by Bailey Porter
LV Life Editor
Californians have less than one month to decide whether they want to keep Gray Davis – the governor they elected less than a year ago – or vote for a recall and elect a new governor to office.
With the Oct. 7 recall election approaching, University of La Verne students, like many Californians, react with mixed emotions about the pending change, Gov. Gray Davis and the replacement candidates.
Davis, whose approval rating dropped from 57 percent in 2001 to 22 percent last month, has been accused by the public of hiding the truth about the size of the state budget deficit during his campaign for re-election.
Just weeks after his inauguration, there was talk of a recall.
ULV student Greg Willis, freshman broadcasting major, said the rush to a recall has left little room for Californians to get to know the platforms of the swarm of replacement candidates, 135 in all, to make well-informed decisions.
Willis said he would like to hear more about the issues from the candidates, especially where education and the budget are concerned.
Other ULV students have heard enough to make their decisions.
While Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger is riding on his “Terminator” fame train and steering clear of pinpointing his stand on many issues, his campaign for governor has sparked the interests of some ULV students.
John Barnes, senior computer science major, who is upset with Davis’ action to triple automobile registration, said his vote would go to Schwarzenegger over keeping Davis in office.
“Of course I like [Schwarzenegger] in the movies, but he seems like he has a lot of backup, a lot of support. I have to pay registration. Davis is going to cost me $200 extra if I vote for him. Yeah right,” Barnes said.
Freshman political science major Katie Ford thinks that the multimillionaire Hollywood star, who started out as a young Mr. Universe, appears quite knowledgeable based on the broadcasts she has seen.
“One of the things that made the biggest impression on me was that he’s going to quit acting if he becomes the governor, and I think it’s really important that they separate that,” Ford said.
“He may be getting elected based on his celebrity,” she said, “but he’s going to fully commit himself to the cause of being governor.”
ULV senior Clarita Morales has another opinion of Schwarzenegger’s campaign for governor.
“The other (candidates) I feel are coming out of the Hollywood thing,” she said. “Arnold and all the others – I don’t think they’re taking it seriously.”
Morales does think, however, that the recall should happen because the expectations that she had for Davis have dwindled.
She is concerned about the increase in tuition for community college students and the impact that it will have on education.
Morales’ attention has been drawn to Independent and columnist Arianna Huffington.
“I like her ideas. She’s thinking more of the voters, not herself. She’s not saying ‘I will do.’ She’s saying ‘let us do’ this for the state,” Morales said.
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is also a possibility for Morales.
Other ULV students question the costliness of having a recall when one of the main issues causing Californian’s disillusionment of Gov. Davis surrounds the current state budget deficit.
It is estimated that the special election will cost taxpayers between $53 and $66 million.
“It’s a waste of money and a waste of ideals, and all it’s done is split all the parties up.
“Rather than pull their resources together, they’ve all gone off and started separate factions. It’s kind of ridiculous,” said Dan Tucciaroni, an English major in his last semester at ULV.
Veronica Murillo, junior child development major, also sees the recall as a poor deposit of money that could be used elsewhere.
“It’s not like we have that money to be spent on the recall,” she said.
Still, students like Jasmine Diioli and Ben Haile focus on recalling Davis as the answer to the budget problem.
“He brought the economy down so much more and he claimed he would do so much for education and those are the things that are suffering right now,” said Diioli, junior liberal studies major.
Haile, an international student studying business administration said that the economic crisis in California “would be a good reason for someone to be changing jobs.”
If Davis loses the recall vote, he is removed from office even if the number of “no” votes exceeds the number of votes for any of the candidates in the replacement election.
This means that Davis must win by more than 50 percent. If he receives 49 percent of the public’s support, a simple plurality will decide his successor.
Senior Kim Reed blames the large amount of candidates for the complications of the recall.
“I think it makes it a little diluted and easier for unqualified candidates,” she said.
But Reed, like many ULV students is still undecided on the recall. She is unsure if her initial reaction against the recall will take precedence in how she will vote in October.
“We voted him in. I think we just should have sucked it up,” Reed said. “But now that the offer is on the table, I don’t know.”
