Recall Candidates Getting Feisty Again

It must be the political season:

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides didn't know it, but when he dropped in on UCSD College Democrats yesterday, he was not the only one in the room who has sought the top job in California politics.

Sitting with about 40 other students – and armed with the toughest question of the day – was Daniel Watts, one of 135 candidates in the 2003 recall election that put Republican action-movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger in the governor's office.

A history and political science major from San Jose, Watts, 23, financed his campaign with some of the $11,300 he won on TV's "Wheel of Fortune."

His platform was simple: He ran against tuition and fee increases for California's public universities and colleges.

That put him in ideological sync with Angelides, the state treasurer, whose call for taxing the wealthy and businesses to finance education – and to roll back higher education tuition and fees – is a cornerstone of his campaign.

Angelides emphasized his education policy heavily yesterday, without
mentioning taxes.

Until Watts raised his hand.

"What, specifically, are you going to do to pay for it?" Watts asked.

I'm not running this year because I'm not so annoyed as I was in 2003 by the California political situation. And why isn't Daniel running?

As for Watts, he has abandoned, for now, his interest in becoming governor. He got 2,021 votes in 2003, but took a pass on this year's contest. “I ran out of 'Wheel of Fortune' money,” he said, “so I couldn't afford the filing fee.”