NOW Responds to Results of California Recall Election

October 8, 2003

Translating the military tactic of 'Shock and Awe' to the political battlefield, right wing strategists and conservative business interests in California succeeded yesterday in ousting an elected governor less than one year into his second term. In 2003, Republicans bought the election they couldn’t win in 2002.

On an encouraging note, California voters did heed the warnings of health providers and civil rights groups—including California NOW—and defeated the racially charged Proposition 54, which would have banned state and local governments from collecting any data on race or ethnicity, depriving health care providers of crucial information and making it impossible for employers and others to track discrimination. Sadly, the proposition's author, Ward Connerly, a longtime opponent of affirmative action, is planning another try at his "Racial Privacy" initiative, changing the wording but retaining the same harmful intent.

The Republican-bought election that ousted Governor Gray Davis is yet another example of the right wing's stealth attempts to seize and control power at any price. Yesterday, the price was especially high for California taxpayers: current estimates put the cost to state and county governments for this unscheduled power-grab vote at around $65 million. Add to that the $82 million raised and spent by the 139 gubernatorial candidates, and this was a very expensive campaign for a state facing severe budget shortfalls.

But the financial cost is only part of the story. The California recall is the latest in a series of recent power grabs: the disenfranchisement of Florida voters in the last presidential election—especially in minority communities; the recent redistricting in Texas to the detriment of minority representation—an unprecedented move in the history of redistricting; and now the recall to deny Davis his full term in office as California’s duly elected governor. Apparently, his "crime" has been to preside over budget deficits and bad economic times that have swept the whole nation in the last several years. If this is the standard for the recall of our elected officials, perhaps we should begin by recalling George W. Bush, as he presides over the longest recession, the loss of millions of jobs, millions more in poverty and the looting of the federal treasury to pay back his wealthy pals and finance the invasion of Iraq.

Reminiscent of Florida in 2000, there were election problems all across California. In a typical election in the state of California there are about 25,000 polling places; yesterday there were fewer than half that many to serve California's 15.4 million registered voters, giving a new meaning to disenfranchisement.

Conservatives are actively seeking to undermine the democratic ideals essential to freedom in order to consolidate their power and advance their agenda. "These recent events threaten the democratic system that has ensured the free and fair election of our leaders for over 200 years," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "It is our duty to preserve democracy, and not allow the ideologue with the most money to buy control of our government."

NOW's Drive for Equality pledges to reform the voting process and bring women back to the voting booths because their lives and families depend on it. Old-fashioned issue advocacy and voter mobilization is the true antidote for the poisonous election tactics being practiced by our well-funded, self-interested opponents.