Republicans worry about a possible split in candidate support, while many Democrats vehemently oppose the recall altogether.
By Mollie Vandor/Special to The Malibu Times
With the Oct. 7 recall election just days away, Malibu’s Republicans appear divided about who to support, while local Democrats seem to be united in their opposition to both the recall itself and the leading Republican candidates.
Shirley Willson, treasurer of the 30-year-old Malibu Republican Club, said that the club has deliberately refrained from backing a particular candidate, since “everybody has their own ideas about Arnold Schwarzennegger and the opposition.”
Willson concedes that the Malibu Republican Club “hasn’t been very active this year because we haven’t been able to discover very much Republican activity in Malibu.” But the remaining club members, she said, strongly believe that the recall “is a good idea because the governor is behaving very poorly. He seems to do all the wrong things.”
Malibu Republican Women, Federated, an organization of women who “provide a forum to keep the Republican point of view out there,” according to President Cynthia Sandford, agree that most Republicans believe the recall is necessary.
“Since we are such a huge state and we have tremendous resources, it is very sad that all our money has been spent,” Sandford said. “The recall is very healthy because when someone isn’t doing a good job, it’s time to question that person. California is too important a state to allow it to deteriorate. We want to keep this state strong for our families and our future.”
Ingrid Erickson of the Malibu Democratic Club disagrees with the local Republican leaders, saying that like most local Democrats, she vehemently objects to the recall election. “The recall is terrible,” she argues. “It is a waste of California’s money and we are very much against it. Davis is doing a good job. He’s helped save our energy and, in light of what the Bush administration did to California, he has done the best he could. I don’t think anyone could have done as well.”
Did the recent televised debate change minds in Malibu? Wilson says that in terms of the media, “The attention is really being given to Arnold.”
But she thinks Thousand Oaks resident “Tom McClintock is doing rather well because people like him and people who know him admire him a great deal. But Schwarzennegger is a personality. He’s sold himself really well.”
Sandford also feels that local Republicans are clearly going to “split our votes. But we don’t want to split the vote because every vote is going to count. I am hoping we can get behind one candidate.” Sandford worries that Republican groups “cannot currently back any particular candidates because our members are for different people.”
Ralph Erickson, president of the Malibu Democratic Club, vehemently opposes Schwarzennegger, who, he says, has “come across as an uninformed, arrogant brute and a threat to women. His proposal to put Arriana Huffington into a Terminator movie leads you to believe that he wants to stick her head into a toilet bowl.
“Cruz Bustamante came across as a reasonable, studied kind of figure,” Erickson continued, “who was interested in solving problems, not making unfounded allegations.”
Local Democrats and Republicans alike are reluctant to condemn Bustamante, even in the wake of allegations that he accepted illegal campaign donations from special interest groups. “I would vote for Bustamante if recall was not defeated,” Ingrid Erickson said. “I suspect he’ll give the money back then.”
Willson feels strongly that despite her ideological opposition to the leading Democratic candidate, “Bustamante did appear to [have the] advantage from the way he spoke on his campaign finances, and so I don’t have a negative opinion about him from that.”
Sandford also refuses to directly criticize Bustamante’s campaign finances, but does say that any new administration “would be an improvement over what’s been going on in Sacramento for the last few years.
“I think Republicans are beginning to feel that we have to get behind one candidate to win the election,” Sandford added. However, both she and Wilson worry that a GOP consensus is unlikely given the sharp divisions within Malibu’s Republican organizations.
With clear disagreements between-and within-the leading local political organizations, it appears that the outcome of the California gubernatorial race will remain a big surprise-even for the most politically minded Malibu citizens.