronym MEChA shall be above the symbol with the phrase "La Union Hace La Fuerza" below.
There are reports they can't find his birth certificate or any record of being born here. I have no idea where that started or if it's true or not, but it should be investigated. The same would be said if he was a Republican. In fact if he was, the investigation on that charge would have already started.
That's politics and how it goes. If the story is false, all Cruz has to do is present the record and be done with it. If he doesn't, then he acts like he's got something to hide.
An policy difference of major substance to the electorate, I'm sure.
In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal "gringo" invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlan from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny.
We are free and sovereign to determine those tasks which are justly called for by our house, our land, the sweat of our brows, and by our hearts. Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent.
Brotherhood unites us, and love for our brothers makes us a people whose time has come and who struggles against the foreigner "gabacho" who exploits our riches and destroys our culture. With our heart in our hands and our hands in the soil, we declare the independence of our mestizo nation. We are a bronze people with a bronze culture. Before the world, before all of North America, before all our brothers in the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos, we are Aztlan.Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada.[For the race, everything. Outside the race, nothing]
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