Now Latinos Are in the Driver's Seat
Gov. Gray Davis got himself into a recall mess, and only he can get himself out of it. Of course, if the governor wants it, he can get a lot of help from the state's many new Latino voters. But he'll have to show less arrogance than he has in the past in dealing with the elected leaders of the state's largest ethnic group.
For a start, he should make up with Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who has been on the outs with Davis for most of the time that they have held the top two statewide offices. The estrangement dates from 1999, shortly after Davis was first inaugurated and still riding high. Back then the toughest challenge the governor and his minions could foresee was deciding when Davis should run for president.
That's when Bustamante had the temerity to publicly criticize Davis for not moving rapidly enough to eliminate a political hot potato from former Gov. Pete Wilson's tenure in Sacramento -- a legal appeal of the federal court decision that nullified Proposition 187. He urged Davis to pull the plug on the costly appeal, an eminently reasonable position given that Bustamante had been a state legislator from a heavily Latino district in Fresno, where Proposition 187 was a hated symbol of anti-Mexican politics.
Either because they were clueless as to Proposition 187's significance to Latinos or just because they were full of themselves, Davis and his crew set out to punish Bustamante. They quietly let the Capitol's press corps know that Bustamante would be "shut out" of the governor's decision-making process, and they have by most accounts made good on that threat.
That is why Bustamante's supporters thought he might use the Davis recall as an opportunity for some political payback. Some urged the lieutenant governor to announce that he would be a candidate to replace Davis if the recall succeeds. A few even speculated that Bustamante might allow a recall vote against Davis, but then name himself Davis' successor instead of allowing voters to elect a replacement. In the end, Bustamante did neither. Ever the loyal Democrat, he joined fellow partisans like U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in declaring that he would not put his name on the recall ballot. And when Bustamante went on television Thursday to announce Oct. 7 as the recall election date, he added a personal denunciation of the recall effort.
