SACRAMENTO — GOP state Sen. Tom McClintock is not your ordinary ineffective right-wing politician, of which California has had many in recent decades. He could actually accomplish something: elect the next governor of California. And, unfortunately for Republicans, that person would probably be a Democrat.
Whatever chance Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has to win the replacement election -- and possibly Gov. Gray Davis to survive the recall -- lies with one of California's most ideological politicians.
McClintock, who is running third in most polls, has no chance of winning, though he stubbornly insists he does.
In an effort at Republican solidarity, Bill Simon Jr., the party's 2002 nominee for governor; a group of county GOP chairmen; and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, the San Diego County Republican who financed the petition drive that put the recall on the ballot, have all thrown their weight behind Arnold Schwarzenegger, the other leading Republican in the replacement race.
McClintock's candidacy threatens to divide the GOP vote. It also gives Republicans reason to vote no on the recall to stop Bustamante, thus saving Davis. Numbers being numbers, a division of the vote in the Republican Party all but ensures success for a Democrat, whether he be Bustamante or Davis.
Why would McClintock risk handing the governorship to the most liberal Democratic candidate on the ballot? The answer is revenge -- an irrational emotion in politics that often trumps all others. McClintock is getting even.
McClintock, who was first elected to the Assembly in 1982, has spent almost his entire adult life either holding public office or working in conservative politics. He twice ran for statewide office, losing both times because of defections within his own party.
When McClintock began his political life, he was an inoffensive backbencher in the Assembly minority. But when Gov. Pete Wilson took office in 1991, McClintock became a fiery opponent of his party's governor.
Wilson faced a huge budget deficit his first year in office, which he eliminated through a combination of tax increases and budget cuts. Like McClintock, many Republicans opposed Wilson's tax increases. But McClintock did not stop there. He regularly and bitterly criticized Wilson over the next several years as the governor grappled with the state's recession-induced fiscal woes.
