Ah, California! If it didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it.
Almost certainly, if the polls are to be believed, in the recall campaign the present Governor, Gray Davis, is yesterday’s headline, a goner! He is barely at a 25% approval rating and, at least at this writing, falling.
The event is the ultimate carnival, in a state in a serious budget crisis (current deficit: $38 billion!) and one that could use some political tranquility. It required signatures of only 12.5% of the number of people who voted in the last gubernatorial election to have the recall election. (Most states require at least 25% to institute the recall process.) As small as that number is, it takes only 65 signatures and a $3,500 filing fee to become a candidate, if the recall is successful; as a result there are about 135 candidates on the ballot. The electorate has less than two months to sift through it all. Almost anything can happen, although the odds have to be with the movie celebrity. (Tens of millions were just spent promoting Terminator 3 and, of course, its star.) Forget about experience and other political qualifications; in this, familiarity rules!
No one is saying much about it, but there is an interesting legal challenge to the process; in theory it has a plausible basis. The voter has a two-stage ballot. First, he or she must say “yes” or “no” to the recall question; then, provided a “yes” or “no” is selected, stage two gives him or her the right to choose one candidate from the dozens on the ballot. (Even though a voter opposes the recall, he of she still has a right to select a candidate in the case the recall is successful.) However, if a voter has no opinion about the recall and wishes to abstain on the issue, he or she can go no further, i.e., such a voter may not vote for any candidate.
In the legal appeal, it is argued that in every election a voter has the constitutional right to abstain, and in this election this right would be denied. There is bound to be a significant number of people in a state of 35,000,000 who do not care to express an opinion either way as to the recall, but who have no wish to be disenfranchised if the recall is successful. We’ll learn soon enough if the position has merit.
In a contest where rules are virtually non-existent, a truly bizarre outcome – – one that none can today foresee – – is certainly possible, if not likely. Suppose, for example, it became the “next hot thing” among internet users to focus on one candidate, the more obscure the better. The dilution caused by so many candidates could make it possible in such an effort to win with relatively few votes, a train-wreck just waiting to happen.
In the meantime how will the late-night talk hosts and comedians ever fully express their gratitude to California for providing them with a mother lode of material? But then this is showbiz-central, the home of media favorites such as O.J. and Kobe, and we more or less expect contretemps of our Golden State.
— Ken Butera