No, I’m not referring to the merger between the two largest Independent Television companies in the U.K. I am referring to the fact that at 8:05 PM, the news was already forecasting a Governor Ah-nuld. 8:05 PM!!! Give me a break… Only one percent of the precincts were reporting at the time. One can only hope that the remaining precincts swing it the other way (now, at about 9:15 PM it’s seventeen percent reporting 56/44 in favor of the recall.) Now one of the things that has to be said, and others have said it as well: In a recall, only those who voted the last time should have been able to vote on the recall. If you were too lazy to get up off of your ass to vote the last time, you should not have the right to recall a legally elected politician (as the old saying goes: If you didn’t vote, you can’t complain.)
–9:51 PM, Gray Davis concedes!!! Graciously, I might add.
I need to mention that the financial situation the state is in is not the fault of any governor. In California any proposition that spends money can be passed with a simple majority, but any proposition to raise the taxes to pay for these projects requires a two-thirds majority. We were happily enjoying the “tech boom” and spending money wily-nilly. Now the “tech-bust” hits us, and we have all these projects spending money – and suddenly no money to fund. Every state’s facing this problem (maybe not the proposition situation, but certainly not having money…)
I live in the Bay Area, and we seem to be the oddball in the state – where we were about two-thirds voting against the recall, and Southern California swings the other way around. This brings up the old question: Should we split the state? It’ll weaken our position federally, but it’ll make it possible for the people of this region to actually live their way.
Of course, my other option is to move to Canada…
2003-10-07