Maria Elena Salinas

Introducing her book
"I am my father's daughter"

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'

Written by Maria Elena Salinas
Monday, August 25 2003

I get homesick once in a while, and this is one of those moments when I would give anything to be back home in California to experience the electoral pandemonium firsthand. I now live in Florida, of all places -- a state that went through political mayhem of its own, you might recall, but that was not quite the same. It's not that I don't feel at home in Florida -- after all, this is where I live with my family, where my daughters were born, where I enjoy the diversity of its people and the warmth of the tropics. But during the botched election in 2000, as a voter I felt foreign to it. Their fault, not mine. I knew who I was voting for. I did my homework before the election, no confusion there. But if I were in my native city of Los Angeles, maybe I could understand better why my fellow Californians have gone mad. Don't they know how to count? If more than 3.5 million people voted for Gray Davis less than a year ago, how is it that a little more than 1 million -- who probably didn't vote for him anyway -- can now decide that he should be recalled? How can a minority undo what a majority did? OK, fine, I understand that the law in California allows these things to happen, but the state's constitution also calls for the lieutenant governor to assume the governorship in the event of a vacancy, so shouldn't Cruz Bustamante automatically fill the position if Gray Davis is kicked out of office? After all, in the 2002 gubernatorial race, Bustamante got 125,452 more votes than Davis. In case you don't live in California, the governor and lieutenant governor run independently, not as a ticket. Another one of those California things. But that's not the only reason one might argue that Bustamante should become governor if the recall succeeds. If you look at the list of 135 candidates who want Davis' job, after you're done laughing you will notice that among the few who can be taken seriously, Bustamante has the most political experience. Before becoming lieutenant governor, he served two terms in the California assembly, the second as speaker of the house. Now, I would not put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the short list of candidates who can be taken seriously, but obviously many Californians are giving him a second look, as are prominent members of the Republican Party. In spite of his popularity, Schwarzenegger still trailed Bustamante -- who is no Hollywood leading man -- in a Field poll taken in mid-August. And "the Terminator" is not relying on charm and star appeal alone. He has surrounded himself with political heavyweights. Questions persist: If he were to win, would he actually be governing, or just playing the role for the Republican Party? What input would the chairman of his campaign, former Gov. Pete Wilson, have? Wilson was public enemy No. 1 to many Hispanics -- who now comprise 30 percent of the population in California -- for his anti-immigrant views. Surprisingly, Schwarzenegger, an immigrant himself, supported controversial Proposition 187, which would have denied education and health benefits for immigrants had it not been struck down by the courts. How I wish I were back home, if only for a month. Ever since I was a young reporter in Los Angeles, I have been waiting for the moment when Hispanics can wield their political power, and this election just might be the one. There are 2.5 million registered Hispanic voters in California, almost 17 percent of the electorate. In 2002 they were 13 percent of the vote. There is definitely room for growth. So, as in the case of Florida, where many analysts say the Cuban-American vote helped get George Bush into the White House, in California the Mexican-American vote can very well decide whether to give Davis a second chance, to make Bustamante the first Hispanic governor in more than a century or to give "the Terminator" the first role of his political career.