WHAT'S WRONG WITH BUSTAMANTE
Unlike Mark Kleiman, I think Cruz Bustamante's MEChA connection might be reason enough not to vote for him, especially because he's been such a mealy-mouthed coward in addressing the question. But I completely agree with Mark that Bustamante's increasingly nutty economic populism is an even better reason:
On the other hand, Bustamante's support for gasoline price controls [*] is an excellent reason to vote against him. Does he have fond memories of lines at gasoline pumps? This is really bad news for California Democrats, and for California. Not that this dimwit idea has a snowball's chance in Hell of becoming law, but the fact that the man who looked a minute ago like the least bad alternative we had either (1) doesn't understand basic economics or (2) does understand, and is deliberately misleading the voterscould hardly be more depressing.
In fact, as a California property owner who would someday like to return, I'm getting worried that a Bustamante victory would lead to policies to make a bad economy worse. Certainly his latest message, reported at some length in the San Francisco Chronicle suggests he'd like to wage war on business:
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has railed against the Republicans behind the recall. But the bigger problem in California, according to his campaign rhetoric, is Wal-Mart, Chevron-Texaco and a host of other corporate giants.
Running as the Democratic alternative in case Gov. Gray Davis is voted out of office, Bustamante has developed a continuing theme: Big business needs to do more to help the state.
He has proposed higher corporate taxes and more regulation of oil companies and accused Wal-Mart of not providing adequate health insurance for its nonunion workers.
On Monday, Bustamante drew cheers when he told a labor union crowd in Pleasanton that retail giant Wal-Mart had broken the unwritten social contract to a better society....
Among Bustamante's platforms:
-- Raising taxes on companies by $3.4 billion, including altering Proposition 13, the property tax cap, to ensure that commercial property is reassessed more often.
-- Allowing the state's Public Utilities Commission to have a say in the price of gas.
-- Blasting Wal-Mart as a provider of unaffordable health insurance to employees and accusing the company of handing out applications for food stamps and state-subsidized health care.
He's supposed to be an advocate for low-income Californians, and he attacks Wal-Mart, which has not only driven huge productivity gains in the economy over all but, more to the point, sells quality merchandise at low prices? Where exactly does he want the people eating his red meat to shop? Melrose Avenue boutiques? That's economic cluelessness.
If you're a California Democrat and cannot bring yourself to vote for someone who isn't, please vote against the recall and leave it at that. (Or cast your vote for someone like Angelyne.) Gray Davis is bad, but not this bad.