Remembering Gov. Gray Davis.

Former Gov. Gray Davis did get a bad rap, 11 years later
his legacy still haunts voters.

11 years ago a "revolution" started in the state of California , and that legacy has fostered us a incumbent 4 term rerun of Gov. Jerry Brown. I often wondered about the if our angry population started a political trend in America . If you "re-call" When the recall effort against Gov. Gray Davis was launched in February 2003, Sacramento insiders weren't quite sure how seriously to take it. Nogovernor had ever been recalled in California history — despite many short-lived attempts — and Davis had just been re-elected to his second term only three months earlier. The election of Schwarzenegger to replace Davis sent shock waves through the political establishment. A recall of a sitting governor had only happened once in the country’s history (1921 in North Dakota). Even though Schwarzenegger had mixed success building on his early popularity and some of his programs alienated conservative supporters, those behind the original recall say they have no regrets. When ever the name Gray Davis pops in the mind , the word ROLLING BLACK OUTS flashes in the eyes . *** Yes I do remember the rolling black-outs , and the fact that the power companies were running a cleaver extortion ring on the state .Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released documents passed to it by lawyers for Enron's former energy-trading group. Several internal memoranda describe in detail strategies used by the traders to manipulate the markets in which California bought electricity during the crisis. The tricks, which were given sinister names like “Death Star”, included arranging power sales to flow in opposite directions so that Enron could collect the fees for moving electricity without actually doing it. Many such tricks drove up the price of power. Poor Gov. Davis was himself perceived as weak , got the blame of the public for not doing enough . The  furious California voters lined up to sign petitions for a longshot drive to recall him ,  the start of a grassroots revolution that continues to transform state politics. Months later, the improbable unseating of a California governor for the first time brought a more improbable successor:  (1)."Terminator" movie action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had not served a day in elected office. What I know of that era is that it was probably a roll out of the September 11th , 2001 terror attacks that some how vibrated all over the nation like a tsunami and rocked California the hardest . California had the  largest debt of any state in the Union tipping 20 billion , and half the debt leaked onto the state's own education system . It was F***King insane , how could that have happened ? In any case after Gov Davis was ousted,the states mounting debt doubled under Gov. Schwarzenegger who failed in many attempts to bring the states spending under control . Yes, we might look at Gray Davis as timid , but he was much better as a Governor  than the previous Pete Wilson who started to mount debt when he just left office , but he (Pete Wilson ) was also the "ghost governor" who instructed (2). Gov. Schwarzenegger to act like a jerk in those eight years. However Mr. Davis will go into history as a scapegoat . Davis himself here is quoted from sources exactly whet he felt, but it rings true for all other politicians . Davis said it will be up historians to determine the full impact of the recall and whether it was beneficial to the state. “I’m not sure it had much impact on today’s politics,” Davis said. “It will take 40 or 50 years before we can look back and measure. I think, as someone once told me, when things are going good, the people in government get too much credit. When they are going bad, they get too much blame.”

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1). Remember the freak show of would be "governors" during the recall who wanted to oust Davis? Beyond the predictable immature musings offered by those who planned to vote for Gary Coleman, Larry Flynt, and Angelyne, a number of students said they planned to vote for ArnoldSchwarzenegger. *** The California electricity crisis, also known as the Western U.S. Energy Crisis of 2000and 2001, was a situation in which the United States state of California had a shortage ofelectricity supply caused by market manipulations, illegal^[5] shutdowns of pipelines by the Texas energy consortium Enron, and capped retail electricity prices.^[6] The state suffered from multiple large-scale blackouts, one of the state's largest energy companies collapsed, and the economic fall-out greatly harmed Governor Gray Davis's standing. (2). I am misapplying the word "jerk" for Arnold . Don't get me wrong I like him as an actor , but as a middle road politician as he wanted the public to view him we was god awful , he challenged the legislature , cut education  ( although the money went out of the classrooms to upper management in public schools ) his  approach gave the GOP the name as the Party of NO compromise that now beguiles Washington D. C. and President Obama. # added note . I remember Gray Davis for having overdue and late budgets , the California legislature played this game for years missing budget deadlines , SOME TIMES MONTHS OVER-DUE!