Any Cal dems interested in keeping Bush off 04 ballot

California law requires that both party Presidential nominees be submitted by late August 04, whereas Bush won't be nominated till early Sept so he can wrap himself in 9/11 "celebrations" as if that won't backfire. The democratic Secretary of State, Kevin Shelly, plans to "waive" that requirement.

I've been of a mixed mind about this. Of course Bush is going to be the nominee, unless he isn't. We could challenge this in court as concerned citizens. If we file in San Francisco, we could pull a good judge and have a decent chance. We would need to raise about $25,000 minimum for legal fees (and no, I'm not looking to be the lawyer on it).

in such an endeavor.

I am not from CA but I am interested nonetheless. Try, though we may, Democrats just can't match Republicans in meanness. There is no doubt in my mind your promblem with recall has the blessing of the WH.

bush doesn't have a chance in california

group who would do this! I'm going to google on this one ... what an ass Kevin Shelley has turned out to be. The repukes want everything by the book and he is going to waive this requirement? I guess I'll have to e-mail his office as well.

I'm a California lawyer, and I sure wouldn't. I also understand that the party wants to look moderate and not potentially lose a court battle and look petty.

I have sent an e-mail to Shelley and also one to a consortium of Bay Area civil rights/constitutional rights attorneys and will post when I hear back from one or both.

Why even have it, then?

n/t

When I wrote to Sec. Shelley politely asking him what the f**k he thought he was doing (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/05/15/MN243319.DTL) his response seemed to imply that he would be supporting the Legislature's change of this date, not that he would himself waive the law.

We Californian's need to be on the phone and sending e-mails NOW to our elected State Representatives to let them know that in this time of fiscal crisis when Republicans have dug in on the budget and at a time when our executive branch is threatened with a recall vote, it's no time for the legislature to be changing existing laws regarding presidential filing deadlines of all things!

Fight the battle where the battle is, in the Legislature, not the courts!

A later convention gives the GOP an advantage -- they retain more of the campaign bump with a shorter interval before the election. Also, the campaign season traditionally begins after the convention, and a shorter interval favors the incumbent by giving the challenger less time to go head to head.

There's no reason the Republicans should be able to do this. They would waste money and effort and look like idiots having to reschedule for an earlier time. But this is what they should be forced to do. That's a good enough reason all by itself.