As readers of my previous weblog will recall, I have no particular respect or fondness for Gray Davis, the current governor of California. I seem to be with the majority on this. Davis is unpopular and was only returned to office in the 2000 election because his opponent was (amazingly) even less popular.
Ordinarily, since I love the idea of citizens holding government officials accountable, I'd cheer the notion of recalling someone from an elected position. I think we oughta recall about half the guys in office these days. But the current effort to recall Davis looks like a very bad idea to me. For one thing, it's not like anything has changed since the last election. In a very real sense, the recall drive is the effort of losers deciding they want to re-run an election they think they should have won. If that kind of thing succeeds, it could become a very bad precedent for our nation. Whenever there's a close election, the losing side would merely start a recall drive and hope to get a do-over.
The other problem here is that the recall movement is largely being driven (and financed) by a wealthy G.O.P. representative who seems to think this is a more promising way to become governor than running in a conventional election. That's a crummy reason for a recall.
As reported in this article in The Washington Post and this column by Robert Novak, Californians have wildly-differing views of the whole recall movement. Some Republicans hate Davis and cannot see how ousting him could be anything but a good thing. But many Republicans fear that it would be a chance for the Democrats (in this Democratic state) to elect someone who'll be a more formidable opponent in the next normal election. So some Democrats see this as an opportunity for them, while others oppose it for the obvious reasons.
I don't like the whole idea. I don't think Gray Davis should be governor and I resent the fact that I may have to go vote for him again.