Over at this website, you can read the statement Gray Davis has submitted for the ballot, arguing as to why he should not be recalled. It pretty much demonstrates why this guy is probably heading for the unemployment line. It's a dreadful statement…
He reminds voters of his years of service as an Army Captain in Vietnam, State Controller, Lieutenant Governor and now as Governor. But voters never doubted that the guy had a lot of experience. No one who thinks he should be recalled is going to say, "Hey, wait a minute! I didn't know the guy had been State Controller!"
He harps on the cost of the recall. That was a great reason not to have one, but it's too late for that argument. We're having one. The money's being spent, whether Davis goes or not. If he was going to bring this up, he should have said something like, "If this succeeds, it could trigger a lot more costly, wasteful recall votes."
He says, "Because there are so many candidates on the ballot, the next governor could be elected with less than 15% of the vote! And voters won't know who the replacement would be when they vote on the recall." That's not a bad point but it would be more effective if he said, "While voters must always have the right to recall elected officials who commit crimes in office, this particular recall procedure is flawed by design. A public official could be removed from office because only 49% of the voters wish to retain him and he could then be replaced by a candidate who gets 10 or 15% of the vote. That's not how Democracy is supposed to work."
Beyond that, the essence of his case is that Republicans have caused a lot of our problems. And while that may be true, it does raise the musical question, "If you haven't been able to prevent the damage in the past, how are you going to be able to repair it in the future? Especially if you survive with only slightly more than half of the electorate that doesn't want to see you tossed out?"
Before I read the statement, I thought that if Davis took an aggressive stance and vowed to track down the Enron-like guys who bilked the state of billions, he might at least be able to reverse the direction of his poll numbers. Now, I'm thinking he's just going to wither away on us.