If you haven't been following Californian politics, you may want to start paying attention. A few people have been collecting signatures to recall Democratic Governor Gary Davis. It looks like they may succeed. Let's assume they succeed in gathering the required number of signatures in time for this to be voted on this fall.
If the recall election takes place, two things will happen at the election. First, the voters will have decide if they will recall Governor Davis or not. This will be done as a simple yes/no vote. If people vote to keep Davis in office, then things continue as normal (as normal as California gets anyway). If people vote to kick Davis out, then things get even more interesting.
In the same election where California citizens decide whether or not to recall Davis, they must also vote on his replacement. If Davis is recalled, whoever gets the most votes will become Governor of California through 2006. This becomes very interesting since there will be no primary election.
If fifty people ran for the position, whoever gets the most votes will be elected, even if they only get a few percent of the vote. This has major implications for the parties. The smart thing to do is to have one person run from each major party so they do not risk splitting votes. But this assumes all interested politicians can come to a unselfish understanding about who should run. Frankly, I doubt most politicians are that unselfish. So the party who has the fewest candidates running will have a big advantage.
To make this story even more interesting, Arnold Schwarznegger may run. While he is refusing to commit until after Terminator III is released, he has expressed interest in being Governor of California. He also has been delivering some great sound-bites (hat tip to Ben):
The actor mentioned the recall only indirectly in his speech, quipping at one point, "This is really embarrassing. I just forgot our state governor's name, but I know that you will help me recall him."The Austrian-born former body building champion also poked fun at his lingering accent and at being married to NBC News correspondent Maria Shriver, a Democrat and member of the Kennedy family. He pledged to stay married to Shriver in sickness and in health, Schwarzenegger said, adding, "And being a Democrat is a sickness."
He will be a candidate to watch in an election already worth watching.
