response 106 of 264:

Aug 13 16:03 UTC 2003

I want to see the Schwarzenegger / Coleman debate.  Might be worth getting
TV for.

response 108 of 264:

Aug 13 17:12 UTC 2003

Ventura had been mayor of some Minneapolis suburb.  The paralel to somebody
with no political record, but a famous name and a politically connected
family becoming governor of a state significantly bigger than Minnesota but
significantly smaller than California would be George W. Bush.

I do love the bit about Schwarzenegger being a "self made man."  He shows that
even a movie star who marries a Kennedy can get rich if he really works at
it. ;)

It seemed to me a few years ago that the political demands being placed on
Davis at the time were to get the power situation under control regardless
of the cost.  Now that power is under control, people are upset about the
cost.  I suspect if there were still frequent blackouts, it wouldn't be the
cost that people were complaining about.  The real question there, of course,
is what could Davis have done to more cheaply stop the blackouts.

response 110 of 264:

Aug 13 19:06 UTC 2003

re107:  seal training.  :)

response 112 of 264:

Aug 13 19:43 UTC 2003

re105:  actually, he apparently didn't decide whether or not to run until his
wife told him he could.

response 114 of 264:

Aug 13 21:39 UTC 2003

There was an article in the New York Times earlier this week on how 
crazy the California recall process is.  Basically, with hundreds of 
candidates on the ballot, it would be logical to list everybody running 
alpabetically by last name, so you'd know where to find your candidate 
on the ballot.  But thats not what they are doing.  They actually held 
a LOTTERY style drawing where they picked letters of the alphabet out 
of a hat or something randomly, and the first letter chosen determined 
the first person on the ballot.  So that if the first letter was "G" 
and alphabetically, somebody named George Gaaronson was the first 
person with the last name G whose name comes up, he'd get listed first 
on the ballot.  But then the second person who appears on the ballot 
WOULDN'T be the second name listed alphabetically under G, it would be 
the first person listed under the second letter of the alphabet that 
comes up in the drawing.  Or something like that.  Totally absurd.

So what you'll have is several hundred people on the ballot, with the 
names all scrambled and in no logical order, so you'll have to look 
long and hard to find your candidate's name.  This probably means LONG 
lines on election day.  

Also there are stories that there are right wing groups gearing up to 
go hard negative on Arnold.  Arnold is a Republican, but he is a 
moderate, and even worse for some conservatives, is pro-choice and an 
environmentalist.  Those folks would rather have a DEMOCRAT as governor 
than a pro-choice tree hugger!  One article said they may use in ads 
outtakes from Arnold's "Pumping Iron" movie, the documentary about 
Arnold's bodybuilding days in the seventies, which show a young Arnold 
smoking a marijuana joint, exhaling and laughing.  Yep, this campaign 
could get nasty!  I mean unlike Clinton, Arnold couldn't even at least 
deny he inhaled, because its on tape!  :)

response 116 of 264:

Aug 13 22:16 UTC 2003

California's *general election* laws don't generally require greater than 50%
to win, nor do the general election laws in most parts of the US.  You just
need a plurality.

The difference here is that in most such elections, getting on the ballot is
difficult.

Still, I suspect we'll see somebody come out of this with reasonably broad
support.  Perhaps not 50%, but enough to win a three way general election at
least.

response 118 of 264:

Aug 14 01:38 UTC 2003

According to foxnews.com, the order of the names is not rotated by 
"voting district," but by state assembly district:

"The state also has a process to rotate the names in subsequent assembly 
districts. If "Robinson" were the first name on the 1st Assembly 
district, it would drop to the bottom of the Rs in the 2nd Assembly 
District, and the second name that starts with R would go to the top of 
the sequence. When the R's are finished, the first name that starts with 
W will lead the ballot and all the R's would be on the bottom. There are 
80 Assembly Districts in the state and 131 certified names by Wednesday 
morning, so many candidates' names will never lead the list. California 
implemented this system after studies showed that the traditional A, B, 
C method disproportionately favors candidates with last names that 
placed them higher on the ballot."

response 120 of 264:

Aug 14 03:44 UTC 2003

Klg is correct, but loses credibility points for quoting Fox News. ;)

response 122 of 264:

Aug 14 13:23 UTC 2003

Yes, something like a 5% boost for being top of the ticket.  Some fella 
sued the state a while back for this reason, and so now they do the 
lottery thing.

response 124 of 264:

Aug 14 16:02 UTC 2003

We are, Mr. scg, fair and balanced.

response 126 of 264:

Aug 17 00:26 UTC 2003

We don't think there is a danger of being sued unless we have realized a 
commercial gain.  So, please send us a check for $1,000.  (On second 
thought, from you we'd prefer cash.)

response 128 of 264:

Aug 17 02:44 UTC 2003

I agree with richard, resp:115, that a runoff would be sensible with 
so many on the ballot.

I disagree with richard, resp:114, that the random order on the 
ballots is senseless.  There's enough of an advantage for being at the 
top of the ballot that I'd expect the alphabetically first name to be 
a shoo in.  However, I'll admit it didn't occur to me just how 
inconvenient it will be for the voters to have the names appear 
randomly with so many on the ballot.