October 13, 2003

NEW YORK AND THE CALIFORNIA RECALL

By James Eugene*

I must confess to being disinterested in the California recall except to have an "anyone but Arnold" interest. If Arnold had participated in multiple debates, if Arnold had not decided to use his "Terminator" movie-star jingles, if Arnold had not sought to just blame the groping issues on someone else, rather than himself, I might have not had such an attitude, but the Arnold campaign reminded me too much of those old books entitled "The Making of the President." Arnold ultimately was the totally packaged candidate and we never could find out who Arnold was.

Moreover, the California recall was stupid. Let's say 40% voted no on the recall. In other words, the Governor gets 40% of the people saying "yes we still want him". And let's say the winner gets 35%. That means the dethroned Governor is more popular than the newly throned winner. Bizarre.

But I must confess that a recall in New York would be very interesting. Because you must figure that the New York Governor's figures might be the exact same as those for the governor of California. And no one is calling back Patacuomo because he can't be recalled.

In the end, Patacuomo is a better candidate for recall than Davis, or at least just as good.

Afterall, for a year, Patacuomo kept saying, "no, the State is not in the middle of a huge fiscal crisis." It was Patacuomo was used a $5 billion rainy day fund on one year's budget. It was Patacuomo who made a deal with the health workers' union allowing for raises for their members. It was Patacuomo who refused to get tough on the budget in an election year. It was Patacuomo who signed off on a MTA financial maneuver that led to a 25% increase in commuter fares and a 33% increase in subway fares. And it is Patacuomo who fails to face up to these facts. Patacuomo's election year strategy, to the detriment of the State, was live and let live in my election year, and we will worry about the mess afterwards.

I do not blame Patacuomo for the budget mess. When the economy goes in the tubes, the politicians get too much blame and when it goes well, they get too much credit. My problem with Patacuomo is that he failed to address the issue when he knew it was an issue. With a 20 point lead that consistently remained the same, Patacuomo never risked any capital, never attempted to lead and never attempted to make the tough decisions. Even after the election, Patacuomo, doing an about face from his tax and spend Republicanism, was a budget farce, attempting to cut local aid while saving his own pet programs. Patacuomo did not even attempt to finesse or negotiate this matter. Only this time, Patacuomo blew it, as the Legislature overrode his veto.

People will forgive, in the short-run, difficult outside factors. Patacuomo could have claimed a need to sacrifice in his reelection year due to 9-11. Instead, he wanted to be a reelection hero. Yes, he won impressively, but in the long run he hurt our State.

And we don't get to recall him? Well, shame on us for voting him in.

SURPRISE!!!

All the incumbents running for reelection for City Council won their primaries, almost all very handily.

Now campaign finance reform was supposed to assist insurgent candidates with running against incumbents. A four to one dollar match program is very generous and it was designed to assist challengers raising money. However, not a single challenger came close. In fact, the most common theme I hear from incumbents about late contributions from City residents is "well, I already maxed out on my matching funds." Ugh!

When the campaign finance reform law was being passed at the Council, then Council Member Walter McCaffrey called it the biggest incumbent protection act in the history of democracy. Has any incumbent been beaten since the initiation of campaign finance. Frankly, I cannot think of one. Maybe McCaffrey was right.

So anyone hear any calls for repeal of this campaign finance reform? I didn't think so. So much for democracy.

AND ONE FINAL RECALL VOTE

We have a cowboy for a President and a Terminator as governor of our largest state. What must the rest of the world think of America?

* James Eugene is the pseudonym of a veteran of NYC government affairs. Inside The Big Apple will appear exclusively on the Empire Page. If you want to send tips or column ideas to James Eugene, email them to jameseugene@empirepage.com.