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Recall Vote Promises to Add to California Chaos
The New York Times ^ | 7/10/03 | John M. Broder

Posted on 07/10/2003 11:17:17 PM PDT by LdSentinal

LOS ANGELES, July 9 — One day this fall, Californians could wake up with a throbbing political hangover and a new governor.

Although a number of logistical and legal challenges lie ahead, a statewide recall election to decide the fate of Gov. Gray Davis now appears all but inevitable. The campaign leading up to such an election, if it is held this fall, will be a two-month binge of fast and furious campaigning unlike any the people of California have ever seen.

Mr. Davis's supporters are preparing to raise millions of dollars and are already combing the records of the recall organizers and potential opponents for material for a wave of no-holds-barred pre-election advertising. Recall proponents are vowing to spend as much as $20 million to dump Mr. Davis, and the potential candidates to replace him may spend millions more.

"It'll be nasty," said John J. Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont-McKenna College. "Brutish and short, too. The interesting thing will be to see if the campaign backfires on Davis. He will need to attack his opponents and raise lots of money, which will just remind Californians of why they hate him so much."

Mr. Davis has about $1.5 million left from last year's re-election campaign (he raised nearly $70 million) that he can use to fight the recall, an aide said. But he will need to raise many millions more to be successful.

The recall proponents contend that Mr. Davis won re-election last year on a platform of political deception and fiscal chicanery and deserves to be booted out. They will blame him for the energy crisis, the $38 billion state budget deficit and the summer smog.

The pro-Davis forces are sounding alarms about the damage such an election will do to the state's image, its credit rating and its political stability. They are repeating the phrase "right-wing coup d'etat" like a mantra and cranking up the opposition research apparatus that they used so effectively in last year's race.

As part of the anti-recall effort, Davis supporters organized a conference call today with Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state; Eli Broad, the billionaire developer and philanthropist; Warren Hellman, a Republican investment banker; and Art Pulaski, president of the California Labor Federation/A.F.L.-C.I.O. They warned that the state's political and fiscal chaos was driving business away and undermining democracy.

Meanwhile, politicians across the spectrum are eyeing the low threshold for winning a place on the ballot and pondering, "Why not me?"

It will be several weeks before the recall petition signatures are validated and a date is set for the election. Advisers to Mr. Davis are researching legal challenges to the way the signatures were gathered, hoping at least to delay certification of the petitions and to push back the date of the election.

But if the recall proponents submit 1.4 million raw petition signatures by the end of this week, as they have promised, experts say they will almost certainly reach the 900,000 valid signatures needed to call an election.

Then comes 60 to 80 days of extraordinary political mayhem.

The ballot will contain two questions: Should Governor Davis be recalled, and who should replace him?

To win a spot on the second part of the ballot, candidates need only submit 65 valid signatures and pay a $3,500 filing fee, or submit 10,000 valid signatures, a drop in the bucket by California standards. The longer the list of names grows, the fewer votes it will take to catapult someone into the governor's chair.

The winner takes office immediately after the election results are certified, probably a matter of days, although analysts here are warning of the likelihood of Florida-like challenges to the vote.

So far, only two people have officially declared their candidacy for governor — Darrell Issa, a conservative Republican member of Congress from San Diego County who failed in a 1998 Senate primary bid, and Peter Camejo, who ran for governor last fall on the Green Party ticket without leaving a deep impression on the electorate. The Davis forces are already reminding voters that Mr. Issa, who made an estimated $100 million in a car-alarm business, was twice arrested (but not convicted) on charges of car theft more than two decades ago and lost his business to a suspicious fire.

Waiting in the wings are several other Republicans, including Bill Simon, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor in 2002, and Richard J. Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has an impressive physique but no experience in state finance, is weighing a run, and a Los Angeles Times columnist, Steve Lopez, says he is running, too.

Prominent Democrats, including the lieutenant governor, Cruz Bustamante, and Senator Dianne Feinstein, have said they do not intend to seek the governorship and are standing behind Mr. Davis. For now.

But as the election approaches, if Mr. Davis appears in serious danger of losing, the Democrats may well put up a candidate and hope the Republicans and the no-names split their vote.

"The Democrats are going to wait and see Davis's poll numbers and see where he is in relation to his Republican opponents," said a Democratic consultant in the pro-Davis camp, who strayed from the party line on the promise of anonymity. "If it looks like he can ride it out, they'll stay out. But if it looks like he's going down, and it's possible a credible Democrat could keep the governorship, they'll find someone."

The intertwined political and budget crises have caught the attention of the notoriously lackadaisical California electorate, which tends to pay attention to politics only sporadically and only in the days before an election. Less than half the state's registered voters turned out for the last gubernatorial election, which Mr. Davis won by a narrow margin over Mr. Simon, a political neophyte.

Now the voters may well be forced to decide whether to keep Mr. Davis in office, or turn to someone new. They will get no say in how the current crop of political leaders — or any new governor — addresses the $38 billion budget shortfall.

"It's hard to see under any circumstance, with or without the recall, the state is better off next year than this year," Professor Pitney said. "We're in for hard times no matter what, and the recall might not end up making much of a difference either way."


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: 2003; ballot; billsimon; budget; bustamante; california; camejo; deficit; feinstein; governor; graydavis; issa; petition; recall; riordan; schwarzenegger

1 posted on 07/10/2003 11:17:18 PM PDT by LdSentinal
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To: LdSentinal
Its going to be a barrel of fun. I can hardly wait to say "a la hasta vista baby" to our feckless Governor.
2 posted on 07/10/2003 11:19:37 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: All
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3 posted on 07/10/2003 11:22:26 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: goldstategop
Fish Wrap Alert!
Oh gosh, what is that tuna, mackerel, rotting fish guts?

4 posted on 07/10/2003 11:23:08 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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Warning: Be on the lookout for California
Taxpayer's public enemy number one.

He is known to frequent teacher's union
meetings and promise the moon.

Do not approach.  Call your local RNC headquarters.

5 posted on 07/10/2003 11:25:43 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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To: LdSentinal; William McKinley; Sabertooth; Howlin; Joe Hadenuf; Grampa Dave
"As part of the anti-recall effort, Davis supporters organized a conference call today with Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state; Eli Broad, the billionaire developer and philanthropist; Warren Hellman, a Republican investment banker; and Art Pulaski, president of the California Labor Federation/A.F.L.-C.I.O."

Take a gander at who the NY Times labels as a "Republican investment banker". Sheesh.

101 records found in .06 seconds.

SEARCH CRITERIA:
Donor name: Hellman
Donor state: CA
Election cycle(s): 2002 2000

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Records 1 - 49:

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HELLMAN F WARREN
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111
N/A 6/7/2002 $10,000 DCCC/Non-Federal Account 10 
HELLMAN F WARREN
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111
N/A 6/28/2002 $15,000 DCCC/Non-Federal Account 5 
HELLMAN, BARBARA ANNE MRS
BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90210
NOT EMPLOYED/RETIRED 3/8/2000 $250 Gore, Al 
HELLMAN, BARBARA ANNE MS
BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90210
INFO REQUESTED 6/15/1999 $250 Gore, Al 

6 posted on 07/10/2003 11:31:45 PM PDT by Southack (Media bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: goldstategop
Seantor Tom McClintock (R) - Thousand Oaks

Memo to my Wife:

Hi Honey --
Since you’ve let me take over our household finances, I’m happy to report that our family budget is balanced, I’ve saved thousands of dollars, and I’ve kept us in the style to which I would like to become accustomed.

You might wonder how I’ve been able to do all this. I just followed the easy steps that Gov. Gray Davis outlined in his May Budget Revision.

I know you’re upset because I spent nearly $11,000 more than we took in this year. You really need to keep things in perspective. Gray spent nearly $11 billion more than he took in, and he’s not worried. I’ve taken out a second on our house and Gray’s taken out the largest state loan in American history to cover the difference, so just relax.

I’m being fiscally conservative and socially liberal with our budget, just like the Governor. I’ve cut thousands of dollars from our expenses without affecting our standard of living in the slightest. I know you’re skeptical, but it was really very easy. I just added a new jet ski to my wish list and then scratched it out. That saves $5,500. Pretty clever, huh? You can actually do this in any amount – Gray “cut” $5.5 billion from the state budget exactly the same way.

I also saved us $2,100 by not making our December mortgage payment until January, giving us a little extra cash this year. Once again, I can’t claim credit – it was Gray’s idea. He took $1.2 billion that the state owes to the schools and pushed it one month into the next fiscal year. Then he did essentially the same thing with $930 million in MediCal spending. Presto: another $2.1 billion that he “cut” from the budget.

The biggest financial problem our family faces is that the state is about to triple our car tax. I know you’ll feel better knowing that Gray is claiming this $4.2 billion tax increase is really – you guessed it – a “cut” in government spending. Overall, taxes will rise an average of $950 per family.

But it’s no problem -- we can pay our steadily increasing taxes the same way Gray is paying for his steadily increasing pension obligations. The state owes its main pension system $1.9 billion this year. Instead of paying it, Gray simply took out another credit card. We can make our taxes go away the same way.

Now I need to mention a sore subject – the kid’s college funds. I know they’ve been saving their baby-sitting and lawn mowing money, but these are hard times and everybody needs to sacrifice. So I’m taking $940 from them to balance our checkbook, and I’ll promise to pay it back by 2009.

Before you get mad, just remember that Gray is doing the same thing with $940 million of the taxes that we’ve been paying at the gas pump that are supposed to be going into a special fund for our roads. The way I see it, if we’ve got to watch our highway taxes taken away from our highways, our kids can just suck it up too.

So don’t worry about a thing – I’ve learned a lot about money management from Gray Davis and have everything under control. I imagine that the bill collectors who keep calling may have some questions. Just refer them to the Governor’s Department of Finance. I’m sure there’s a former Enron accountant there who can explain everything.

Meanwhile, I’m going to go ahead and buy that little boat I’ve had my eye on. Gray added $2.2 billion to his spending plan since January and after everything I’ve already saved, I figure I’m entitled.

Thanks for the checkbook, Honey.

DAVIS IS A CROOK - RECALL HIS A$$
Then vote for Tom McClintock - aproven leader.

7 posted on 07/10/2003 11:32:05 PM PDT by capitan_refugio
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To: Southack
The Warrens aren't Republicans but RINOs. Like Dick Riordan and wife.
8 posted on 07/10/2003 11:33:33 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: LdSentinal
The pro-Davis forces are sounding alarms . (and) repeating the phrase "right-wing coup d'etat" ..

Honest? A coup? Wow. I thought it was just a recall election. This is wonderful! Will tanks be fanning out all over the state or just in Sacramento? Will supporters of the coup be allowed to ride on the outside of the tanks?

9 posted on 07/10/2003 11:34:59 PM PDT by DPB101
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To: LdSentinal
the recall might not end up making much of a difference either way

True, but we will feel a hell of a lot better with Davis humiliated.

10 posted on 07/10/2003 11:38:58 PM PDT by Jeff Gordon
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