2002 Cal Gov race: Bye Gray Davis!

Happy New Year! The 2002 California Governor's race is starting its engines now that the year has finally arrived when we can and will make the worst governor in California's history, Democrat Gray Davis, a one-term governor, and in so doing, finally cast the twin party of capitalism with the Republicans, namely the California Democratic Party, into the dustbin of history, hopefully soon followed by the Republican Party.

The primary election is Tuesday, March 5, 2002, and the expected outcome for the governor's races will be Gray Davis for the Democrats, Pete Camejo for the Greens and Richard Riordan for the Republicans. Sad to say, because so many people played the reactionary "lesser evil" game in 1998 and voted for the very evil Democrat Gray Davis, Peace & Freedom Party, the socialist party on the California ballot for 30 years, from 1968 to 1998, will not have a candidate as it lost ballot status, and thus this writer will not vote for anybody for governor. I, and I hope, you will vote on the propositions as they are always worth it, and it is mandatory that those of us who are for the workingclass and can vote, do so, to send the message to the ruling class that the reactionary garbage that often appears on the ballot in the form of propositions, especially on the spring ballot, is rejected by the workingclass. It is also mandatory that we vote for those propositions that benefit the workingclass as every one of our votes is needed for those propositions as well. If you SELL YOUR LABOR for less than ,000 per year, you are a member of the workingclass. When we get a labor movement that is strong enough to provide socialist candidates, the only candidates who by definition represent the workingclass, we will be able to vote for candidates as well. Organize the unorganized, and meanwhile, vote in every election.

This article will not discuss the propositions as the campaigns on those are just forming. To see what they are, go to:

http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_j.htm

or

http://www.calvoter.org

It has been said that the Democrats are in bed with the Republicans since they are both capitalist parties, sponsored by the same corporations. Republican candidate for governor, Richard Riordan, is married to a Democrat, Nancy Daly Riordan, and thus this is not just a figure of speech. See the San Francisco Chronicle, 12/22/01, "Bedfellows Make Strange Politics" by Carla Marinucci at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/12/22/MN217593.DTL

As to the Democrats, the national chair of the Democratic Party is Ed Rendell, the district attorney who framed Mumia Abu-Jamal. For that reason alone, much less many others, the Democratic Party, and Gray Davis in particular, should not receive any black votes whatsoever, and they should not receive the votes of any member of the workingclass. For the biography of this viciously anti-workingclass, racist and pro-death penalty chairperson, see http://www.aspenlinx.com/mumia/newstuff/rendell2.htm

Democrat Gray Davis has done his best to be at least as reactionary as his predecessor, Republican Governor Pete Wilson, and sometimes was even worse.

The labor unions played a major role in getting out the vote for Gray Davis in 1998, and they received absolutely nothing. Three times Gray Davis vetoed an increase in the Workers' Compensation benefits, causing labor to now consider having a Workers' Compensation initiative on the November ballot. California currently pays 0 per week and ranks 49th in the amount of Workers' Compensation paid. Davis has also vetoed an increase in unemployment insurance and two bills to improve farmworkers conditions: One would have provided stronger penalties against contractors who knowingly violate labor laws and the other would have made it easier for farmworkers to obtain lost wages. And on labor's legal front, he demoted Miles Locker, the chief counsel to the labor commissioner who interpreted the law in favor of labor. All of this should have been expected no later than when Davis appointed Barry Munitz, former chancellor of the California State University system, to be on his transition team. Munitz was notoriously anti-labor as chancellor and as an executive for Charles Hurwitz, the financier who owned Maxxam and its subsidiary, Pacific Lumber. Pacific Lumber workers filed a lawsuit charging Hurwitz with stealing million from the company's pension fund in 1986.

It is the capitalist class that has supported Gray Davis, far more than labor could financially, and it is their wishes he considers primary, as he supports capital, not labor. In the first six months of 1999, Davis received 5,000 from the oil industry, 5,000 from the gambling industry, 6,000 from developers, 6,000 from insurance companies and ,500 from the timber companies. Davis received .1 million in the first six months of 2000, primarily from oil companies, healthcare providers, the insurance companies and the gambling industry. To date, Davis has over million cash on hand for his campaign. These contributions will be updated periodically at:

http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/cdonors/donors.asp?ID=1069390&SESSION=2001&FORM_ID=F460

In 2001, the Mills Corporation, a developer promoting a retail and office complex on San Francisco's waterfront, and the expected developer of any retail development connected to the 49er Stadium Swindle, if that should ever be resurrected, gave ,000 to Gray Davis' campaign. Mills Corporation is also a friend of the worst mayor in San Francisco's history, election frauding fascist thug Democrat Willie Brown, who currently sits in office with 40% of the vote plus election fraud and now has only 20% support. Willie Brown is viciously anti-labor, anti-tenant, anti-gay, anti-women and anti-public power. He is a lifelong gambling and election fraud politician and he is a good Democrat. Democrats Gray Davis and Willie Brown are great friends. For more on Willie Brown's election fraud in promoting the 49er Stadium Swindle on the June 3, 1997 San Francisco ballot, see http://www.brasscheck.com/stadium

Californians know Gray Davis best as a whore of Pacific Gas & Election Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison Company and San Diego Gas and Electricity Company. Davis received over 3,000 from these 3 utilities over almost 20 years in politics. In 2000, Davis received ,500 from PG&E and ,000 from Edison. The blackouts we experienced in 2000-2001 were all staged by these companies just as the legislature was set to vote on a bailout package for them, in particular for PG&E and Edison. The deregulation crisis hit San Diego first, forcing the legislature to restore some regulation to the San Diego area. Please remember that the entire legislature, Democrats and Republicans, supported deregulation, which all public power advocates predicted would be a disaster, and it was, and still is since our gas and electricity rates have gone up at least 50%. Probably the best frequent reporting on the sellout politics of Davis to the utility companies is done by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. It is worth checking their Bailout Watch newsletter and their press releases frequently at http://www.consumerwatchdog.org

Bailout Watch: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/st/

Press Releases: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/pr/

As late as October 2001, Davis was taking money from the energy companies, in particular FPL Energy LLC and Caithness Energy LLC, which each gave ,000 to Davis' campaign fund. They both have proposed power plant projects pending in California. Duke Energy, whose power plants account for about 5% of California's electricity, has donated to both Democratic and Republican Congressional campaigns and to Gray Davis' campaign for governor. Duke has been found guilty of many violations of the Clean Air Act.

Then there is Houston-based Enron, which gave million to the presidential campaign and inauguration of the Republican election-fraud "president" George Bush , Jr. (hereafter "Baby Bush"), that just declared bankruptcy, causing thousands of people to lose jobs, among many serious problems. Their bank, Credit Suisse First Boston, was "advising" California legislators on how to "resolve" our energy "crisis," which is actually a crisis of political leadership failing to exercise its right to eminent domain to take over the utilities and set up a public power agency in California. Enron was a big promoter of the disaster known as deregulation. Enron gave ,000 to Gov. Davis' campaign for governor. Enron's support for Bush won them a position for CEO Kenneth Lay on Bush's energy policy transition team. Kenneth Lay was a "negotiator" in attempting to solve the deregulation crisis in California, meeting with Gray Davis, government regulators and energy providers in January 2001. Enron profited from California's deregulation crisis by selling electricity to PG&E at outrageous prices.

If Gov. Davis' consorting with the energy companies is not enough, there are the conflicts of interest on the part of his spokespersons. Bruce Willison, whom Davis appointed to the California Electricity Oversight Board, has 12,052 shares of stock in Enron of Oregon. William Keese, chairperson of the California Energy Commission, had shares in Edison International, Texaco, Duke Energy, General Electric (produces turbines) and Exxon Mobil. Transactions were made on behalf of Keese with these companies plus Centrais Electricas Brasileiras, Tosco, Conoco, BP Amoco, International Power, Powergen, Petroleo Brasileiro, Total Fina Elf SA and Halliburton Co. Holdings (VP Dick Cheney's former company). Steve Maviglio, Davis' acting director of communications, owned Calpine Corporation stock. Davis had to fire 5 energy advisers who had conflict-of-interest problems: 4 of the 5 owned stock in Calpine and the fifth had stock in Enron. Vikram Budhraja, a Davis administration energy consultant, owned stock in Scottish Power, that signed a billion contract with California. Budhraja was also a consultant to Oklahoma-based Williams Energy, which signed contracts with California. He also owned Edison stock.

Gov. Davis promoted himself as the education candidate for governor, but education has not been a priority for Davis as it always received cuts in funding so the taxpayers can subsidize the energy companies and now, with the state budget suffering from insufficient funds due to the economic depression which is now about 1.5 years old, education receives more cuts in funding, while the police and prison budgets receive much smaller cuts. In the year 2000, California students ranked 48th in math scores. In the budget proposals of November 2001, Davis proposed 2.5 million in education cuts.

Special attention should be paid to Gov. Davis support of Edison Project's privatization of the public schools, in particular, one of San Francisco's public schools, which happened to be named Edison School. The school board tried to end the contract, but in cooperation with SF "mayor" Willie Brown, Gray Davis appointed Brown's Republican friend, Donald Fisher, owner of the Gap with a large investment in Edison, to the state Board of Education, guaranteeing that Edison would continue to operate the San Francisco school, against the wishes of the San Francisco School Board. The details of this outrage can be found in the San Francisco Bay Guardian at:

http://www.sfbg.com/News/35/26/26sfc.html

The Bay Guardian's outstanding series on Edison is listed, with links to each article, at:

http://www.sfbg.com/News/edison.html

For a good biography of Donald Fisher, see the August 12, 1998 Bay Guardian article by Daniel Zoll at http://www.sfbg.com/News/32/45/Features/fisher.html

Perhaps the most important document on Edison and its connections to the Democrat-Republicans is a report published by the People for the American Way in December 2001, entitled "Community Voice or Captive of the Rights?: A Closer Look at the Black Alliance for Educational Options." The press release is at: http://www.pfaw.org/news/press//2001-12-04.349.phtml

The BAEO is a front for all kinds of right-wing organizations and has Board of Director connections to Edison Charter Schools. This report can be found at

http://www.pfaw.org/issues/education/vouchers/factsheets/BAEOReport12_01.pdf

The latest on Edison can be found at the Philadelphia Independent Media website as the Democrats and Republicans together have allowed the state of Pennsylvania to take over the Philadelphia public schools and contract out some schools to Edison. See http://philly.indymedia.org/

When Gov. Davis is not busy assisting Republicans in privatizing the public schools, he is assisting lifelong Democrat, and currently "independent" mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland, a former governor and lifelong member of the ruling class, in militarizing the public schools. When the Oakland School Board and Alameda County Board of Education refused to allow the Oakland Military Academy to be set up at a public school, Jerry Brown when to the state Board of Education, where the Davis appointees on the Board gave Brown the charter for this military school. See the San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 2001, "Jerry Brown's Boot Camp School Opens" by Meredith May, at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=c/a/2001/08/14/MNL112977.DTL

The biographies of the State Board of Education, including the Gray Davis appointees (appointments after 1998) can be found at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/board/bio.htm

Gov. Davis' contempt for education is in stark contrast to his adoration of prisons and the death penalty, which have won him the support of every police and prison guard agency in the state, a group of endorsements Davis advertises proudly. Gov. Davis supported Proposition 21, the phony "juvenile crime" initiative on the March 7, 2000 ballot, which was opposed by the Democratic Party. Thus, Davis went against his own party in supporting this Republican former governor Pete Wilson's initiative Wilson was using to campaign for president. Despite the fact that he dropped out of the race, the initiative remained on the ballot and passed. It allows for billion for the construction of youth prisons, pushes non-violent children into adult courts and state prisons, and like the entire prison-industrial complex is not only a waste of money, but is also a vicious attack on the workingclass.

Gov. Davis is even worse than his predecessor, Pete Wilson, in that Davis refuses to grant parole to people sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Wilson did grant parole in such cases. This has caused a major problem in the prison system and efforts are being made to take this decision-making power away from the governor.

Gov. Davis is also a proud Death Penalty Democrat, eagerly executing every prisoner scheduled for execution he can, with no effort to avoid this anti-workingclass, racist, immoral and barbaric terror weapon, which no longer exists in Europe. Davis was also using the death penalty as a litmus test for his judicial appointments.

On gay rights, Gov. Davis only reluctantly and at the last minute opposed Prop. 22, the anti-gay marriage initiative on the March 2000 ballot and only reluctantly signed a weak domestic partners bill.

On abortion, Gov. Davis opposes late-term abortion except when it threatens the life of the mother. Roe v. Wade guarantees our right to a safe and legal abortion for the entire term of the pregnancy. Thus, Davis is opposed to the law of land.

No article on Democratic Gov. Gray Davis is complete without mention of his adoration of the Republican former California governor and former president Ronald Reagan. Davis proudly opened the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California in October 1999. The Hearst San Francisco Examiner of October 5, 1999 carried the AP story with a huge picture of Gray Davis looking approvingly at Nancy Reagan with a huge blow-up of a replica of a Ronald Reagan license plate in the background, made possible by a law signed by Gov. Davis. This license plate has a picture of Reagan wearing a cowboy hat next to Reagan's nickname, "Gipper." Apparently, Nancy Reagan and Gray Davis are of such low intellectual stature that they think this is how a president is honored and that this trash belongs in a library. In case anyone forgot the legacy of Ronald Reagan, some highlights of this fascist's career are: (1) He honored the Nazis buried at Bitburg in 1985 in his official capacity of President of the United States, a country that officially opposed the Nazis, while the world commemorated the 40th anniversary of the celebration of the defeat of the Nazis. The anti-fascist and Jewish communities of San Francisco had an emergency protest rally at Union Square against this travesty, and there was a sold-out event honoring the anti-fascist fighters of World War 2. (2) The Iran-Contra scandal characterized his entire 8 years in office and is so well-known that one can easily find plenty of information on it if need be. (3) His anti-Communist political career officially began as an anti-Communist witchhunter in the 1950s, which was primarily an anti-labor crusade. (4) He promoted the anti-communist frame-up of Angela Davis while governor of California. (5) He continued with his anti-labor activities with the firing of the air traffic controllers, members of PATCO, in 1981, when they went on strike. Democrat Gray Davis said of Republican Ronald Reagan: "He took this country to new frontiers of human freedom