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How, how did Davis get re-elected? I've asked people at my college and work and I haven't found anyone who will own up to it. If they didn't vote for Simon then they claim to vote for the Green or Libertarian candidate.
Sure would be nice to have Gov. Jesse Ventura visit and body-slam the living stink out of Davis.

Anyway, I can't quite agree on Howard Jarvis' Prop 13. Having a limit set on how much property tax can be squeezed out of homebuyers/homeowners by Sacramento is really a good thing. Prop 13 gets blamed for many services, non-profit groups, and private agencies not getting a cut of the state budget.
When it comes to the schools, we still have the California Lottery that claims to have given schools approximately $13 billion since 1984.
Of course, one good idea that would help the schools is to apply a head tax on the children who attend the schools. Each family would be taxed for each child in school. It's fair for those who don't have any children and for those homeowners who don't have children in school anymore--and yes, there are still big families even in urban areas so even in Los Angeles, the shortfall won't be that significant.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I sound like a "racist".

I agree on the property tax; you're confusing me with the writer of the article :-). I post many articles because I find them interesting, not necessarily because I agree with them.

Davis won because there is a significant number of Democrats whose jobs depend on him. Davis voters recognized that he would play the game with the Teachers' Union, Firefighters' Union, and so on, and those people are organized and get out the vote well.

Simon didn't help his cause, unfortunately, by giving in to some of his advisors by following their advice to emphasize political corruption. As it happens, voters are aware of his corruption, believe all political candidates are corrupt, and therefore ignore it as an issue. To be fair, though, the press, while not liking Davis, never gave Simon a fair shot. He was pegged as a loser from the start, and as a result did badly in fund-raising, but he still got within 5% of Grayout. This is pretty good for a state that's supposed to be solidly Democratic.

Hope that helps understanding.

D