The recall was stupid. We had some discussion about in in my AP US History class, and while I believe that recalls in general are grassroots democracy in action, the case in California is ridiculous.
States require a certain amount of petitions to recall the governor, and some require that the governor must be charged with a crime. But in California, only signatures from 12% of voters from the previous election are required to enact a recall, which is nowhere near the majority of voters.
There were 135 people running for office, over half of them not qualified. All that was required to run was a $3500 fee and petitions from 100 (or 65?) people from your own party. (My friend's mom's friend tried to run for governor, but she didn't know the petitions had to be from your own party. Her $3500 were not returned.) The sad part is that many of the unqualified people were the ones who got attention. Marey Carey, a porn star who claims she's smart with her 131 IQ and 1100 something SAT score (I have about the same IQ and a 1260 on the PSATs, but it doesn't mean I'm qualified to run for governor). A porn king. A beer company owner who wanted to advertise his beer. Gary Coleman (need I say more?).
And Arnold Schwarzenegger. The media is practically responsible for putting him in office. He doesn't have any political experience, and we don't even know his plans. Even SNL made fun of him:
[paraphrasing] Arnold imitator: "I have devised a specific five-point plan that will improve California. There are five major areas for improvement. Education. I believe that the children are the future of America. Crime. I am against criminals. Environment. I want to make the environment cleaner...."
Despite Arnold's lack of specific goals, he's hit the airwaves like a storm, when McClintock, Davis, and Bustamante actually have something to say on the issues.
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