SACRAMENTO – California’s prison guard union decided officially late Monday to attempt to recall Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from office.
After getting a big media ride from a small news item appearing in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, the 31,000-member strong California Correctional Peace Officers Association confirmed that they will attempt to knock the Golden State’s celebrity governor from office.
“Despite the mystique that the governor’s political machine has drummed up about being this big bad union, the reality is quite different,” CCPOA spokesman Lance Corcoran told PolitickerCA.com. “We are a union that has gone without a contract for two years. The governor’s actions toward us have been unconscionable.”
I’ll believe it when I see the signature gatherers out and about. But this is a significant move. Arnold has been a failure as governor, a fact brutally revealed to the public this year. Arnold is directly responsible for the current budget shortfall . Other failures include his refusal to sign legislation, his illegal and immoral demand to slash worker pay to starvation levels, and his unwillingness to provide the necessary budget leadership – including campaigning against Republican hostage-takers in their districts. This all suggests that the recall will have legs if the CCPOA is serious about it.
The 2003 recall of Gray Davis began early that year when a group of Republican gadflies, including Ted Costa and Howard Kaloogian, took out recall petitions. Only when convicted arrested car thief Darrell Issa poured $1.6 million of his money into the recall did it take off.
Recalls are inherently unpredictable things. This one could fizzle, as countless other recalls have – or it could go viral and, with a cash infusion, reshape the state’s politics as happened five years ago.
Personally I am going to wait and see before taking sides. And I want to see answers to specific questions, like those Meteor Blades asked:
could a recall truly succeed against the governor? And, if it didn’t, would it damage him or help him should he decide to take on Senator Boxer. The answers to those questions would cement my support or opposition.
My own questions are “will this help us fix the budget in 2009 and 2010?” and “is this the best way for Democrats to approach winning the governor’s office, including ensuring that it’s a progressive Dem that we put in that office?”
The moment we see paid signature gatherers roaming the streets and strip malls of the state, we will need to begin seriously discussing how we will answer those questions.