Congressional Democrats endorse Bustamante campaign strategy

By BETH FOUHY
Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) California's congressional Democrats endorsed Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's motto of ``No on recall, yes on Bustamante'' on Thursday, effectively abandoning the initial anti-recall strategy of Gov. Gray Davis, who had sought to unite the party behind a Davis-or-nobody message.

``We strongly oppose the recall, but if California voters make a different choice, then Lt. Governor Bustamante is the appropriate person to assume the office,'' U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren said after the state's Democratic representatives nailed down the endorsement in a conference call Thursday.

The unanimous move by the 33-member delegation was a formal acknowledgment that they can't count on the Democratic governor to survive the recall. Other core Davis supporters, including the California Teachers Association, quickly followed suit, saying it too would stand behind Bustamante.

``We are adamantly opposed to the recall. It is bad public policy, it's costing $70 million that the state will never recover and Gray's not a criminal,'' said CTA President Barbara Kerr.

The union will spend more than $500,000 getting the word out to its 335,000 members, Kerr said.

Bustamante ``has been strong on public education, fought for adequate funding, was a big part of the movement toward class-size reduction and he's someone we can work well with,'' she said.

A panel of seven teachers held lengthy interviews with six candidates, either by phone or in person, then made a report to the 24-member board. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign was the only one that refused to submit a written response to the union's questionnaire, Kerr said.

Appearing in San Francisco, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said party leaders waited until now to endorse Bustamante's campaign because ``we wanted to see what the reality was.''

``This is an earthquake in California politics, and we wanted to wait for the ground to settle,'' Pelosi said.

Democrats need to be united in response to Republican mischief that could do great harm to California, she added.

``The Republicans have been totally irresponsible throughout this process,'' said Pelosi. ``One would think there would be some adult supervision from the White House, but instead I think there's instigation rather than supervision.''

Protecting California from the consequences of a Republican takeover was the theme seconded by many other congressional Democrats Thursday.

``This is about protecting kids and their ability to stay in kindergarten, this is about protecting family's healthcare,'' said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, an early advocate of the need for Democrats to support a replacement candidate for Davis. ``You want to protect people from what it means to have a Republican governor.''

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)