Candidates for Governor Receive More Scrutiny

Re “Huffington Paid Little Income Tax,” Aug. 14: Ah, the life of a “working woman.” An 8,000-square-foot home in Brentwood worth $7 million, children attending elite private schools, owning a private corporation that manages your business and loses more money than most Americans make in a lifetime, high expenses and low income (sounds like government) and large monthly child support checks that could easily cover the average Californian’s yearly expenses. It must be tough, sitting in your gorgeous home, overlooking a beautiful garden and writing those columns criticizing corporations for finding tax loopholes. But, then again, maybe it takes one to know one. Could she teach the rest of us working women her trick?

At least Arnold Schwarzenegger pays taxes like the rest of us; at least he is helping cover some of the cost of this ridiculous recall.

Reva Fabrikant

Santa Monica

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Income tax, as the name implies, is based on income, not on how much wealth one has or on the value of his or her home. Many people with lots of money have years with little or no income taxes because they experienced losses. Unfair? Maybe. Hypocritical? Not as much as implying that Huffington should be held to a different standard from any other individual.

Dana Ravyn

Wilmington, Del.

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Re “135 Candidates Qualify for Oct. 7 Recall Ballot,” Aug. 14: Gimme a break! I’m a retired preschool teacher. I had to go to school to learn my trade, as most people do. What political training have most of these people had? None. Then again, what are the qualifications for becoming a governor?

Come to think of it, I may be overqualified.

Phyllis Lipman

Reseda

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Re “Hahn Is Low Key on Davis’ Future,” Aug. 14: Who’s Hahn?

Jack Moran

Thousand Oaks

Am I missing something? Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is against the recall, but he is running to replace Gov. Gray Davis ... just in case. If Davis is replaced, it seems logical that Bustamante, the lieutenant governor and the prominent Democrat on the ballot, will get more votes, by a large percentage, than any one of the 130 or so miscellaneous dodos on the other side, even the magnificent Arnold.

David Saxon

Sherman Oaks

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Schwarzenegger’s qualifications should be carefully examined and reported, but his father’s alleged Nazi affiliations are irrelevant to the urgent questions raised by his candidacy for governor of California (Aug. 14). Schwarzenegger himself is clearly not a Nazi, and the riddle of his plans for California will not be solved in Austrian archives.

The horrors of the Nazi period should not be treated as historical gossip surrounding a celebrity candidate. Instead of focusing on Arnold’s dad, Californians might want to remember the more pertinent lessons of the Nazis’ rise to power: They began as a small group of committed radicals who used political chaos and multiple elections to undermine German democracy.

Avi Matalon

Assistant Professor

Jewish Studies

Harvard University

Cambridge, Mass.

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Anybody who backed Proposition 187 gets my vote. And Schwarzenegger even speaks broken English. But he makes an effort to be an American. Go, Arnie! Ron Unz, too. And if you’re legal, you shouldn’t have too much difficulty dealing with that.

Vince Watson

Long Beach

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I would like to thank Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), my fellow Californians who signed the recall petition and all gubernatorial candidates for allowing me to renew friendships with out-of-state friends. The only problem is that whenever I answer the phone, all I hear from them is laughter.

Stanley H. Rebold

La Canada Flintridge