OK, so
someone
is finally doing it officially. There is now an official petition beginning to circulate around California to ask people if they want to recall Arnold Schwarzenegger. So the question is, how do I feel about that?
Of course I'll sign the petition when it comes through; I'd even go out of my way to do it. I'm still really burned by the Davis recall, and I'm disgusted by most of what Arnold has done while governor. And yet...
I'm ambivalent as to the wisdom and precedent of this recall, which in spite of valid complaints in the recall petition, is basically about political revenge. The first recall was, IMHO, about political opportunism; neither one was motivated by a truly valid reason. An elected official should be recalled only if they have shown themselves to be demonstrably corrupt or incompetent, and that is not really true in either case.
So if the Arnold recall succeeds, or comes close to success, does this mean that we are in for a new recall campaign every few years? Unless the law is changed, it probably does, and that sucks.
What I would like to see is two changes in the California electoral system, to apply both to gubernatorial (and other) recalls and also to voter initiatives.
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Judicial review. I think that attempted recalls and all legislation and constitutional amendments should be reviewed by a panel of judges, possibly by the state supreme court, before being placed on a ballot. There needs to be a set of critieria which must be met including a requirement that the matter to be so urgent that normal processes (i.e., the standard elections cycle, legislative processes) must be preempted; the decision as to whether this requirement and others has been met must be decided by qualified judges who are not involved in the matter.
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Higher threshhold. Many more signatures should be required before a matter can be placed on the ballot. It should be made so difficult that it happens rarely.
My fantasy is that there is one last voter initiative campaign--the mother of all initiatives--which basically puts an end to the règne de la terreur we've been living under via the current recall/initiative process. Will this ever happen? I really doubt it, but I have a right to my fantasies, n'est-ce pas?
Greg Shenaut
