SCHWARZENEGGER BY A CALIFORNIA LANDSLIDE: POLLS
New York Post ^ | 8/12/03 | DAVID K. LI
Posted on 08/12/2003 12:57 AM PDT by kattracks
August 12, 2003 -- LOS ANGELES - Two new polls yesterday showed Arnold Schwarzenegger winning the California gubernatorial race by a landslide, as embattled Gov. Gray Davis called the recall an "insult."In a poll released by KABC-TV in L.A. last night, 66 percent who said they were "certain to vote" in the historic Oct. 7 California recall backed the removal of Davis, a Democrat, while 32 percent opposed it. Of the replacement candidates, Schwarzenegger beat Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the ballot's only major Democrat, by 51 percent to 17 percent, according to the phone poll taken on the weekend.
Former Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth is at 6 percent and former federal prosecutor Bill Simon, who lost to Davis last November, at 7 percent.
"The recall is a bad idea, it's a waste of $70 million, and in my judgment, it's an insult to the 8 million people who went to the polls last November," Davis told reporters at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Holocaust and tolerance museum in West L.A.
"I come from the school where once an election is cast and someone is chosen to be the leader, everyone gets behind that leader and does the people's business," Davis said.
A Gallup poll released earlier yesterday drew similar results with pro-recall forces winning nearly a two-thirds majority, while Schwarzenegger led Bustamante, 42 percent to 22 percent, among replacement candidates.
Bustamante tried to turn his lack of wealth into a political advantage.
"I am an average guy trying to do an above-average job," Bustamante told CNN's "American Morning."
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What guys like Davis and Clinton don't seem to realize is that elective office is not some form of divine birthright. The people hired you, and if it has been deemed that you have screwed up, the people can fire you. I don't recall anyone getting bent out of shape about "undoing an election" over Nixon in 1974.