The Morse recall petition has been turned in with about 16,000 signatures (despite some nasty tricks Bloomberg and his followers were pulling). Only a bit over 7,000 were needed, so it looks like a recall is likely. Possibly. In theory.
Here are the possible outcomes of this:
Morse fights the recall and wins.
Morse fights the recall and loses.
But there's another possibility that is very likely; Morse could resign.
If Morse does resign as far as I can tell that'd negate the recall. There'd be no special election and a vacancy committee would appoint a replacement until the 2014 elections. I'm certain the replacement would be a dem, and possibly one of Bloomberg's henchmen.
Now Morse wants to fight, or at least he's stated as much (though he's been less adamant in the past). Morse is an arrogant little statist punk and his ego alone would cause him to fight to hold on to what he believes is his and his alone. But there's been no word from NYC so the final decision has not come down from on high.
Bloomberg is an ass (also, the sun rises in the east). He's not afraid to hurt the democrat party to attempt to further his anti gun owner agenda. So it's possible his ego and lust for power and hatred of gun owners could lead him to order Morse to fight the recall, which would be fine with Morse's ego and sense of entitlement, but maybe not so much for the party he belongs to. It's also possible that he'll think it best to pull the plug on Morse, offer him some consolation package, and have the vacancy committee appoint his minion in Morse's place.
Colorado democrats likely have discussed the possibilities and want to play it safe - have Morse resign so they can have another democrat take his place, instead of potentially being stuck with another republican in the senate, which would diminish their 3 vote majority to 2. They'd find some work for Morse or otherwise "make it up" to him, but I have a feeling a lot of them are urging him to "take one for the team". I'd be surprised if Hickenlooper himself hasn't had a "come to Jesus" phone call with Morse about what's best for the party.
But they don't matter. Bloomberg runs things here now.
If Morse fights the recall and wins then he'll shore up the notion that gun owner votes don't matter, and politicians can slap them around with impunity. That's what Bloomberg likely wants to happen, and he probably believes his quad mounted credit card can provide enough covering fire for Morse to win.
If Morse fights and loses then that'll have a very chilling effect on democrats that would otherwise vote for gun owner control bills. Not only would the Colorado dems have 1 less vote on their side of the aisle in the senate, but nationwide dems would see there's a very real price to be paid for imposing on gun owners' Rights.
Bloomberg really doesn't want that to happen, as it could unravel his evil scheme not only locally but nationally. But it's likely that he thinks his bank account coupled with a misconception about how popular his gun owner control program is outside of his yes men will lead him to think he can emerge victorious. So he'll nix any talk of Morse resigning unless he thinks it's likely he'd lose. At least that's my guess based on what I know of that nasty little dictator-in-training.
If Morse does resign it'd shore up the democrats position in the senate until 2014. It would still send a chilling message to gun owner control supporters - that the party will ask you to fling yourself underneath their greyhound if the voters get testy - but it'd delay any definitive message until 2014.
There is another though - Angela Giron of Pueblo faces a recall petition and organizers say they're on track to acquire the signature goal by the 10th of June.
"We're doing really well. We're right on track to meet our ultimate goal, which is 25 percent above what we need,' Mr. Head said. 'We've got lots of bipartisan support for this. About 60 percent of the people signing the petition are Democrats, which is really interesting."
If that bears out - that 60% of the petitioners are democrats - that'd definitely alter the state democrat party's view on things.
Again, this is just a prediction and subject to being a might shy of being right, but I think the state dems will wait to see what Giron's recall petition does. If it lacks enough signatures and she doesn't face a recall they'd be more likely to ask Morse to swan dive in the name of the party. If Giron faces recall then they may think that fighting both is a better ploy instead of leaving 2 of their own high and dry in the face of voter wrath.
Of course what matters most is if they can persuade Bloomberg to back their call on these issues, or if he'll just ignore them and insist that he can bankroll both elections in the dems favor.
The Morse recall is getting the most attention, but the Giron recall effort bears watching, as it'll have some say in what Bloomie the Hut ultimately decides is best for Colorado.
Remember though, this isn't about Morse - it's about Bloomberg. The recall is a proxy war of sorts, and the question on the ballot will not be should Morse be replaced by whatever republican the stupid party comes up with (and they'd have to double down on their IQ challenged rep to field a candidate that couldn't beat Morse at this point). The voters will decide if Bloomie should keep his grubby little nose out of Colorado's business. If Morse loses then the answer would be no. If Morse wins then Colorado might as well swear fealty to its King in the North.
So if the Morse/Bloomberg ticket wins, it'll be a loss for us. If the Morse/Bloomberg ticket resigns, it'll be a win for us, but not as big a win as we'd like. If the Morse/Bloomberg ticket loses it'll be a decisive victory.
But let's keep things in perspective here - while it'd be a political victory if Morse/Bloomberg resigns or loses it's still shy of what should have been done. Instead of facing the consequences of a ballot, both of these petty bastards should be facing the verdict of a jury. So even if Morse/Bloomberg lose by a landslide, they'll never see the inside of a jail, or feel the pelting of rotten fruit thrown at them by small happy children as their bones ache in the stocks. Which means in the bigger picture we all lose.
Posted by Publicola at June 5, 2013 01:30 AM | TrackBack