California's War on Error

Hey buddy, I do requests, no problem! See that tip jar on the left?

Seriously though, Arnold is in the race for governor, and FoxNews summarizes the situation pretty well:

Schwarzenegger to run in California recall election; faces competition from Gary Coleman, Arianna Huffington, undeclared candidates.

Gary Coleman played Arnold back in the day, so it could be a close race. No wait, I take that back; Arnold will win in a landslide, especially considering that Senator Feinstein isn't going to run.

The Democrats long-insisted that they wouldn't break ranks and run anyone against Davis, but as I (ok, and just about everyone else) predicted, Terry McAuliffe was living in fantasyland. At least two major Democratic office-holders have decided to run: Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, and Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. I use the word "major" loosely. Senator Feinstein is the most popular and most highly-regarded Democrat that California has to offer, and the rest of these folks are just hangers-on -- elected mainly because they're Democrats, and hey, this is California. Feinstein vs. Arnold would have been a fascinating match-up; I would still have given the edge to Arnold's name-recognition and youth, but it could have been close.

Naturally, Davis thinks that everyone should rally around him:

"To the extent that Democrats get in the race, it makes it look like a normal election, and legitimates what is really an effort by the right wing to steal back an election they couldn't win last November," Davis said.

"I think at the end of the day people will realize that the party is better served rallying around its sitting governor."

Start packing. I am utterly relieved that Davis' incompetence and corruption are coming to fruition now -- this guy had presidential aspirations! It's not likely that he could have won... but he does know how to raise money *cough* bribes *cough* and that goes a long way towards getting a nomination.

My prediction -- barring a Feinstein-change-of-mind -- is that the Davis recall gets more than 60% of the vote, and that Arnold becomes our next governor with a 20%-25% plurality. That might be a bit conservative, depending on how many Republicans drop out now that he's running. I expect voter turnout to be high, and I expect Davis to be a sore loser.

Arnold will make a good governor. He has a lot of financial experience, is fiscally conservative, and socially moderate enough to play nice in California. Personally, I'd prefer Tom McClintock who would, on his first day as governor,

Rescind the tripling of the car tax
"The state's problems are not a shortage of revenue. AFTER the car tax was reduced and AFTER the dot-com collapse, and AFTER the state's revenues plunged, we're still taking in 25 percent more revenue than four years ago while the population and inflation combined have grown only 21 percent."

Void $42 billion in overpriced electricity contracts
"Those contracts were negotiated under a clear legal conflict of interest by Davis' chief negotiator. This governor won't stipulate to these simple facts because it would require him to admit wrongdoing. I'll certainly admit Davis has done some things wrong!"

Reform the workers compensation system
"[The Legislature] will have 30 days to enact Arizona's Workers Compensation law—slashing workers comp costs by 2/3. And if they fail in 30 days, I'll take it to the ballot and let them explain to the people why they refused to act while our job market was collapsing."

Hopefully Arnold will see wisdom of these proposals and take some drastic steps as well, but he certainly won't lay them out before the election. Why? He doesn't have to. All he has to do is show up, keep his mouth shut, and try not to do anything too controversial for two months. We won't see what he's really made of until he's in office.

The $64,000 question is: how will our next governor deal with the tidal wave of illegal immigration? California will need to pressure the federal government to get anything done, but that might be particularly difficult considering that the Bush Administration is trying very hard to woo Hispanic voters.