As any semi-aware citizen of California should know, Bill Simondefeated Richard Riordan in the recent Republican primaries and isnow the Republican candidate for governor of California.
“Sowhat?” you say? “I’m not voting for a Republican anyway, so shut up,you dirty elephant.”
Before you pass me off as just another Republican, let me explainto you why this loss is such a big deal, why Democrats should supportthe Republican Party this election and why you should go to thepolls, not to vote for governor, but to tally a vote for “not GrayDavis.”
Trust me, you will be hard pressed to find a person who is moreupset with the current Republican Party. I curse in the generaldirection of the West Wing, and use the new budget as kindling in myfireplace.
However,when the time comes to vote for governor, I’ll be voting Republican.
Sadly, not for the Republican who had a legitimate chance atbeating Gray Davis, nor the Republican best fit for this state.
Does anybody else find it odd that Gray Davis spent millions ofdollars to influence the Republican primary? Some of you may recallhis “Richard Riordan is a pro-life sissy who doesn’t support thedeath penalty” commercials.
These commercials forced Riordan to say he was pro-choice, andessentially that he was a Republican when it came to fiscal policybut a Democrat in social policy. He had to do this in order to haveany chance after the primaries.
But that doesn’t make him Republican enough for the RepublicanParty — so he lost the primaries.
Riordan is moderate enough for even the staunch Democrats to makean exception and vote Republican. However, Simon is not. This is astate of Democrats, and the Republican candidate cannot win without alarge group of voters willing to break party affiliations.
And the real cheap blow — the swift punch to the kidneys — isthat it was all over a completely irrelevant issue.
Republicans didn’t like Riordan because he was pro-choice, andDemocrats won’t vote for him if he is pro-life. Nobody bothered tothink about how abortion isn’t a valid issue in this election — it’snot like governors appoint Supreme Court Justices. Even if his solepurpose was to hinder abortion, he couldn’t do it as governor.
But Gray Davis will cast the illusion that these issues are valid.Davis wants to talk about irrelevant issues all day long, because thereal issues facing this state are a result of his incompetentadministration.
Like how a $12 million surplus got turned into a $17.5 milliondeficit during his term in office — the result of a deregulationfiasco that Davis perpetrated.
And who were the contributors to Davis’ campaign? The electriccompanies! Don’t forget that, among others, Davis took $93,000 fromEnron and then returned the favor by pushing deregulation.
We need a governor who is fiscally responsible — somebody we cantrust with our tax money. Davis has destroyed our budget with slowand ineffective attempts to solve urgent problems.
Davis was a pawn in Enron’s master plan to extort millions ofdollars from the state of California. His refusal to lift price capson electricity wasn’t a liberal attempt to protect the poor — it wasa way to undermine conservation and hand Kenneth Lay and the otherbastards racketeering in this country a larger paycheck.
Not only that, but he is willing to resort to conniving politics,exploiting any misconception the public might have about issuesfacing this state to gain re-election. He will spend millions and owecorporations giant favors to dupe the masses into making a giantmistake.
I may not be able to vote for Riordan, but I’ll never vote forDavis. The Republicans have already made a huge mistake — and now Icall Democrats not to fall for those same brainwashing TVcommercials.
Even if it were Schwarzenegger instead of Simon, he’d still bebetter than Davis — vote “not Gray Davis” on Election Day.
–Joe Zarro is an undeclared sophomore.
–This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheDaily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com.Anonymous letters will not be printed — include your full name,major and year in school.
