Post-mortem on California recall looks at lessons, implications of vote

A confluence of unusual - and powerful - factors culminated to produce the historic recall election in which California voters ousted Gray Davis in favor of actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to a wide range of experts who convened for a two-day symposium held at USC last week.

Sponsored partly by the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics, the Post-Mortem Conference on the California Recall brought together scholars, political figures and journalists to examine how and why the special election occurred, and its impact on policy, politics and legal reforms in the future.

Various speakers suggested that Davis faced enormous obstacles from the onset, including abysmal approval ratings, a hugely popular celebrity candidate, highly controversial decisions to support the so-called car tax and driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, and a lackluster Democratic replacement candidate in Cruz Bustamante.

"This election doesn't represent a shift in California politics," said Joe Cerrell, a longtime Democratic campaign consultant. "It was a phenomenon of the Terminator. It was about timing and a high-profile candidate."

Many panelists said voters, reeling from a depressed economy, an energy crisis and a multi-billion-dollar budget shortfall, sought change in Sacramento.

"The message of hope, the message of change all played into the voters' thinking when they went to the voting booths," said Joel Fox, past president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and a policy consultant for Schwarzenegger.

Other speakers addressed what the recall will mean for policy and politics in California. For instance, legislators such as Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas are moving to reform the recall election law. But Dane Waters, president and founder of the Initiative and Referendum Institute, said some people have been too quick to criticize the recall mechanism.

"The recall device is a fundamental check and balance of representative government, and I hope it will stay in the hands of the average citizen," Waters said.

Parmela Karlan, a law professor at Stanford University and a commissioner on the California Fair Political Practices Commission, raised concerns about a political climate in which "elections can occur at anytime and results can be revisited again and again."