What do James M. Vandeventer Jr. and Ned Roscoe have in common? The answer: Nobody knows who they are, yet somehow, these two and 167 other names managed to find their way onto a gubernatorial ballot on the California recall election. But it ceased to be just an election long ago and has since become a media circus and an avenue for self-promotion.
This crime against common sense could only occur in my home state. Only in California would a governor have to face a recall election after being reelected a mere 11 months earlier. The California recall is not just a bad concept, but a subversion of democracy and a bad precedent for the future.
For those who do not know how the election will work, the first questions asks "Shall Gray Davis be recalled from the office of Governor?" If more people vote for this than against it, then the state will take the second question into account. The second question asks who should become governor if Davis is recalled. Therein lies the dilemma.
In order to appear on the ballot, candidates needed only 65 nominations signatures from members of their own party, a $3500 filing fee, nomination papers and a declaration of candidacy. To compound the problem, there are no party primaries. Which is why on this horribly-confusing ballot, there are roughly 50 Democrats.
As much as the party is claiming to be behind Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante as a replacement, if needed, many individuals clearly see this as a route to self-promotion. There really is no other rational explanation. If the aforementioned Vandeventer Jr and Roscoe, a Republican businessman and cigarette retailer respectively, feel that they have a viable shot at the governor's office, they need their heads checked.
Characters like 23-year-old adult film star, Mary Cook (a.k.a. Mary Carey), have no place in the political arena. However, her proposed tax on breast implants is among the most innovative and effective ideas to relieve the state budget shortfall. Carey is only doing this for self-promotion. She has no shot at winning, only making a name for herself. That's great if people are doing that, but the fiscal cost to the public is too high. If people are not running to win, why run at all?
Besides the circus that the recall has created, it also brings to life a disturbing precedent for voters. When a politician is unpopular, when times are bad or when a divisive issue occurs, the precedent is to have a recall election. God forbid a future governor ever raises taxes. It would cost him his job.
In order to hold a recall election in the state of California, proponents must obtain enough signatures to equal 12 percent of votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election. This particular recall needed only 897,158 people to make this election possible. While this may seem like a lot, this recall proved that if you have the money, there is a way. In the past, there were 31 failed attempts to recall a governor in California. But now there are rich backers from both sides of the political spectrum to make this abomination of democracy an annual event.
There are more than enough voters on the ideological left and right to pass another recall effort, especially in heated times after a close election. In fact, I would not be surprised if there is a recall election to challenge whomever might replace Davis.
Hopefully, this will not be the case. We Californians can only hope that this election will leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth, and the sheer memory of this circus from Hades will lead to a proposition featuring the abolishment of the recall option.
As for me, recall or not, I'm throwing my support behind Kurt E. "Tachikaze" Rightmyer, the only middleweight sumo wrestler on the ballot.
Ron Demeter is a senior History and International Studies major from Beverly Hills, Calif. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Johns Hopkins News-Letter.
