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After all, given the court's fear of sweeping disenfranchisement if nearly half the state uses punchcard ballots, that is precisely the system under which Gray Davis was reelected last November, along with a Democratic sweep of statewide offices. Now, suddenly, they're no good? The punchcards are to be replaced by the beginning of 2004, but past California elections have proceeded without cries of excluded voters or stolen elections. Liberals are obviously pleased at yesterday's decision by the Democratic judges; the ACLU's Mark Rosenbaum called it a "masterpiece." Court ruling or not, the recall marches on. Voters have already mailed in an estimated 300,000 absentee ballots, with more coming in daily. All the more reason why the candidates must keep campaigning as if Oct. 7 is still the target date. But unless the U.S. Supreme Court, the appeal venue of choice for the recall proponents, once again wades into the arena of (potentially) hanging chads and overturns the ruling, the recall season could be stretched out until next March. That might be appreciated by northeast-corridor reporters who will be able to add a few more trips to the Left Coast to their expense reports, but it would also change the political landscape in a big way. Here's a scorecard:
Of course, the marathon
could turn back into a sprint for Oct. 7 any moment now — in which
case the candidates will be huffing and puffing harder than ever. |
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ll
bets are off now that a federal appeals court has stuck its nose into
the soap opera known as the California recall.
Gray
Davis. He's acting Clintonian — spending a couple of days with
Bill must have rubbed off on him — by trying to act gubernatorial
and insisting he'll keep on doing his job rather than worrying about losing
it. Davis, who was hanging on by a thread, may have been thrown a lifeline
here. One, he can hope that the widespread public anger at the lousy job
he's doing will fade over the next six months. Two, if the recall is held
on the same day as California's presidential primary next March, a wave
of Democrats who might otherwise have stayed home will show up to vote
for Howard Dean and other liberal candidates. On the other hand, most
people can't stand the governor, and that's not about to change.
