ISO's "Socialist Worker" backs Camejo in Cal. recall election

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

WHAT WE THINK
Why Peter Camejo deserves your vote in California
A real alternative in the recall circus

October 3, 2003 | Page 3

THE REALITIES of California?s recall election stood exposed last week
during the 90 minutes of mayhem that passed for a debate between the
top candidates to replace Gov. Gray Davis. In his only debate before
the October 7 vote, media darling Arnold Schwarzenegger tried not to
open his mouth--but couldn?t help showing himself to be a celebrity
front man for Republican business interests when he did.

With his patronizing disdain for Arianna Huffington, he undid weeks of
carefully orchestrated efforts by his handlers to prove that he isn?t
a sexist pig. Incredibly, this Neanderthal managed to emerge with more
support after the debate, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll
released last weekend.

That?s because his main opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante,
is so pathetic. During the debate, Bustamante pretended to have
nothing to do with the economic and political crisis that the state
has suffered through during his years as second-in-command to Davis.
But his tanking poll numbers show that people aren?t buying it.

Huffington, meanwhile, is running a vanity campaign. Her support for
charter schools and refusal to consider raising property taxes on the
rich shows that she?s not interested in building a real alternative to
the status quo, as she claims.

Only Peter Camejo of the Green Party presented a case that California
voters should listen to. He spoke out for universal health care and
affordable housing, he opposed George Bush?s occupation of Iraq and
the Washington war machine, and he said the magic words that could
solve the state?s huge budget deficit--tax the rich. In an Internet
poll in the San Francisco Chronicle, 31 percent of people named Camejo
the winner of the debate, the best showing of any candidate--a
stunning result for someone who has been dismissed all along as
irrelevant by the mainstream media.

Gray Davis still has a chance to survive next week?s vote. Until last
weekend, opinion polls showed support for the recall declining. This
isn?t because Davis has become more popular. He remains justly
despised by millions of people for presiding over the state?s budget
crisis--and trying to make working people pay for it.

But voters have gotten a look at the leading contenders to replace
Davis--and they don?t like what they see. Ultimately, this election is
an attempt by both Democrats and Republicans to escape their
responsibility for California?s crisis.

Voters in the recall election will first have to choose "yes" or "no"
on whether Davis should be removed from office. A "no" vote clearly
would be a vote to keep Davis as governor. But the main forces pushing
for a "yes" vote--and the main beneficiaries of Davis? removal from
office--are the Republicans. With either result, ordinary Californians
get the shaft.

That?s why we call for Socialist Worker readers in California to
abstain on the recall question. But there is an alternative on the
second part on the ballot--who should replace Davis if he is removed.

Peter Camejo has spoken out for a real alternative from the status quo
presided over by the mainstream parties. We believe that he deserves
our readers? vote.

And California voters should also oppose the racist Proposition
54--the deceptively titled Racial Privacy Initiative, which would harm
efforts to address discrimination by barring the state government from
collecting information about race and ethnicity.

Camejo isn?t likely to become the next governor of California on
October 7. But a substantial vote for him will send the message that
people want more than a choice between the two sets of misleaders who
drove the state into a ditch--and who want ordinary people to pay to
get it out.



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