A look back at the 2003 California Recall election

Recall Candidates

During the recent California Recall election, while most people were focusing on Arnold and the other front runners, I was more interested (in typical Brent fashion) in the fringe candidates. Some were famous or had famous names. Some didn't take it seriously, and others took it seriously but only had one key issue. I figure that each candidate has a story, some are boring, but many I found interesting. Here is what I found on a few of the more interesting lesser know candidates, in order of how many votes they got.

(I won’t take it personally if at any point you stop reading. It was my hobby, not yours)

1. 3,747,446 Arnold
2. 2,439,133 Cruz Bustamonte His website was noonrecallyesonbustamonte.com
3. 1,027,926 Tom McClintock
4. 213,547 Peter Camejo, The Green Party Candidate
5. 42,654 Arianna Huffington
6. 22,267 Peter Ueberroth, former Major League Baseball commissioner
7. 15,489 Larry Flynt, Hustler publisher
8. 12,712 Gary Coleman, by law referred to always as the "former child star"
9. 10,960 George Schwartzman, helped by the fact that his name was most similar to Schwarzenegger. His sole issue was to have less junk food in public school cafeterias
10. 10,129 Mary Cook, the adult movie star
11. 7,991 Bruce Margolin, would fix the budget by legalizing marijuana, then taxing it heavily
12. 7,915 Bill Simon, lost to Gray Davis last time
13. 5,924 John Burton, the Socialist party candidate
14. 5,819 Van Vo, Vietnamese talk show host.
15. 5,753 David Laughing Horse Robinson, an Indian chief
16. 4,867 Gallagher, the watermelon-smashing comedian
19. 3,759 Ronald Palmieri, the gay candidate
21. 3,021 Badi Badiozamani, the Iranian Immigrant candidate
24. 2,587 Dan Feinstein, vaguely related to Dianne
25. 2,586 Edward Thomas Kennedy, a Democrat that goes by the name "Ted Kennedy"
28. 2,262 Angelyne, the model-billboard star
29. 2,182 Garrett Gruener, founder of askjeeves.com, ran webcasts live making commentary about every debate he was not invited to.
30. 2,143 Jerome Kunzman, autosports ceo, had the idea to sell naming rights of all public buildings, parks and schools
32. 2,050 Ivan Hall. Sole issue: convert all public buildings to solar power
33. 2,011 Ned Roscoe. Sole issue: cut cigarette taxes. Job: sells cigarettes
34. 1,957 Georgy Russell, raised $11,000 for campaign by selling thongs
35. 1,928 Paul Mariano, if he won, he would name Gray Davis as his top advisor to tell him what to do.
38. 1,832 Brooke Adams, CNN intern
39. 1,749 Daniel Watts. Sole issue: Lower public college student tuition fees
40. 1,730 Christopher Sproul, challenged Arnold to a surfing contest
41. 1,705 Ken Hamidi, took on Intel in the US Supreme Court and won
43. 1,555 Nathan Walton, son of former NBA great Bill Walton
46. 1,503 Marc Valdez, known as the Dancing Meteorologist
47. 1,495 John Hickey, the top strait Libertarian, would sell all public schools
49. 1,455 C.T. Weber, from the Peace & Freedom Party
50. 1,384 Michael Wozniak, Sole issue: Wants to legalize domestic ferret ownership!
51. 1,370 Mike Schmeir, did all of his campaigning via Ebay auctions
52. 1,331 Diana Foss. Website: cowmoose.org
54. 1,294 B.E. Smith, Issue: would pardon anyone convicted of a marijuana crime.
56 1,225 Richard Simmons – not THAT Richard Simmons.
57. 1,198 Mike McCarthy, always campaigned dressed up as Rocky Balboa
58. 1,156 Leonard Padilla, professional Bounty Hunter
59. 1,141 Art Brown, issue: leave bars open later, thus create more jobs.
60 1,124 Iris Adam, candidate from the Natural Law party
62. 1,080 Trek Thunder Kelly, his candidacy was done as a performance art piece
66. 952 David Sams, the guy who always dressed up as Uncle Sam
68. 928 Diane Templin, the American Independent party candidate
71. 887 Chuck Pineda Jr., would support a 32-hour workweek.
72. 882 William Vaughn, job: structural engineer. Issue: structural engineers aren’t consulted for building code legislation
75. 791 Scott Mednick, ran to gain exposure for his brand of beer, ButtMonkey beer.
78. 737 Kurt E. “Tachikaze” Rightmeyer, pro Sumo wrestler
80. 728 Sharon Rushford, running to prevent the mistake that caused her husband’s leg to be amputated.
83: 706 Christopher Rankin, Issue: would outlaw recall elections
86. 663 Michael Jackson, not THAT Michael Jackson.
88. 656 Joel Britton, soacialist slaughterhouse meatpacker
92. 606 Paul “Chip” Mailander, Pro golfer
93. 586 Paul James Nave, Pro boxer
98. 537 Warren Farrell, job: men’s self-help book author.
99. 534 Robert Cullenbine, always campaigned in a clown outfit
104. 495 Kelly Kimball, other owner of ButtMonkey beer
110: 431 Richard Gosse, Issue: cut taxes for single people
115 374 Jeff Rainforth, the Reform party candidate
118. 346 Bill Prady, job: sitcom writer, promises to fix any problem in 22 minutes with two commercial breaks and everyone hugs at the end
120 333 Scott Davis, issue: organ donation. Only other Davis in the race
122 317 Lorraine “Abner Zurd” Fontanes. “AbZurd” had the big bushy hair, ran to make a documentary about it.
123 311 Carl Mehr, the oldest candidate, came in last on the Who Wants to Be Candidate for Governor game show.
124 303 John Zellhoefer, Issue: legalize gambling in the part on the state where he owns a ghost town.
127 285 Reva Renee Renz, made her own recall election candidate ’04 calendar
128 261 Kevin Richter, made parody website, whowantstobeagovernor.com, designed like the Am I Hot or Not website.
130 253 William Tsangares, caused a disruption and kicked off of the Tonight Show episode with the 90 candidates, protested for equal time and threw $2 bills
132. 236 Robert Dole, a republican, but not THAT Bob Dole.
133. 207 David Kessinger, made Recall election candidate playing cards.
134. 198 Gene Forte, claimed Arnold Goons attacked him personally
…and finally…
135. 172 Todd Richard Lewis. Filmmaker of a line of movies about the character, Bumhunter. Was happy to extend his 15 minutes of fame by coming in last by granting several post election radio interviews

In addition to this, Gateway offered each candidate a free digital camera if they would take pictures and send photos to the website CandidateCamera.com

complied by Brent Moore, 10/2003.

Build a better Get-out-of-Jury-Duty excuse

From a story just down the road in Memphis, this should get you out of jury duty every time:

"In my neighborhood, everyone knows if you get Mr. Ballin as your lawyer, you're probably guilty."

This happened during jury selection after three people had already been removed from the jury pool. One man got up and left, letting the judge know:

"I'm on morphine and I'm higher than a kite."

another removed juror had almost shot his nephew and another was arrested for prostitution.

EDIT: as of March 03, 2005, I have been selected for jury duty! Shall I try to get out of it using the steps above? Probably not. I have always fantasized about getting on a really big name trial, like the OJ trial, or something like that. Then, after the trial is over, as a halfway competant juror, I could write one of those quick fad books telling my experiences. You heard it here first.

Random thoughts

If lightning strikes in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make thunder?

...***...

...Or, better yet, what is the sound of two hands clapping in outer space?

...***...

When a product advertises "Four easy payments of $19.95," what would be classified as four difficult payments? Rolled nickels rubber cemented to the back of a post card?

Filling that Mid-size soda demand

I recently, for the first time, saw one of the new Pepsi 1 and 1/2 Liter bottles, filling the massive void between 1 and 2 liter sizes. Consumers often have three drink size choices between 0 and 1 liter bottles of pop, and the American population demanded more choices.

a little work needs to be done on the shape of the bottle, however. a 1 1/2 liter bottle is just as tall as a 2 liter, but I suppose for now you can stack them sideways. I'd have to go back and do the math, to see if space is really being saved.

How much should they charge for such a new size? Since you can often go to a nearby convenience store and purchase a 1-liter bottle of name-brand soda for $1.49, or a 2-liter for $0.99. I figure, they will probably charge $1.29, and will fall into the spectrum like this:

12 oz. can........$0.75
20 oz. bottle..... 0.99
24 oz. bottle..... 1.39
l liter bottle.... 1.49
1 1/2 liter bottle 1.29
2 liter bottle.... 0.99
3 liter bottle.... 1.39
6-pack of cans.... 2.49
6-pack of 20 oz... 2.99
12-pack of cans... 4.49
(glass coke bottles intentionally left out)

Finally something to say

I have finally done it, I started my own blog. For those of you relatives of mine that do not know what a blog is, a "blog" is short for "weblog", which is short for "World Wide Web Journal."

The first amendmant to the US Constitution gives me the right to say whatever I want, and thanks to blogger.com, a place to say it. However, I do not have a right to be heard, so if you stumbled here by accident, I appreciate you reading this far. I still do not have the right to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater in this blog.

I suppose that somedays, I might discuss technology, or geography, or history, comment on the news, or shamefully plug new features on my website. I probably will bot have a constant theme so, therefore, also not have a niche audience.

The frequency of my postings will fall somewhere in this range:

[The life of a tastebud] < [time between new posts] < [a blue moon, once in]

...but don't hold me to it.