Which Way, L.A.?
California's Democratic but Inefficient Government
Republicans don-t hold a single statewide office, and they-re a minority in both the Assembly and Senate. Yet, because it takes a two-thirds majority to pass a budget, they can prevent the Democrats from enacting a spending plan. They can also threaten a recall election against a Governor who was re-elected just last November. The current budget stalemate and the recall campaign against Governor Davis have all but crippled California government. Is it too much democracy or not enough? We hear from Xandra Kayden, senior fellow at UCLA-s School of Public Policy and a national board member of the League of Women Voters, and John Kurzweil, the founder and editor of the California Political Review, an outspokenly conservative bi-monthly magazine about state politics. Making News: Davis Recall Campaign Reaches Petition Goal Organizers of the recall against Governor Gray Davis have stopped gathering the signatures required to put it on the statewide ballot, claiming they have done their job. Phil Paule, political director of the Republican-backed recall committee called Rescue California, says that with a deficit soaring by $29 million a day, he expects to have election on the ballot in mid-October Reporter's Notebook: Mexico-California Relations on the Back Burner? California-s Governor Gray Davis and Mexico-s President Vicente Fox have both promised to improve cooperation across a very important border, but for both men, domestic politics have intervened. Michael Flores is California-s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, a job Davis created in 1999. Flores emphasizes that both leaders remain strongly committed to cross-border business and politics.
By Warren Olney • • 30m ListenRepublicans don-t hold a single statewide office, and they-re a minority in both the Assembly and Senate. Yet, because it takes a two-thirds majority to pass a budget, they can prevent the Democrats from enacting a spending plan. They can also threaten a recall election against a Governor who was re-elected just last November. The current budget stalemate and the recall campaign against Governor Davis have all but crippled California government. Is it too much democracy or not enough? We hear from Xandra Kayden, senior fellow at UCLA-s School of Public Policy and a national board member of the League of Women Voters, and John Kurzweil, the founder and editor of the California Political Review, an outspokenly conservative bi-monthly magazine about state politics.
Davis Recall Campaign Reaches Petition Goal
Organizers of the recall against Governor Gray Davis have stopped gathering the signatures required to put it on the statewide ballot, claiming they have done their job. Phil Paule, political director of the Republican-backed recall committee called Rescue California, says that with a deficit soaring by $29 million a day, he expects to have election on the ballot in mid-October
Mexico-California Relations on the Back Burner?
California-s Governor Gray Davis and Mexico-s President Vicente Fox have both promised to improve cooperation across a very important border, but for both men, domestic politics have intervened. Michael Flores is California-s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, a job Davis created in 1999. Flores emphasizes that both leaders remain strongly committed to cross-border business and politics.
