The California Fallout Continues
The San Diego Union Tribune reports on a political conference held yesterday at the University of California:
"The conference, which has been held after each of the past five gubernatorial elections, demonstrated how Schwarzenegger's stunning victory has transformed California politics in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 recall election.
"Past conferences often have amounted to acrimonious finger-pointing sessions among GOP campaign strategists while their Democratic counterparts smugly savored their victories.
"Yesterday, Republicans – even those from rival campaigns – congratulated each other on a job well done while Democrats re-fought internecine recall battles, particularly Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's decision to enter the race after party leaders had tried to pressure prominent Democratic elected officials to stay out."
The stunning news from the conference was an announcement by Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer that he broke party ranks to vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger:
"I voted for Arnold. First time I've ever voted for a Republican in my life for a partisan office. I looked at the list (of candidates). It was a crappy list. He represented for me what he did for others – hope, change, reform, opportunity, upbeat, problem-solving. I want that."
Note the implicit repudiation of the Democratic spin on the election, that the vote for Arnold was an expression of anger against incumbents. Lockyer, like the vast majority of those who voted for Arnold, saw him as a figure of optimism and hope, not anger.
Asked how coming out for a Republican would affect his own political future, Lockyer said: "I don't know. I don't care. I'm just doing what I think's right. It's a new me."
Lockyer's comments on Cruz Bustamante were brutal: "Lockyer made it clear that he regarded Bustamante as an unacceptable alternative to Davis, but not because he considered him a probable rival for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006....'You know the people in your profession really well, and you know who works hard and who doesn't, and you know who's honest and who isn't,' Lockyer told reporters. 'Cops know that about cops. Doctors know that about doctors. I know that about politicians.'"
Things are never as good or as bad as they seem, and things aren't as bad as they seem right now for California's Democrats. But they aren't pretty, either.
