Widening cry against GOP election tactics
Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief
Tuesday, September 2, 2003
Washington -- Of all the arguments advanced by Gov. Gray Davis to fight the recall, none resonates more strongly with coast-to-coast than his assertion that Republicans are engaged in a systematic effort to steal elections.
The anger that began over former President Bill
Clinton's impeachment -- and intensified after the
contested 2000 presidential election -- has solidified
into an unshakeable belief among the party's faithful
that the other side has abandoned rules of fair play.
The charge, which is gaining favor among some
scholars and nonpartisan observers, has become a
staple of Democratic speeches, opinion pieces and
conversations. Strategists expect, no matter what
the recall outcome, it will become a potent rallying
cry heading into the 2004 presidential campaign.
"People are furious over what is going on," said Molly
Beth Malcolm, chairwoman of the Texas Democratic
Party. "Republicans don't want a two-party system.
This truly is an attitude of 'masters of the universe.
We're in control and nobody can stop us. We'll do
whatever we want, and we don't care what happens in
the aftermath.' "
Bush's Florida victory in 2000 "validated their
tactics," said Bob Poe, who was chairman of the
Florida Democratic Party at the time. "It emboldened
them, and now we're seeing more and more of it."
Democrats, whose mastery of exploiting campaign
finance rules and White House fund raising prompted
congressional hearings into their own tactics in the
mid-1990s, acknowledge that they, too, play hardball
politics. But they decry recent Republican maneuvers
-- impeachment, recall, lawsuits and redrawn
congressional boundaries -- as a more fundamental
assault on the two-party system.
"I'm beginning to think," said comedian Bill Maher in
comments being passed around by Democrats, "that
Republicans will do anything to win an election --
except get the most votes."
Democrats say the recall is only the latest
Republican effort to overturn the will of the voters:
-- Republicans, after losing the 1996 presidential
election, defied public opinion by impeaching a
president for only the second time in history.
-- With the outcome of the 2000 presidential contest
in the balance, Republicans successfully petitioned
the U.S. Supreme Court to stop a recount in Florida
that they feared would deprive George W. Bush of the
presidency.
-- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas
Republican, led an effort this year to reopen the
state's congressional boundaries -- traditionally
redrawn every 10 years -- to provide Republicans with
as many as six more congressional seats.
Democratic legislators, who fled the state to prevent
the matter from coming to a vote, are now facing
threats of fines of over $50,000 per senator and other
reprisals from the GOP majority.
-- Colorado Republicans, concerned after GOP Rep.
Bob Beauprez won election in 2002 by just 121
votes, redrew district lines to add nearly 40,000 more
Republicans to his district.
"This recall is bigger than California," Davis said in
his statewide address from UCLA two weeks ago.
"What's happening here is part of an ongoing national
effort to steal elections Republicans cannot win."
Republicans say that there is no national effort, and
that the recall would not have been possible without
1.6 million signatures from California voters of all
political persuasions.
"It sounds like Gray Davis is attempting, as Hillary
Clinton did, to blame his problems on some 'vast
right-wing conspiracy,' rather than taking
responsibility," said Christine Iverson, a
spokeswoman for the Republican National
Committee.
In each instance, Republicans say they are simply
reflecting the will of the voters and pursuing legal
means to push their candidates. They point to the
Democrats' own legal efforts to challenge Florida's
certified results in 2000, and to the party's
controversial replacement of Sen. Bob Torricelli on
the New Jersey ballot last year just 36 days before
the election.
A PARTISAN BATTLE
The Democratic accusations, they say, stem from a
tactical decision to try to turn the California recall into
a partisan battle rather than a referendum on Davis'
record, and from frustration after losing the White
House, and majorities in Congress and state
government.
Continues....
sfgate.com |
