To the Editor:
Andrew Hanauer's Sept. 30 column "Total Recall" about the California Recall failed to "clear up" any eastern (or other) misconceptions about the recall. Whether or not you agree with it, the right of recall not for malfeasance but for dissatisfaction is a Constitutional right of the people of California. These months have been democracy's finest hour, showing that even the second-most powerful elected official in the United States is subject to the will of the people.
In fact, in May a dozen Dartmouth students who are also registered California voters signed petitions to recall Gray Davis. These were included in the over 1.6 (not 1.2) million signatures certified by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, of over 2 million signed. I, like most signature gatherers, was not paid by Rep. Darrell Issa (or anyone, for that matter) to collect signatures. In fact, there were three separate but coordinated committees working on the recall. And though Issa gave the most money, he didn't even come close to "almost entirely" funding the recall petition drive.
Gray Davis did not "dismantle" Bill Simon in 2002. Davis won with 47 percent to Simon's 42 percent. This in an election where only roughly one-third of the people eligible to vote (registered or not) voted. By that standard, Davis won with a "mandate" of 17 percent. In one sense, the right of recall protects voters when their peers throw up their hands and don't vote at all. The lower the turnout, the lower the number of signatures necessary to invoke a recall election. In this case, it was over 897,000 needed. As noted above, nearly double that number were validated and certified, and still more came in afterward.
Davis is being recalled because people are sick of special interests ruling the roost in Sacramento. They are sick of pay-to-play politics in a state where the prison guards get a seven percent raise the same year teachers are being laid off. They are sick of a governor for whom everything is coming up roses one minute and then, what do you know, a $38 billion deficit! They are sick of a state that spends half of its general fund on education but has nothing to show for it because of a teachers' union that makes sure state monies fund salaries and little else. They're sick of a do-nothing governor who, when under the gun, rushes to pander to each group in an attempt to curry favor with them. Californians are sick of being "a state in crisis." It's too late, Gray.
I am not happy with the choices we have on question two of the recall, namely the absence of any noteworthy, "nobody-runs-except-for-me" Democrats and the absence of former Secretary of State (and the other Davis-blackballed gubernatorial candidate) Bill Jones, a Republican. But I am proud to have a choice, which is always better than not having one. My ballot is in the mail.
