Published Jul 1, 2003
There’s this recall thing going on in California. Some Republicans — in particular, a right-wing state legislator named Darrell Issa — want to recall our Democratic governor, Gray Davis. They have to get enough signatures on a petition to get the recall on the ballot, and the state Republican machine is in full signature-gathering mode. Once the recall is on the ballot (and it will probably get there), Davis basically has to run for office again — against as many other candidates as can qualify. No party primaries or anything.
So it’s very favorable to the Republicans. First of all, it would normally be several years before they had another shot at the statehouse. Second, there are maybe one or two likely GOP candidates (Issa and Schwarzenegger), principally because the Republicans have been so bad at getting candidates elected at the statewide level. The Democrats, however, have maybe as many as six reasonable candidates. How does a Cruz Bustamante, Antonio Villaraigosa or Jane Harman justify not running, especially against a weak candidate like Davis (his approval ratings are well under 30%). Republicans have had a hard time getting elected against Davis specifically because their core voters are less numerous than Democratic core voters — and, in polarized elections with weak candidates (like Davis and Simon last year), it’s all about the core voters. But, if three Democratic candidates split the vote against one Republican, the GOP will take the statehouse.
Now, normally you wouldn’t think Whole Foods is the place to get signatures on a ballot that would put a Republican in Sacramento. But some guy got the idea that they would stand out front and try to get people’s names on the petition. And, somehow, there were people signing! And not that many berating the guy with the petition.
And that’s what’s wrong with Democrats. If this had been a Democratic petitioner in front of a Wal-Mart, he would’ve been constantly harassed, everybody who was thinking of signing would have been surrounded by three advocates for the second amendment, there would’ve been no signatures gathered that day, no boy.
So should Democrats be aggressive and rude and disrespectful like Republicans? I’d rather not, I admit. But, times like these — when we might have a Republican in Sacramento because your basic Democrat on the street isn’t smart enough to know a bad deal when he or she sees one.
I have no idea how this’ll turn out. What is it the Chinese say, live in interesting times?