 
Arianna Huffington (left) announces in South Los Angeles today that she is an independent candidate to replace California Gov. Gray Davis if voters recall him in October or March. Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger (right) announces during today's taping of "The Tonight Show" that he also will seek the California governorship, sophisticatedly "calling it the toughest [decision] he's made since deciding to get a bikini wax in 1978," according to the Associated Press.
Arianna for governor (for now)
Non-Californians -- hell, even Californians -- must think that California truly is the Land of Fruits and Nuts. Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and testosterone-movie actor Arnold Schwarzenegger want to be governor. And progressive columnist and author Arianna Huffington, too.
But let's not forget history, folks: The Republicans started this recall. The Republicans, who can't win an election the old-fashioned way: By winning the most number of votes in a regularly scheduled election.
They have to have a Katherine Harris rig the election for them, or they have to pull redistricting shenanigans, or they have to abuse the recall process. (Ethically, the recall process should be used when a governor is guilty of serious wrongdoing or is otherwise unfit for office; but legally, there was nothing to stop California Republicans from orchestrating the recall of Gov. Gray Davis because their lame excuse for a candidate, Bill Simon, lost to Davis in November. California Republicans should have nominated former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who could have beaten Davis, but they didn't because Riordan isn't enough of a right-wing nutjob for them, so they lost to Davis. Now, they want a do-over.)
As the Republican Party dies because demographic shifts in the United States no longer support its racist/Anglophilic, patriarchal/misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, warmongering, planet-killing, plutocratic platform, we can expect such desperate acts from the Republicans as stolen elections (we especially have to be vigilant over the computerization of the ballot), coup attempts via redistricting and bullshit recalls.
But we progressives need to realize that the Republicans are doing these things because they are weak and because they are afraid because they are weak. Now is not the time for us to give up; now is the time for us to be as aggressive against the Republicans as they have been against us progressives, especially now that they are so weak.
With this in mind, I support Arianna Huffington's candidacy in the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. I even donated $25 to her campaign today. Why the apparent 180-degree change within 24 hours? Well, things are happening very quickly here in California, like a series of little earthquakes that are threatening to change the face of the state for good or for ill.
Here's how the recall election -- which is scheduled for Oct. 7, but, if the California Supreme Court so rules, will be held in March -- is going to work (as of this writing, anyway): The first part of the recall ballot will be "yes" or "no"; should Davis be recalled or not? The second part of the recall ballot will be a list of the gubernatorial candidates who qualified to appear on the ballot (the California Constitution prohibits Davis from being listed among the replacement candidates).
If the majority of California voters decide that Davis should not be recalled, then he finishes his term -- assuming that there is not yet another recall attempt (as The Homeless Leftists, who are up on the California recall, state, if this recall fails, Davis could be recalled again in another six months; no good reason is needed, just the number of recall-petition signatures that the law requires).
If the majority of voters decide that Davis should be recalled, then whichever candidate gets the most votes -- even if his or her percentage of the votes is a single digit -- becomes California's new governor. (Unless the California Supreme Court decides that, per the California Constitution, the lieutenant governor automatically will replace Davis if the voters decide to recall him, which seems highly unlikely.)
With his approval rating well below 50 percent, there is a very good chance that the California voters will vote to recall Davis. If they do, I don't want to be stuck with a Gov. Flynt or Gov. Schwarzenegger or anyone else who thinks that the governorship of California is no big deal, that you can just walk onto the job, say, after you've established a porn empire or starred in a trilogy of science-fiction movies about mean robots from the future, because hey, becoming governor is the next logical step, right? The governorship of California is not a fucking joke. It is the highest state office in the most populous state of the nation.
Of those who have announced their candidacy in the recall thus far, Arianna Huffington is progressives' best bet. Yes, I wish that she had held public office before. Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to believe that a governor should have been a state or U.S. senator or representative or at least a mayor or have held some fairly important elected office for at least one term. I've had bosses who didn't know what my job was like, and therefore as leaders they were disasters.
However, Arianna has been writing columns and books about the political process for years now; she's no stranger to the political process.
I had already donated $25 to her online today before I learned via the Internet that Schwarzenegger is running -- it had been reported that he was leaning against running, so I really didn't think that he would -- but when I learned that Schwarzenegger will be a candidate, my support for Arianna solidified. No way in hell will Arnold Fucking Schwarzenegger become governor of California without my having done what I could (legally) to have prevented it.
Schwarzenegger's decision to run is another stupid Republican tactical error. As I wrote, the Republicans stupidly picked Simon instead of Riordan in their gubernatorial primary. Riordan is a very rare Republican for whom I could see myself voting. Simon, on the other hand, in what I call "Photogate," shortly before the gubernatorial election in November falsely accused Davis of having illegally accepted a campaign contribution inside the state Capitol building. (It is illegal to accept a campaign contribution on state property.) The photograph that Simon exhibited as "proof" was quickly and easily shown to have been taken inside a private residence, not inside the state Capitol. And Simon was a prosecutor. That he can show his face again in public -- he has been talking about running in the recall -- is proof of his stupidity and of his colossal ego.
Riordan has been saying that if Schwarzenegger runs in the recall, he will not. If Riordan indeed does not run in the recall and Schwarzenegger is the Republican Party's best offering, that means that once again, the California Republican Party blew it by not fronting Riordan. "Polls have shown Riordan would be a stronger candidate [than Schwarzenegger]," the Associated Press reports. It seems to me that the California Republican leadership -- if such a thing exists -- should have pressured Schwarzenegger not to run and pressured Riordan to run. (How many recalls will it take, I wonder, before the Republicans realize that Riordan is the best thing they have going for them?)
I can't see Schwarzenegger winning the recall. It's possible, but I don't think it's likely. Yes, he has the name recognition, no doubt, but how many Californians can say, with pride, "Governor Schwarzenegger"? (How many of them can even say "Schwarzenegger"?)
I don't like the whole recall bullshit. But California law allows the Republicans to get away with it. I don't like it, but I have to live with it, and since I have to live with it, I'm going to do what I can to bring about the best possible outcome.
So I'm voting "no" on the recall and hoping that the majority of California voters vote "no" along with me. I don't like Davis and I voted for the Green Party gubernatorial candidate in November, but the highest number of voters picked Davis, and I know that I must honor their choice. It's called "democracy," this quirky concept that only we traitors, as Ann Coulter calls us, believe in anymore.
But unless a better progressive recall candidate emerges between now and 5 p.m. Saturday (the deadline for recall candidates to file their candidacy papers), I'm voting for Arianna Huffington as Davis' replacement just in case Davis is recalled. (Those who vote "no" on the recall will be allowed to pick a replacement candidate just in case, so that they have a say in who the next governor will be if Davis is ousted.)
The funny thing is that if Arianna wins, she will be a bigger nightmare to the Republicans than Gray Davis could ever be. Davis, the "coin-operated governor," as he is sometimes called, is notorious for cozying up to corporate donors, while Arianna, in her columns and books, repeatedly blasts corporations and the unfair amount of power and influence that their money buys them (her latest book is Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America).
The ultimate irony would be that the Republicans' lust for power and greed -- which has brought us this bullshit recall election -- put Arianna Huffington in the governor's office.
Links:
Arianna for Governor
FAQs about Arianna Huffington and the California recall
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