McKeown Hitches Wagon to Conservative Republicans

By Richard Bloom and Julie Lopez Dad

In a recent Opinion piece published on surfsantamonica.com, Kevin McKeown hitched his wagon to the conservative Republican agenda by announcing his support for the costly recall. ("No Is Not Enough," Sept.30, 2003)

This is regrettable because Mayor pro tem McKeown is a progressive and the recall election is, first and foremost, a right wing Republican power grab that, in our opinion, must be resisted and
turned back.

It is, likewise, unreasonable for progressives to attack Gray Davis for being a good fundraiser. We can, and do, agree on the need for reform. Until we achieve that goal, let's not be naive about the realities of modern political campaigns.

Peter Camejo? Even with significantly more media and debate coverage than a third party candidate normally receives, he will have no meaningful endorsements and will receive only a small fraction of votes in the election.

Like most humans, we Democrats are not perfect. However, we have always relied upon unity to achieve our goals. It is precisely this unity that the conservative juggernaut seeks to undo.

The recall election is a bad idea, foisted upon us and promoted by wealthy arch-conservative sponsors. Their first choice may not have been Schwarzenegger, but his election would still herald the rollback of years of forward movement on progressive issues, from the environment to education, from housing to healthcare. The brunt of Republican-inspired economic changes will fall, no doubt, on local government.

We urge our fellow Santa Monicans to cast a resounding "no" vote on the recall.