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American Morning

Gray Davis Faces Recall Vote

Aired July 10, 2003 - 09:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Organizers of an effort to oust the California Governor Gray Davis say they have enough signatures to force a recall vote. Davis, reelected only eight months ago. Now his job may hinge on a special recall election this fall which could include Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Could the California incumbent be terminated, for lack of a better phrase. Jeff Greenfield's with us here as he is many times in southern California. In Sacramento. What are you hearing?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the pun everybody's using is yours and, of course, this is total recall.

But here's what you got. People are saying how could we be in this situation where for the first time 80 years an American state might recall a governor? It's not that complicated, at first.

You take an unpopular governor who barely won reelection against a hapless opponendt. Then a few months later tell people of California they've got a two-year budget deficit of about $38 billion. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) didn't become clear until after the election. Then you take a very wealthy Republican congressman, Darryl Issa whose got gubernatorial ambitions, and he throws about a million dollars of his own money to pay signature collectors to get these signatures.

Mix in a relatively low requirement, you need abotu 12 percent of the total vvoters from the last elections. And you have apparently got enough to force Governor Gray Davis into a recall.

HEMMER: Obviously, there are twists and turns involved in this. Take us through it.

GREENFIELD: Twists and turns? Try the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 24 hours.

Look, first of all, nobody knows when it's going to happen and that's very critical because it could happen in October and November as a special election, that helps the Republicans...

(CROSSTALK)

GREENFIELD: Because nothing else is on the ballot and you get out the intense voters and people are more intense against them than for. Or it could happen next March, the day of the Democratic presidential primary. Obviously that helps Davis because the theory is more Democrats show up. And then the big question is they've got a strange process. We've talked about it before. It's a two-part ballot. First, you want Davis in or out? If no, that's the end. If yes you go right to part two. Davis is automatically out as governor and whoever gets the most votes wins. Even if the guy or the girl -- woman, gets 15 percent of the vote, if that's more than anybody else, he or she is the next governor. And it's very easy to get on the ballot, 3,500 bucks and 65 signatures and you're on the ballot.

So the question is, Darryl Issa says he's going to run, but maybe former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, maybe Bill Simon the guy that Gray Davis beat. And, of course, maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger, who I think people don't understand outside of California, is a serious public policy guy. He helped pass an after school referendum. And the cliche about about Arnold Schwarzenegger is this Terminator machine could look very different if he gets on the ballot.

HEMMER: "T3" of sorts.

Californians will tell you, you know what? It's been a weird state for politics for a long time. Doesn't surprise a lot of people, though.

GREENFIELD: California for 90 years has had the initiative, the referendum. You remember Proposition 13 when they limited their taxes, they threw three state supreme court justices off court because they thought they were soft on crime.

But this one, they've gone through before. And we haven't mentioned, well what do the Democrats do? If they're all saying now, We are not going to get on the ballot. This is a right-wing effort to get to reverse the election. But if you get to the point of the election where they think Davis might lose, they've got to put somebody on the ballot or they turn the state to the Republicans and that could be anybody from lieutenant governor, Senator Dianne Feinstein. They've all said no.

And here's one more wrinkle. They can't wait until the last minute. This isn't New Jersey. There's a two-month filing deadline. So they've got to sit there two months out for a recall and say, now do we get on the ballot which will hurt Davis's chances because it gives Democrats an alternative? Do we stay off and risk turning the state over to the Republicans?

And next time I'll tell you what happens if Davis decides to resign because that's another...

HEMMER: Chapter two.

The other thing we haven't talked about people are portending (ph) here in this state, if you've got 1.4 million signature on the ballot right now, you ares on the ballot right now, does that portend the strength for the fall that may be enough to throw him out? Davis is already saying he's going to fight this thing. Don't count him out. GREENFIELD: As I say -- you know I should probably go on C-Span because this is one of those -- they're going to challenge the legality of this process. Are the signatures valid? Were they collected in a valid way?

Even if they get a million-three that's about 15 percent of the people who voted in the last election. That's why this happens out here. They have a low threshold. A lot of states say you need 25 percent of the voters. A lot of states say let's do an impeachment you want to get rid of the governor like Arizona did a few years ago.

But we've never seen this before. And the thing, when people like me come on, you guys have a job. You have to ask people how do you know this? Because the honest answer is we will look at you and go, we don't. It's never happened.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: New ground.

HEMMER: Stay tuned. Chapter two next week.

GREENFIELD: Remember, I told you I was going to move out here?

HEMMER: Greenfield on the ballot. Enjoy Sants Barbara this week, too.

GREENFIELD: OK.

HEMMER: See you later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired July 10, 2003 - 09:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Organizers of an effort to oust the California Governor Gray Davis say they have enough signatures to force a recall vote. Davis, reelected only eight months ago. Now his job may hinge on a special recall election this fall which could include Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Could the California incumbent be terminated, for lack of a better phrase. Jeff Greenfield's with us here as he is many times in southern California. In Sacramento. What are you hearing?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the pun everybody's using is yours and, of course, this is total recall.

But here's what you got. People are saying how could we be in this situation where for the first time 80 years an American state might recall a governor? It's not that complicated, at first.

You take an unpopular governor who barely won reelection against a hapless opponendt. Then a few months later tell people of California they've got a two-year budget deficit of about $38 billion. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) didn't become clear until after the election. Then you take a very wealthy Republican congressman, Darryl Issa whose got gubernatorial ambitions, and he throws about a million dollars of his own money to pay signature collectors to get these signatures.

Mix in a relatively low requirement, you need abotu 12 percent of the total vvoters from the last elections. And you have apparently got enough to force Governor Gray Davis into a recall.

HEMMER: Obviously, there are twists and turns involved in this. Take us through it.

GREENFIELD: Twists and turns? Try the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 24 hours.

Look, first of all, nobody knows when it's going to happen and that's very critical because it could happen in October and November as a special election, that helps the Republicans...

(CROSSTALK)

GREENFIELD: Because nothing else is on the ballot and you get out the intense voters and people are more intense against them than for. Or it could happen next March, the day of the Democratic presidential primary. Obviously that helps Davis because the theory is more Democrats show up. And then the big question is they've got a strange process. We've talked about it before. It's a two-part ballot. First, you want Davis in or out? If no, that's the end. If yes you go right to part two. Davis is automatically out as governor and whoever gets the most votes wins. Even if the guy or the girl -- woman, gets 15 percent of the vote, if that's more than anybody else, he or she is the next governor. And it's very easy to get on the ballot, 3,500 bucks and 65 signatures and you're on the ballot.

So the question is, Darryl Issa says he's going to run, but maybe former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, maybe Bill Simon the guy that Gray Davis beat. And, of course, maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger, who I think people don't understand outside of California, is a serious public policy guy. He helped pass an after school referendum. And the cliche about about Arnold Schwarzenegger is this Terminator machine could look very different if he gets on the ballot.

HEMMER: "T3" of sorts.

Californians will tell you, you know what? It's been a weird state for politics for a long time. Doesn't surprise a lot of people, though.

GREENFIELD: California for 90 years has had the initiative, the referendum. You remember Proposition 13 when they limited their taxes, they threw three state supreme court justices off court because they thought they were soft on crime.

But this one, they've gone through before. And we haven't mentioned, well what do the Democrats do? If they're all saying now, We are not going to get on the ballot. This is a right-wing effort to get to reverse the election. But if you get to the point of the election where they think Davis might lose, they've got to put somebody on the ballot or they turn the state to the Republicans and that could be anybody from lieutenant governor, Senator Dianne Feinstein. They've all said no.

And here's one more wrinkle. They can't wait until the last minute. This isn't New Jersey. There's a two-month filing deadline. So they've got to sit there two months out for a recall and say, now do we get on the ballot which will hurt Davis's chances because it gives Democrats an alternative? Do we stay off and risk turning the state over to the Republicans?

And next time I'll tell you what happens if Davis decides to resign because that's another...

HEMMER: Chapter two.

The other thing we haven't talked about people are portending (ph) here in this state, if you've got 1.4 million signature on the ballot right now, you ares on the ballot right now, does that portend the strength for the fall that may be enough to throw him out? Davis is already saying he's going to fight this thing. Don't count him out. GREENFIELD: As I say -- you know I should probably go on C-Span because this is one of those -- they're going to challenge the legality of this process. Are the signatures valid? Were they collected in a valid way?

Even if they get a million-three that's about 15 percent of the people who voted in the last election. That's why this happens out here. They have a low threshold. A lot of states say you need 25 percent of the voters. A lot of states say let's do an impeachment you want to get rid of the governor like Arizona did a few years ago.

But we've never seen this before. And the thing, when people like me come on, you guys have a job. You have to ask people how do you know this? Because the honest answer is we will look at you and go, we don't. It's never happened.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: New ground.

HEMMER: Stay tuned. Chapter two next week.

GREENFIELD: Remember, I told you I was going to move out here?

HEMMER: Greenfield on the ballot. Enjoy Sants Barbara this week, too.

GREENFIELD: OK.

HEMMER: See you later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com