San Francisco Chronicle: Dueling op/ed pieces on the Recall

[Jack Rabbit]

From the San Francisco Chronicle
Dated Sunday August 24

Resolved: Voters should recall Gov. Davis on Oct. 7
YES: It's a small price to pay
By Ted Costa

Let's look at the cost of the election to determine whether Gray Davis should remain California's governor. It will cost about $65 million. That's a couple of dollars for every man, woman and child in the state.
But just how much money is it, really? Well, that becomes a much more interesting question when we start to compare it to other costs in the government's portfolio . . . .
Or compare the cost of the recall election to the tax increases Davis wants to impose as part of his plan to fill the black hole of the budget deficit that he built over the last five years. The $8 billion in tax increases Davis sought just three months ago in May dwarfs the cost of the special election. The cost of the election is a tiny fraction of 1 percent of the tax increases Davis demanded. The scale of tax increases Davis proposed makes the cost of the election a very good deal for Californians. It gives Californians their first chance to say "no" to rampant tax increases.
For this election really is a referendum on tax increases. The question on Oct. 7 is not so much about Gray Davis, the person. Almost no one in the state really cares about Davis personally. He gets elected by getting voters angry, worried or confused about his opponents. So they don't vote for Gray Davis; they vote against his opponent.

Anti-tax activist Ted Costa headed the signature-gathering drive that put the recall on the ballot.

NO: Stop the GOP coup
By John Fall

In the last four years, the Republican Party has attempted to overturn the results of every major election in which a majority of Californians voted for the winner.
Their first attempt to undo the voter's will was the 1999 impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, a man they pursued like enraged hornets chasing a hapless bear. They had more success in 2000 against Al Gore, whom the Republican-appointed majority on the U.S. Supreme Court summarily shoved into the political wilderness like so many used punch-card ballots. This despite Gore having garnered more of the popular vote than the current occupier of the White House and quite possibly, though we will never know for sure, the majority of votes in Florida.
Now, with the potential recall of Gov. Davis, it looks like the GOP's success rate is about to improve.
It hardly registered with Republicans that Davis won re-election only last November - he barely had time to begin his second term before the losing side began circulating recall petitions . . . .
In California, the idea that Gov. Davis caused the now-defunct energy crisis has such wide acceptance it may make into history books, despite the fact that he didn't write, vote for or sign energy legislation into law. Nor is he responsible for the meltdown of Silicon Valley and the rest of the economy. Yet recall proponents and a host of governor-wannabes have successfully made him the official state pinata for these ills and more.
Certainly, Davis has a lackluster presence and an unseemly appetite for fund raising that makes him a hard leader to rally around. Yet the claim that "the people" made themselves heard by signing recall petitions is false. Some people made themselves heard, but in fact it was conservative Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), his teary eyes affixed to the seal of the governor's office, who took the recall effort from barely breathing to the ballot. Without the marriage of Issa's money with zealous right-wing signature gatherers still pining for a Gov. Bill Simon, we would not be where we are now.

John Fall is a freelance writer in Oakland.

Read both pieces.

[cap]

1. People need to grow up...

and realize that a tax cut translates into a service cut. There is very little that can be wrung out of government any more in terms of increased efficiencies.

We aren't getting a more efficient government we are getting fewer public services.

It's always nice to pay less taxes but it's nice to have services like education, too.

[cybildisobedience]

2. the writer did a great job

Davis' (Clinton's) message got a full airing here.