ABSTRACT
The California Constitution allows recall petitions to be circulated any time after an incumbent is in office for 6 months. The weak organizational structure of California’s political parties further blurs the lines of governance and invites unnecessary chaos. Unlike those of many other states, California’s political parties do not have the ability to control nominations. On October 7, 2003, the California electorate decided to remove Gray Davis from his job as governor. California is a state in deep financial trouble, and changing governors in itself won’t do much to cure the state’s major ills. California’s shift to the Democratic Party in the 1990s may have resulted more from the archconservative candidates offered by the Republican Party than from the policies of their opponents. Under California’s constitution, the legislature has the responsibility for redistricting after each census. The idea is to make sure that each legislative district contains approximately the same number of people.
