Voters’ Opinions Are All Over the Map

California is crabby this Labor Day, with a list of complaints nearly as long as the state itself: crowded freeways, a budget deficit, higher electricity bills, a tripling of the vehicle license fee.

Little things rankle, too. Denise Kilcrease recently showed up for eighth-grade orientation at her daughter’s financially strapped school in Brentwood, a Bay Area suburb, and was asked to donate Kleenex, so the kids could blow their noses.

The recall election little more than five weeks from now is seen as the ultimate solution -- or yet another problem on the pile. Faced with something no one here has ever experienced, California is conflicted.

For many, the vote is a cause for celebration, a pageant of we-the-people democracy in all its ragged glory.

“I think the recall is one of the best things that has happened in this state recently, because it is finally going to send a message to politicians that they are accountable for their actions,” said Tony Lucich, 51, of Manhattan Beach, who signed a recall petition outside the local supermarket early in the qualification drive.

For many others, it is an embarrassment, “a three-ring circus,” as Palm Springs’ Raymond Velez put it, and a colossal waste of money.

“It makes a mockery of the whole voting process,” said Paula Canale, 41, who lost her hotel management job in the Bay Area as a result of the tourism industry’s post-Sept. 11 slump. “It’s not like you elect a new governor and they get in office and all of a sudden the economy changes.”

Scores of Californians shared their views on the recall election and the state of their state in a series of interviews conducted last week from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada to downtown San Diego. The sampling is not a scientific survey. But together, the street-level snapshots present a portrait of a state at once angry and uncertain, captivated by the spontaneity of the hurry-up campaign, but also confused by the unwieldiness of the multiple-choice ballot.

Consensus, which everyone seems to crave, is in meager supply.

There is little agreement on how California reached this sour state, or whom to blame for the droopy economy, deep budget hole and partisan warfare that divides Sacramento.

There is scant affection for Gov. Gray Davis, even among those fiercely opposed to booting him from office. For every backer of Arnold Schwarzenegger, there seems to be someone else who laughs at the mere thought of the action movie hero as governor.

There is even less agreement on how to turn things around or whether, like time and tides, the economy is something that moves to its own rhythms.

For Susan Ellis, dumping the governor would be a good way to start perking things up. “He misrepresented the state’s situation when he was running” for reelection last year, said the 53-year-old Republican and marketing director for a San Diego law firm. “I feel we were lied to. I don’t think we can afford three more years with Gray Davis.”

Nonsense, said H.R. Norwood, a 57-year-old Democrat and community activist up the coast in Carson. “When you see it takes two-thirds of the Legislature to get things done, you can see that he is not just doing this by himself.”

If there is a single area of broad accord -- reaching across divisions of class, color, party registration, north and south, coast and inland -- it is the notion that the state’s political establishment has failed its people. To the good fortune of the rest of Sacramento’s elected leaders, only Davis faces the prospect of being recalled on Oct. 7.

Dennis and Diana Golden, both 46, live in Rocklin, a prosperous suburb just over the county line from Sacramento. She is a Democrat and he a Republican, though neither is deeply partisan. They see the two major political parties equally corrupted by the sway of special interests.

“Whoever can come up with the most money wins,” said Dennis Golden, who opposes the recall campaign as “a whole lot too late.”

About a hundred miles southwest, outside a grocery warehouse in the Bay Area community of Concord, Jack Mannering said much the same thing. Hefting cases of bubbly water, beer and wine into the back of his red hatchback, the strapping 45-year-old in shorts and a T-shirt said the politicians in Sacramento -- every last one of them -- “are always jockeying for short-term political advantage, to serve their own ends. They’re so disconnected from the reality of our lives, they could care less.”

Still, he opposes recalling Davis -- the first part of the ballot -- because he fears “it would just open the door to an endless series of recalls by whatever party finds itself on the wrong end of the ballot box.”

“Just being unpopular or making a few bad decisions is not reason enough to throw someone out of office,” said Mannering, who is undecided on the second half of the ballot, which asks who should replace Davis if he is ousted.

Across the bay, Tat Starsnick voiced much the same sentiment. The 55-year-old writer and chef, clad in a “Team Gumby” jersey after a morning bicycle ride, was enjoying coffee at a sidewalk cafe in San Francisco’s Cole Valley. No fan of Davis, he opposes the recall campaign for fear of the possible precedent.

“I think most people don’t know what the hell it means to have a recall,” said Starsnick. “It’s going to be: I want revenge ... I’m going to get back at you for what you did. It’s stupid.”

Others, though, see something entirely different: a badly needed wake-up call for a political establishment cobwebbed with complacency.

The recall campaign “is a tremendous warning to all politicians,” said Larry Bales, 61, a retired Orange County appraiser and locally renowned whistle-blower. “They’re responsible to represent the people and they’ve failed on many, many levels.”

To Nikki Wehtje, a 49-year-old Republican and retired nurse in the Sierra foothills town of Meadow Vista, the recall effort “shows me we do have a democracy. If things are bad enough, we have the freedom to turn to this.”

Barbara Miles agreed. “I don’t see it as a circus at all. Our Constitution allows us to do this,” said Miles, also 49, an office manager in El Segundo who is registered with no political party. “It’s the first time we’ve exercised this right, and I am sure there will be things we learn from the process as we go along. Others can laugh all they want and make jokes about all the candidates. But it’s their right to run and our right to have the election.”

The 135 candidates in the contest -- and the bulky ballot they require -- are a source of both mirth and consternation. If symbolism alone could elect someone, California’s next governor might well be Mary Carey, the pornographic movie actress and most-cited example of the antic nature of this unusual election.

“I can’t believe they would even allow these people to sign up,” said Kathy Green, a 43-year-old Sun City Republican, who nonetheless supports the recall campaign. “It’s embarrassing.”

For all the varied choices, however, party affiliation remains the best signal of how people intend to vote Oct. 7; imagine Californians in an ice cream parlor with 31 flavors, still picking mainly chocolate or vanilla.

Most Democrats and left-leaning independents favored the sole major Democrat running on the second half of the ballot, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. Most Republicans and rightward independents were picking from the top three GOP contestants: the instantly recognizable Schwarzenegger and two little-knowns -- state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks and businessman Peter V. Ueberroth.

For many Democrats, it is an easy choice. Ray MacDonald, 54, an executive headhunter in Walnut Creek in the Bay Area, knows little about Bustamante, but will vote for him because he opposes the recall effort and definitely doesn’t want a Republican replacing Davis.

For many Republicans, it is harder. For them, the question is, how badly do they want to win back the governorship?

Schwarzenegger, the leading GOP contestant, attracts many who see his lack of government experience as one of his best assets.

He reminds Harris Levin of the last Hollywood star to get elected governor. Like Ronald Reagan, Schwarzenegger “is not beholden to anyone,” said Levin, 63, a Republican who owns an accounting business in the Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove. “It’s going to take someone who is not part of the good-old boy mentality to get us out of this mess.”

Others agree. Look at where the professional politicians have gotten us, they said. Besides, Schwarzenegger can hire plenty of smart people to help out.

“He is a Bush-like candidate, inasmuch as, individually, he probably lacks experience and educational resources for the task,” said Steve Droullard, 52, a financial planner and Republican in Nipomo, south of San Luis Obispo. “But I think he is likely to assemble a team of advisors superior to that of any other candidate.”

Still, Schwarzenegger cuts against the grain of so much conservative orthodoxy, with his support for legalized abortion, certain gun controls, and domestic partnerships for gays and lesbians, that many Republicans are asking themselves how much is too much to swallow.

Barbi Rouse is director of learning skills at a Christian college in Costa Mesa. She is bothered by Schwarzenegger’s support for legalized abortion and opposition to President Clinton’s impeachment.

“I don’t agree with him on a lot of things,” Rouse said. But she doubts McClintock can win, so she will vote for Schwarzenegger, simply to get rid of Davis.

In the Bay Area, Paul Goetz has made a similar calculation. He blames the governor and what he considers a free-spending Legislature for California’s problems and would like to see McClintock, a proud cheapskate, take over.

“He has government experience and I think he knows where most of the waste is in state government,” the 52-year-old Republican said during a lunchtime run to the library in Pleasant Hill. “He has the ability to start chopping -- probably more than anyone else.”

Unfortunately, Goetz said, McClintock lacks “the exposure” that Schwarzenegger enjoys, so he’s “probably stuck” voting for Schwarzenegger.

But in Glencoe in Calaveras County, June Downum said Republicans should pause before sacrificing their beliefs. She remains neutral in the GOP contest since her first pick -- businessman Bill Simon Jr. -- dropped out.

Downum expressed concern about Schwarzenegger’s re-surfaced Oui magazine interview, in which he talked about personal drug use and participating in group sex.

“Somebody in that political position should be a positive influence on our children,” said Downum, who suggested some things were more important than winning elections.

Such free-floating discussion about politics and principle, governance and how to lift the state’s mood along with its sagging economy is not typical end-of-summer fare in California.

But the recall election has gripped the state like few other events in memory, shaking the public’s apathy and reconnecting countless people with a process they have ignored for years.

That alone, some say, is cause for celebration this Labor Day -- even if the rest of the country thinks the place has gone nuts.

“Californians shouldn’t feel apologetic in the face of ridicule,” said Peter Marin, a 67-year-old retired educator who lives in Santa Barbara.

“Democracy is always ugly, always messy. This has jolted people awake. That’s better than nothing.”

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Voices from around California

‘It’s a little bit scary, the precedent it’s setting, where every time a politician picks their nose the wrong way, we’ll recall him. That seems expensive and dangerous.’

Paul Huston, a barber in the tiny Sierra foothill community of Newcastle

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‘It’s part of the process. It shows the process is working. If people are not happy with the government, they have recourse to remedy whatever their feelings are.’

Hazem Kira, an intern in the state’s Senate

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Gov. Gray Davis ‘is a very political animal, anxious to be elected and reelected, and will do things that are counterproductive to the interests of the state.’

Richard Ballan, owner of a card shop in downtown San Diego

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Davis ‘was just reelected last November. You can’t tell me that people discovered between January and April that he was such a horrible man.’

Russ Chambers, retired financial advisor in Walnut Creek

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‘It is all about them -- the politicians -- not about us. They are so caught up on their political agendas, they forget who they serve.’

Victoria Zaragoza, a community activist in Santa Ana

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‘They need to know that if they stonewall progress, they’re going to pay for it.’

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Greg Guard, a business executive in Huntington Beach

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‘I just got back from visiting Oklahoma and South Carolina, and everyone there was talking about the California recall.... They think it’s great we in California have the opportunity to do this.’

Carrie White, a Hermosa Beach resident who is earning a doctorate degree in psychology

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‘The whole country is watching California’s idiot system here.

We’re becoming the laughingstock of the nation.’

Sally McCluskey, a retired schoolteacher in Walnut Creek

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‘The state is worse off than I’ve ever seen it before. We’ve always been a state that holds its head up high. But we’ve got people moving out of state, businesses moving out. It shouldn’t be that way.’

Linda Weisner, a Caltrans cook for snow removal crew in Kingvale

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‘I would like to think things will get better over the next six months. But I don’t think so. It’s a long-haul kind of thing.’

Michelle McNeil, a substitute schoolteacher in Concord

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‘My experience is always a positive. All things will get better.’

Elaine Barnard, an actor and writer in Laguna Beach

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‘You have to blame a lot of people in Sacramento because they have to agree on some type of give-and-take, which they haven’t done. I think until they all realize that they have to fix the problem together, then they’re all jerks and if they don’t, it will only get worse.’

Guy Miller, owner of Mr. Bone’s Fine Tobacco shop in downtown Laguna Beach

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Times staff writers Eric Bailey, Amanda Covarrubias, John Johnson, Seema Mehta, Jean Merl, Jean O. Pasco, David Pierson, David Reyes, Lee Romney, Louis Sahagun and Daniel Yi contributed to this report.