Former California Gov. Gray Davis may be the only person on the planet who gets what Gov. Gavin Newsom is going through these days, trying to salvage his political future while managing a major crisis
One major difference is the political makeup of California, where Democrats today hold a 2-1 advantage over the Republican Party. As Newsom faces recall, "there's approximately 5 million more Democrats than there are Republicans," Davis said. “That all happened over the last 18 years."
“Schwarzenegger was a megastar in 2003," Davis recalls. "He had campaigned the previous six months around the world for 'Terminator III' ... he announced on the 'Tonight Show,' and he stayed in character through the campaign — “I will fix this," Davis laughed. "You just couldn't find a bigger celebrity action hero, one known around the world — and married into the Kennedy family.
Davis' approval ratings were far lower than Newsom's today. In August 2003, Davis' rating was at a historical low with 72 percent disapproving of his job performance, according to a Public Policy Institute of California survey. And 58 percent of likely voters wanted to oust him. It was only after the recall that he was informed by reporters of a video “of a manager at Enron asking a plant in Las Vegas to go down, creating a blackout in San Francisco," in an attempt to jack up prices, he said. “If that video had come out earlier,” it, too, might have swung the small margin of in his favor, Davis says.
In the end, Bustamante got 31 percent, “and exit polls showed about a third of his voters voted yes on the recall," Davis noted. “If Bustamente didn’t run, I might’ve won."
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