Reading Review: “California’s Recall Fever Harks back to the Progressive Era”
...es on political corruption” (California recall push has little precedent). There are fifteen states that followed California’s lead and developed recall provisions. The majority of these states require that there be a criminal activity for a public official to be removed from office. However, those who fashioned the recall provision in California set no conditions. The reason for this being that, “they had their own grievances, but they recognized that future generations might have grievances they could not predict or even imagine. So they wrote legislation that emphasized procedure over content.” (Ansary, 2003). The performance of Governor Davis has been viewed by many Californians as substandard and thus his position was put into jeopardy as a recall process went underway. Recall elections are of common occurrence at a local level in the United States; however, it is of extreme rarity at a state level. Many state legislators and mayors have been recalled, yet a governor recall is considerably uncommon. Gray Davis will be only the second governor to be recalled, and the first such incident occurred in North Dakota in 1921. The recall provision in California’s constitution is of unusual accommodation with meeting the democratic desires of its citizens. The signature requirement for initiating a recall election is a mere 12 percent of the number of votes in the last election (compared to most states that would require 25 percent). Davis’ approval rating of 62 percent at the beginning of his first term to plummet dramatically to only 24 percent several months into his second term. Davis made many choices in his term that caused people to give him the lowest public approval rating of any California governor since public opinion polls had been conducted. The rolling blackouts that occurred in 2001 throughout California were of extreme damage to his Davis’ capability as governor. The costs of energy then drastically increased in San Diego County. To add to the contempt toward Davis it was announced that the budget short fall was more than $30 billion dollars and this was three times the number he had claimed not two weeks earlier in his election campaign. The recall process then went underway as a man spent $2 million dollars to get the necessary signatures. Davis, the uncharismatic leader viewed as an incompetent liar by the vast majority, was up against some unlikely competition in the recall election. The fiercest came from Arnold Schwarzenegger, a man who certainly was in the right state to be running for governor. The recall ballot was set up in two parts, the first asks whether or not Governor Davis should be recalled and the second part asks who should take his place in the event of a recall. Arnold’s appeal to Californians was unquestionable; although a newbie to politics, his charisma and movie star appeal were enough. Despite any criticisms and jokes as Arnold in the role of Governor it seems Californians felt that perhaps this man could live up to his role as the hero and save them from the problems that had come in Davis’ term. The process of the recall enabled Californians the chance to cease any suffering that their governor was causing them. The recall gave them the chance to be rid of Davis’ without waiting for an election and with their own reasons of justification as opposed to legal ones. The recall election is viewed by many as an undermining factor to the democratic process, however this is untrue because it is a means of giving citizens greater democratic control. Opponents of the recall believe it was merely a partisan effort to remove Davis from office and overturn the election results. In reality it was in the citizen’s power to recall Davis; it was not up to his rival political party. Governor Davis d...