Mixed greens

The Green Party stands united, at least in the fact that some of its members strongly disagree with what was written in this column last week. Those members, one of whom I consider a good friend, want a “correction.” I prefer to call it a “clarification,” or even an “explanation” of how this political party operates. Last column said that “with the exception of the Green Party groups in Butte and San Diego counties, which are officially endorsing Peter Camejo for gov, the rest of the party’s county groups are against the recall. However, just to be safe, they recommend voting ‘No’ on the recall and then voting for Camejo as a candidate.” Camejo, you may recall, ran for governor in 2002 as the Green Party candidate.

This week Walter Ballin, council member of the Butte County Green Party (BCGP) wrote to explain that, “As of Aug 1, only two locals were listed as endorsing Peter Camejo on his Web site (www.votecamejo.org/), but this does not mean that all other counties are against the recall or that they do not endorse Camejo. The list was recently posted and still incomplete. Some endorsements have not yet been added to the Web site. Some counties are still going through the endorsement process or have not yet reported in to the campaign.”

A check of the Camejo site this week shows that the Green Parties from El Dorado, Humboldt and Los Angeles have also come out endorsing Camejo. Here’s where it gets a bit confusing. Individual members of Green Parties from Sacramento, Contra Costa and Alameda are endorsing Camejo at this point, but their respective party groups are not yet listed as doing so. And here’s where it gets really confusing. Included on Camejo’s Web site showcasing his endorsements is a list of the Green Party candidate’s endorsements from 2000. The CN&R is included on that list. But of course that’s wrong because there was no governor’s election in 2000. It is that type of mistake that makes people think “Green” stands for something other than protection of the environment when it comes to the Green Party. Don’t get mad, you Greens, just put down the bong and get it together.

According to a story in the San Jose Mercury News, the recall election could cost as much as $67 million—pure lunacy. The exact cost depends in part on how many folks run. At this point about 260 have expressed an interest, including, the decidedly unfunny comedian named Gallagher, whose entire schtick revolves around smashing watermelons with a mallet. What if the recall fails to remove Gray Davis? What will its proponents say then? “I guess we misread the will of the California voter?” Or what if we get some nut like Gallagher? With 260 potential candidates, that unthinkable scenario could happen. God help us. We’ve received unsolicited e-mail from a guy named Allan Shore who wanted a dollar for his campaign. I e-mailed back and asked if I ran, would Shore send me a dollar? No response. Then there is the Georgy for governor campaign offering Georgy Russell of Mountain View who is selling baseball caps, coffee mugs and thong underwear on her Web site to raise money for her campaign.

Bob Best is floating an interesting idea to help pay for development of our community and neighborhood parks. Best, a retired accountant for Lockheed, suggests the city consider selling off part of the Bidwell Ranch property to developers. There are about 750 acres there—Best suggests selling and developing just over 300, which is what the last incarnation of that development called for before its out-of-town builder went belly-up and the city purchased the property. Based on what the 250 acres of Enloe property reportedly sold for ($18 million), Best figures the Bidwell Ranch property could fetch $20 million to $25 million. The problem with the idea is that the specter of Rancho Arroyo will always hang over any idea of developing that land. And overcoming that prejudice presents no easy task.