Logic

One of the persistent problems of legislative bodies, indeed many political arenas, is to play a bit too much inside baseball. A good demonstration of that has been going on for the last few months when the Pro Tem of the California Senate tried to recall a Central Valley senator who did not help him solve last year's budget mess. Yesterday he dropped his bid to oust the other senator. Even after his announcement the recall will remain on the June 3 ballot, which presumably will have some small effect on the counties who have to count the ballots (although admittedly there are other items on the June 3 ballot).

Perata offered the following quotes (thanks to the Chronicle, both Bees, the Merc and the LAT) "You get to the point where . . . you've got to see what matters most," Perata said on the steps of the Capitol. "And I don't want to go through what we went through last year. The state can't afford it. You know how things are at the end of a campaign. They get uglier and uglier, tenser and tenser, and it made no sense." Perata said, noting this is his last year as senator. "I don't want to go out in Chapter 7" bankruptcy. Gee, thanks Don, wouldn't it have made a bit more sense to think like this before you started the campaign?

"It would seem to me to be destructive to continue the recall while at the same time he and I were going to sit down with our counterparts in the Assembly and in seven weeks try to put together a budget that may well have to eliminate a $14-billion deficit," Perata said. Well, duh!

"We are in one of the largest economies in the world and we are teetering on bankruptcy. And if we can't get our act together we're going to look like a bunch of clowns," Perata said, noting this is his last year as senator. "I don't want to go out in Chapter 7" bankruptcy. The Pro Tem may have already exceeded the standard he was trying to avoid.

"You get to the point where . . . you've got to see what matters most," Perata said on the steps of the Capitol. "And I don't want to go through what we went through last year. The state can't afford it. You know how things are at the end of a campaign. They get uglier and uglier, tenser and tenser, and it made no sense."

"I wouldn't have gotten into this if I didn't think it could have," he said. "I didn't use a lot of people's money for an ego trip." There was another take on the success of the effort by a Merced democrat and elected official named Larry Morse, who said "It did not seem to have any legs and clearly did not have support in the district, which is where these things really must originate,"

In a zen like conclusion to the press conference, Perata described the effect of pulling the plug on the campaign "It's like a tree falling in the forest and nobody's there," he said.

From all the stories on this effort, the State Treasurer, Bill Lockyer, who is a former Pro Tem, seems to have had some effect on Perata. Lockyer argued that the state needs to construct a budget settlement sooner rather than later simply because of potential cash flow problems. That would make sense in a normal year, but it makes even more sense in this one.

The most recent PPIC poll summed voter thinking up about how well the Capitol is functioning. Since December the positive feelings about the collective work of the California legislature, never in high numbers, has dropped 16%. Ultimately the Pro Tem made the right call here. I do not have any strong feelings for the senator who Perata was trying to recall, but a lot could have been avoided by thinking about this outcome before this whole farce was begun.