We're gonna change directions in the whole movie/life ranting business this one time to talk politics, another little passion of mine. Tonight, we'll talk California with the governor's race. It's a flawed campaign with dumb and dumber fighting to be in the governor's seat come November. As a Republican in Berkeley (yes, gasp at the thought), I'm partial in voting party lines, which means I'll vote Simon, not my first choice during the primaries. I voted Riordan. Sure, he was an old geezer, but he was a moderate who led L.A. past dark times. Instead, we got the lawyer/businessman, two jobs no one wants to be associated with anymore. As a result, all his backers have suddenly disappeared including Rudy Giuliani. To add injury to insult, his company was successfully sued for millions in damages. Simon wants no part of it and has tried to distance himself from it, but to no avail. Inevitably, his financial status became an issue, but he refused to release his taxes. All politicians seemingly do but Simon didn't, causing protesters to rise up in anger. When he finally did, he let inexperienced news reporters with no experts in sight to look at a decade's worth of documents for a couple of hours. Let's face it, he's flawed and he's inexperienced. "If he can't run his own company, how can we trust him to run the 5th largest economy in the world?" the commercial from Davis asks.

Indeed, I say. But now we turn to Gray Davis, the dumber of the two. I mean, come on, he still raises the roof every chance he gets. It wasn't cool the first time and Davis doing it makes it that much worse. He's had three years on the job, but he himself hasn't proven that he can run the 5th largest economy in the world. Back in 1998, he ran on a platform of education and he's certainly fulfilled. Standardized testing reigns in California. Money is tied in with the results. Shape up or ship out is the motto. Spending on education increased much faster than other spending. As a result, the state's kids may be well-funded (not compared to other states, but much better than before) but everyone else isn't. Right now, California faces the largest budget deficit in history, about $24 billion from a $100 billion budget. The fiscal year started 45 days ago and the stalemate in the Legislature doesn't look to be ending soon. Sure, Davis can lay the blame on them but he hasn't done anything to help either. Who knows? We might go back to issuing IOU's like in the early '90s. While all this is going on, Davis continues to fund-raise for his own governor's campaign and a very remotely possible presidential campaign two years from now. Figures show he's got $30 million in the bank while Simon, who's cutting half his staff to save money, has only $5 million. As a result, Davis keeps running attack ad after attack ad. But where does fund-raising stop and political decision-making begin? An allegation exists where the now-defunct Tosco refinery donated some money to the Davis campaign and a week later, a state agency appointed by Davis gave Tosco a few more pollution credits. There's also the mess with Oracle and the new database system they were supposed to make for the state. Oracle also gave him a bunch of money. Then, who can forget the power blackouts? Instead of preparing for it, he took a reactionary stance and made up policy after policy including binding the state into expensive power contracts, most of which aren't needed anymore with cheap power running rampant throughout the state now. And the power companies gave him money too!

Last month, the race was a tie. Now, the Washington Times reports Davis has built a huge 17-point lead over Simon. While the election is three months away, things are looking dim for us Republicans. But as long as they raise those UC fees after I graduate, I'll be okay whoever's in the governor's office.