18
and they were able to make their statements of support for a candidate that they agreed
with ideologically in a decisive election rather than a less important primary contest.
For those affiliated with smaller parties such as the Greens and Libertarians the
recall presented an opportunity for their votes to be more important among such a wide
list of candidates and plurality selection rules. Although, Greens and Libertarians
undoubtedly realized the chances of their candidate winning were just as small as in any
other recent state election, their vote in the recall contests was arguably more important at
the margins within a fractured electoral field. This also represented an opportunity for
the smaller party candidates to actually compete with the many Republicans and
Democrats and have a chance to finish ahead of some of them. In fact Green Party
candidate Peter Camejo can now say he “beat” 40 Republicans and 48 Democrats (not to
mention Gary Coleman, a porn star, and Gallagher).
We expect the unique and extraordinary institutional features of the recall and
replacement choices to generate higher turnout among all subgroups – but
especially among Republicans who appear to have had the most meaningful
choices and among those affiliated with various third parties (especially Greens
and Libertarians).
The final factor that may have influenced higher turnout in the recall is that there
was some clear policy distinctions between the major candidates that potential voters
could see as benefits or sanctions (depending on their interests and perspective) and that
these were likely to be immediately applied after the recall. Although Schwarzenegger
was more often quoted saying a line from one of his movies, he also had a few things to
say that clearly distinguished him from Gov. Davis on controversial issues that voters
could easily grasp. Two pledges stand out. Schwarzenegger promised to repeal the
Convention