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California puts on recall vote farce

"I may be paralyzed ... but not from the neck up, like Gray Davis."

Larry Flynt, Hustler magazine publisher and candidate for the governorship of California

One candidate is famous for her pouting lips, cleavage and pink Corvette. Another is best known as a hustling pornographer who survived an assassination attempt. A third is a former punk rocker who had a hit 20 years ago with a song called Property is Theft. And a fourth is a bodybuilder whose catchphrase is "I'll be back."

All would-be candidates for the governorship of California have to file their nomination papers by Saturday. So far, 344 people have taken out the necessary papers to run and pundits predict that at least 100 of them will have their names on the ballot when the matter comes before the electorate on Oct. 7.

What seemed like a clever move by rightwing Republicans in California to remove the unpopular Democrat governor, Gray Davis, and replace him with one of their own has turned into farce, reinforcing the old stereotype of California as the home of Goofy.

Last month, enough signatures were collected to put the recall of Davis to the vote but Darrell Issa, the multi-millionaire Republican congressman who financed the move and hopes to replace Davis, has opened a West Coast Pandora's box.

If Davis is recalled, for allegedly misleading the electorate last year about the state's fiscal deficit, a simultaneous vote for a new governor would give Californians such a choice that the winner could be elected with as little as 10 percent of the poll.

All it takes to stand is 65 voters' signatures and US$3,500 so, not surprisingly, everyone with a show to publicize is registering.

No California governor has ever been recalled so the arcane rules have never been clarified and are under challenge in court from Davis whose supporters warn that the current process could be as chaotic as the Florida election in 2000.

Today one of the best-known contenders and one who stood a good chance of winning is due to quit. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the bodybuilder-turned-actor, who promises in his movies that "I'll be back," is indicating that he won't be. After weeks of coyly hinting that he would stand, he appears to have bowed to family pressure to stay out of the race.

There is no shortage of other candidates who are better known for their public personas than their political experience. Angelyne, a buxom blonde who has been appearing on billboards in Hollywood since 1984 for no reason that anyone can quite explain, has announced that she will run. Her Web site answers the question "what do you do?" with the reply: "I don't do - I AM!"

She is unlikely to run as efficient a campaign as Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine and the subject of the 1996 film, The People vs Larry Flynt, which told the tale of this Kentucky boy who made a fortune from pornography before being paralyzed by a shot from a would-be killer.

This week in Hollywood, he announced that he would run under the slogan "the smut peddler who cares" and said: "I may be paralyzed ... but not from the neck up, like Gray Davis."

An Orange County punk rocker, Jack Grisham, of the band TSOL, who once sang songs like Abolish Government and Property is Theft, has also confirmed that he will run. He is adamant that this has nothing to do with an album the band is launching next month. Georgy Russell, 26, who is running on a "clean energy" ticket, is selling "Georgy for Governor" thongs to finance her attempt.

A much more serious candidate, who is due to announce her intentions tomorrow, is Arianna Huffington, former president of the Cambridge Union, a "recovering Republican," as she calls herself, and a syndicated columnist who is best known for her libertarian/left positions on everything from campaign finance to the environment and corporate corruption.

Opinion polls are indicating that 55 percent support a recall but Davis is a prolific fund-raiser and is promising to spend US$20m to beat the bid.
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