PING! 
Your One Stop Resource For All The California Recall News!
Want on our daily or major news ping lists? Freepmail DoctorZin.
Posted on 09/03/2003 7:29:57 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -
In the first debate of California's recall election, candidates vying to oust Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) attacked front-runner Cruz Bustamante for accepting Indian casino money and connected actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to an adviser's unpopular remarks on property taxes.
The skirmish came after a relaxed Davis told a separate forum with reporters and voters that the recall effort had been an awakening and that he would fight to keep his job and repair the state's problems.
The debate set the stage for the final month of the campaign and offered the best look thus far at the spectrum of opinions on the major issues in the recall, ranging from the state's budget to illegal immigrants to taxes.
Schwarzenegger did not attend the debate, and as a result could not defend himself as candidates took him to task on the tax issue. Schwarzenegger said he would attend a debate on Sept. 24 in which candidates are allowed to see the questions in advance — unlike Wednesday's forum.
Five candidates participated in the debate: Bustamante, columnist Arianna Huffington, state Sen. Tom McClintock, former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth and the Green Party's Peter Camejo.
The debate is the first of three scheduled so far in advance of the Oct. 7 vote. Candidates qualified for the debate by receiving at least 4 percent support in either a recent poll or the last statewide vote.
Before the start of the debate, Davis said he had not acted soon enough to deal with the state's energy crisis and pledged to keep in better touch with the people.
"I understand people are angry. I understand that people's lives are not as good as they were two years ago," said Davis, employing a theme he has repeatedly used throughout the recall campaign.
Bustamante, the Democratic lieutenant governor who leads the most recent poll, was criticized for taking advantage of a loophole in campaign finance law that allowed a tribe to pledge $2 million to his financially struggling campaign.
Huffington, an independent, said Bustamante had made a mockery of campaign finance laws, which allowed him to circumvent new contribution limits by accepting the bulk of the money in an old campaign account.
"This is nothing but legalized bribery," Huffington said.
"Tell me how you really feel," Bustamante replied.
He went on to say that he has been a longtime supporter of tribes and was proud of the support he had received.
Huffington and Camejo teamed up to link Schwarzenegger to remarks his billionaire adviser Warren Buffett (news - web sites) made that Proposition 13 might need to be reworked. Proposition is the voter-approved initiative that limits property tax hikes.
Schwarzenegger has said he wouldn't touch the law, and has tried to distance himself from Buffett's statements.
Camejo suggested that Schwarzenegger shut Buffett up, but he said he did voters a favor. "I say give him a microphone," Camejo said.
Bustamante also said the popular tax initiative should be retooled for commercial property, but McClintock and Ueberroth — Republicans who were in lockstep on a number of issues — said they would not change the tax formula.
While some of the candidates blamed Davis for the state's budget problems, Bustamante did not, instead jabbing at Schwarzenegger by saying "my option is to distinguish myself from those who are here and the guy who is not."
Even Davis indirectly took swipes at Schwarzenegger, blaming the state's problems on his predecessor, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, who is now a key adviser to the actor's campaign.
Schwarzenegger gave a speech before supporters and college students Wednesday, saying he wants to give back to the state that has helped him launched his career. He literally came under attack during the event when he was hit by an egg.
Appearing after Schwarzenegger on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record) also criticized him for not appearing at the debate.
"Here's a movie action hero, and he's going to duck the first debate," she said.
During his brief question-and-answer session, Davis said he would rather have raised taxes on the wealthy than to have increased fees on college students and he repeated claims that the recall was a right-wing effort to rewrite history after Republicans lost the fall election last year.
"It's like the Oakland Raiders saying to Tampa Bay, 'We know you beat us, but we want to play the Super Bowl again,'" Davis said.
Ueberroth actually suprised me because I expected him to go along with the liberals on the over-time issue and tuition rates for illegals.
McClintock's position on medical marijuana initially surprised me, but his response showed me he's both logically consistent and principaled
Other than that, I think it is just the sheeple who believe what the media tells them that think this is an outrage against democracy. Despite the media and pundit attempts to paint this as a "circus," most California voters know this is a critical movement to bring accountability back to our state government.
Rep. David Dreier, co-chair of the actor's campaign, sent a letter to the CBA on Wednesday asking that it reconsider the decision to give candidates the questions in advance. "We prefer a more traditional format where the candidates hear the questions for the first time at the debate," the letter said.
This sounds like someone who wants to go on his feet in a real debate, not like the stilted format of the one tonight.
No doubt the unions had to pay overtime for this gig.
Quite Orwellian.
Yes he is not a “knee jerk conservative” in any way more his beliefs all seem to be built on core principal logic
i agree with your sentiment, but some will question whether a wealthy individual spending millions of dollars to collect the signatures of just 10% of the electorate represents a "popular uprising."
i don't doubt that the popular support was there, but the grassroots activism that could have tapped it failed - or was run over by issa.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.