Ojai votes no on recall
By Jesse Phelps

The recall election is over and so is the reign of Gray Davis as governor. Action movie hero Arnold Schwarzenegger is indeed back, and cast in a whole new role: Republican governor of California. But if it were only Ojai voting, no such shift would have occurred.

With a 58 percent turnout in the Ojai precinct, the city voted by the narrowest of margins not to recall Davis. 1,280 people, or 50.9 percent of the total ballots cast, voted against recalling the former governor, as opposed to 1,236 yes votes, or 49.1 percent.

Countywide, it was a different story, with totals eclipsing those of the state, in favor of the recall: 122,435 people, or 63.2 percent of the populace voted yes on the recall countywide; 71,528 people, or 36.8 percent, voted to keep Davis in office.
The statewide totals were 55.4 in favor of the recall to 44.6 opposed.

The county's largest and smallest cities, Oxnard and Ojai, respectively, were the only two to vote against the recall. In Oxnard, 12,006 people voted in favor of the recall to 12,237 against. By contrast, the Ventura County city voting most heavily in favor of the recall was Simi Valley. In that municipality, the vote went 24,705 in favor of recalling Davis to 8,120 not in favor.
Schwarzenegger won across the board in the race to replace Davis, statewide, countywide and even in town. He won the general election in a landslide, garnering 3,744,132 votes, or a percentage of 48.7 to Democrat Cruz M. Bustamante's total of 2,434,484 votes, or 31.7 percent.

The Ventura County numbers had a decidedly conservative bent. Schwarzenegger led with 97,003 votes, or a percentage of 51.5. Democrat Cruz M. Bustamante finished second, as in the general election, with a total of 45,022 votes, or 23.9 percent.

Republican Tom McClintock, who received 1,026,704 votes, or 13.4 percent of the state's total, in the special election, to "vote their conscience," received a healthy 19.4 percent of the Ventura County vote. His total number came in at 36,570.
Green party candidate Peter Miguel Camejo garnered 213,087 votes statewide, for 2.8 percent of the total, but only 3,988 votes in Ventura County, for 2.2 percent.

In Ojai, meanwhile, the race between Bustamante and Schwarzenegger was closer. The actor-turned-politician terminated the candidacy of the Lieutenant Governor by fewer than 100 votes in the Ojai returns. The final tally was 919 votes for Schwarzenegger to 820 for Bustamante.

Returns from the county precincts located around the Ojai Valley but not within the city limits were unavailable.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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