Well, it looks like Schwarzenegger is going to be the governor of California. He may have even obtained more votes than Davis, giving him a "clear mandate," as they say on CNN. The newscasters do occasionally point out that some 2 million absentee ballotts have yet to be counted. The recall vote was passed by a margin of 1 million votes. The result is not likely to be upset by the absentee ballots, but I plan to be amused if that happens. It looks like the margin between Davis and Schwarzenegger is around 200,000 votes. So it looks like the Republicans pulled the rug out from under the Davis administration -- a sort of coup-by-numbers. It leads one to ask whether Davis would have been retained if Bustamante weren't there. This is impossible to know. Truly this is a strange universe indeed. Having said that, I think California could do worse than Arnold. Anyone who has been lambasted by a Limbaugh gets extra points in my book. His views are described as "socially liberal," which is all right with me. Not that I'm a Californian. In any case, this isn't a slam dunk for Republicans, because Arnold seems to have genuinely bipartisan interests. I don't think he's going to shake things up as much as he likes. One of his first planned moves is to "repeal the car tax." I don't think he can do that. James sent me this lovely article which summarizes the history of the car tax:

One such reform was Proposition 47, a constitutional amendment put before voters in 1986. Sacramento had begun in budget crunches to dip into the automobile license revenues, and so advocates of the local governments thought it wise to stop future raids by setting in constitutional stone the long-standing arrangement with the state. The title of the initiative was banal: "Allocation of Vehicle License Fee Taxes to Counties and Cities." It passed, 3,487,604 to 775,437. Jump now to the late 1990s. Gov. Pete Wilson, looking to his legacy, decided he liked the sound of Champion Tax-Cutter. The tax he chose to cut? Yes, the vehicle license fee — never mind that it wasn't, technically, the state's money to begin with. Counties and cities were told not to worry. There would be, by statute, something called "backfill." They would receive the same amount of money as generated through the vehicle license formula, only it would come from the (then) flush state general fund. And there would be a "trigger" — if the state didn't have the dough to pay the locals their due, vehicle license fees could be brought back to their previous levels. [LA Times]

So, Arnold wants to "repeal" a tax which is -- by the state constitution -- not under state jurisdiction. At best he will be able to institute a suplement, a pay-out to the cities and counties in order to offset the actual amount of the tax. That doesn't sound likely to balance the state budget. Oh well. Have fun down the rabbit hole, boys and girls.