Re: Ninth circuit and the recall

[Scarberry, Mark]

In response to Sandy and Gregg,   If "special interests" (e.g., the railroads in the early 1900s) have such control of a state that a gubernatorial recall is needed, it is likely the special interests would also arrange for election of a sympathetic Lt. Governor. After all, governors die or sometimes are forced from office after being convicted of crimes such as bribery; it wouldn't make sense for the special interests to put all their eggs in the governor's basket. Further, the Lt. Gov. may be in a good position to win an election for governor when an existing governor is term limited or decides not to seek another term. Thus the special interests would be likely to try to put in someone beholden to them not only as governor but also as lt. governor. They certainly would not want an antagonistic lt. gov. who might use the office to criticize the governor or the special interests. It was not therefore, IMHO, much of a stretch for the reformers to decide that a recalled governor should be replaced by someone chosen in the recall election, rather than automatically by the lt. governor.   Of course, in some cases a lt. gov. is from a different party than the governor. California has had at least one Democratic governor with a Republican lt. gov. (Jerry Brown and Mike Curb), and at least one Republican governor with a Democratic lt. governor (as Gregg notes). For a list of lt. gov.'s and their political affiliation see http://www.ltg.ca.gov/office_of/previousgovs/caltgovs.asp. But that does not mean the reformers were wrong to fear that a special interest "machine" might well be in control of both offices - which some people think is the case today in California.   Such a fear is, in my view, certainly reasonable enough to pass any applicable rationality test.   Mark S. Scarberry Pepperdine University School of Law   -----Original Message----- From: Gregg Miller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 10:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Ninth circuit and the recall   And, as a matter of fact, Gray Davis was Lt. Governor under a Republican Governor. -----Original Message----- From: Sanford Levinson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 8:52 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Ninth circuit and the recall Mark write: I suppose the reformers thought that the Lt. Governor would likely be part of the same "machine" as the governor. This supposition would make much more sense, of course, if they ran as a ticket.  But, as I recall, there have been instances (as in Texas) where the Governor was Republican and the Lt. Gov. Democratic and/or vice-versa.  So the "reformers" would seem to have been engaging in quite a stretch. sandy