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I have to agree with David. We have to take a risk and acknowledge that building a conservative presence in California is a long term project. There are too many fruits and nuts running around in our state to elect a conservative the first time around. We need a good foil and Arnold is it. Winning the state house would get the outvoted GOP a powerful bargaining chip at the negotiating table. It would also give the party a chance to attract and recruit new talent across the state to run in 2004. And President Bush would get a star presence at his convention in New York next year. Oh the Democrats would love to have one. But they're stuck with Gray Davis. And this race is Arnold's to lose, which even as the LAT's liberal Sacramento bureau chief George Skelton admitted in a column today, is exactly on the money. We can either be pure and elect a conservative and watch him be turned out at the next election and lose California next year or we can be pragmatic and get behind a superstar and lay the foundations for a future conservative majority. That can emerge in time for the next redistricting cycle in 2010. Conservatives have to learn to present themselves as "cool and modern." Let's concentrate the fire on the Democrats. We've been locked out of power too long in The Golden State.

Ballot order could play key role in California's landmark recall election

TOM CHORNEAU, Associated Press Writer Monday, August 11, 2003

(08-11) 01:35 PDT SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) --

With close to 200 candidates already signed up to run in the state's historic recall election of Gov. Gray Davis, the ballot itself could be a real page-turner.

When Californians vote Oct. 7, they may have to scan though several pages of options until they find the candidate of their choice. The ballot listings themselves also will vary from district to district.

On Monday, the secretary of state was scheduled to hold a random drawing to determine the order in which candidates' names will appear since state law requires more than just across-the-board alphabetized lists.

The recall election, first in the nation in 82 years, has attracted as many as 193 candidates, including actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth and political commentator Arianna Huffington.

But scores of other candidates with unknown or strangely familiar names -- like electrical engineer Michael Jackson -- also have qualified, making position on the ballot a key to success, according to political observers.

A lottery-style drawing of canisters will determine an initial random alphabetical order. If "U" is drawn first then Ueberroth may be listed near the top in District 1. If "C" is drawn second, then all the candidates whose name begins with "C" rank high. And so on through the alphabet.

"The big unknown is who will turn out to vote in this election," said John Pitney, government professor at Claremont McKenna College. "How many will vote on the recall question and then freeze when they see this list of over 100 names?"

For additional fairness, the listing of names on the ballot will be rotated across the state's 80 Assembly districts. The candidate at the top of the ballot in District 1 would go to the end of the ballot in District 2 so that every letter of the alphabet gets the top position somewhere in the state.

The final list of names certified for the ballot is due to be released Wednesday.

Davis will lose if he gets 49.9 percent or less on Oct. 7. With so many challengers on the ballot, the eventual winner could only need a fraction of the vote to become governor.

A Time/CNN poll of 508 registered voters released Saturday found Davis with just 35 percent of the vote supporting him. The same poll had Schwarzenegger leading Bustamante 25 percent to 15 perc.....

More At:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/08/11/national0435EDT0452.DTL