posted 09-10-2003 09:37 PM            

By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer
Last Updated 3:43 a.m. PDT Wednesday, September 10, 2003

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) - The Santa Cruz City Council has become the first local government in the country to pass a resolution that will call for Congress to look into impeaching President Bush over his handling of the war in Iraq.

"It's time for us to open up this can of worms," said councilman Tim Fitzmaurice.

The resolution, approved Tuesday by a 6-1 vote, authorizes Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly to send a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner asking if Bush has committed any impeachable offenses that could lead to his ouster.

City leaders say Bush violated international treaties by going to war in Iraq, and that the president manipulated public fears to justify the war and undercut Constitutional rights.

The council vote came in packed chambers where supporters of the resolution lined the walls. Some carried signs that read "Honor the Constitution. Impeachment now" and "God bless and keep Bush out of power."

"I happen to think that what's going on is a high crime and misdemeanor, but let's leave that to the U.S. Congress to decide," said councilman and UC Santa Cruz professor Mike Rotkin.

Such divisive political stands aren't unusual in the coastal town.

A year ago, Santa Cruz became the first of what would swell to 165 city councils to oppose the war against Iraq. Santa Cruz was also one of more than 100 cities declaring its opposition to the Patriot Act. And in April, the city and county of Santa Cruz sued the Drug Enforcement Administration and Attorney General John Ashcroft, marking the first time a public entity has sued the federal government on behalf of patients who need medical marijuana.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius, responding to Santa Cruz's current proposal, said Tuesday that the president "welcomes the fact that we live in a democracy and that people are free to make their opinions known."

Francis Boyle, a University of Illinois law professor who has founded a national "Impeach Bush" campaign, said local city council resolutions can have a significant impact in grass roots movements. Anti-apartheid resolutions, among others, have sparked policy reforms, he said.

"I think this will take off too, and a lot of cities will give serious consideration to what Santa Cruz has done," he said in advance of the council meeting.

Arcata, another California coastal community about 350 miles to the north, will be considering a similar resolution calling for impeachment next month.

Mark Primack, an architect by trade and the lone voice of opposition on the Santa Cruz City Council, voted against the resolution.

"The truth and the honest truth is that we work better as a city when we focus on city issues," Primack said.

posted 09-13-2003 10:58 AM               

VOICE OF THE VOTER
Californians on the recall election
Arcata working on bigger recall
Left-leaning North Coast city says Bush, not Davis, needs to be ousted
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

Arcata, Humboldt County -- There's nothing particularly wrong with kicking out the governor, say many of the good folks of Arcata, but it's not nearly as important as kicking out someone who really deserves getting kicked out.

Someone like, say, the president.

Arcata, which is hard at work these days pondering a municipal resolution favoring the impeachment of George Bush, is not known as the Berkeley of the North Coast for nothing.

"It's hard to get excited about recalling Gray Davis when you have the president and the executive branch running amok," said Arcata City Councilman and Green Party member David Meserve.

Meserve, a 54-year-old building contractor and grandfather with a big grin and a pony tail, says the recall is a trivial squabble between the "Demo- gogues and Repub-locrats."

A lot of like-minded Arcata residents jammed a community center the other night to roar their approval for Meserve's proposed city resolution urging Congress to impeach Bush over the Iraq war. All he needs is one more council member's vote to make kicking out Bush the official municipal policy, and no one in this town of 16,000 is betting against his getting it.

If he does, then Arcata would join Santa Cruz, another coastal college town filled with big trees that on Tuesday one-upped Arcata by beating it to the impeachment-resolution punch.

In the Arcata town plaza, a giant statue of a confused William McKinley gazes down helplessly on the lefties, Greenies, coffee house denizens, Humboldt State University students and vegetarians milling below, who seem to make up a large chunk of the electorate.

Many oppose the recall. Many don't care about the recall. Some folks say Arnold Schwarzenegger and his 134 co-stars on the replacement ballot cannot do any worse than Davis, but that's about as ringing as their support seems to be.

"The recall is a waste of everyone's money," said Elizabeth Childers, a record store clerk. "Davis can do as good a job as anyone. People should spend their money on something important, like CDs."

Dayna Cryder, who sells amulets and incense at Moonrise Herbs, says she hasn't made up her mind on the recall but is surrounded by people who have.

"People here tend to lean pretty far to the left," she said. "Way over to the left. They lean so far over they had to hang on or they'll fall down. They all say they're peaceful, but they yell at you if your idea of peace isn't the same as theirs."

Arcata, tucked into the northwest corner of California, is pretty far off the campaign trail for the governor wannabes, who spend most of their time "down south," according to residents. Around here, the Bay Area and Los Angeles are regarded as equally down south. Meserve says one of the candidates ventured as far north as Santa Rosa the other day before thinking better of it and turning around.

Peter Camejo, the Green party candidate, is expected next week for a rally, the first appearance of by any major wannabe. In Arcata, which elected a majority of Greens to the City Council in 1996 and has kept Greens on the council ever since, Camejo will largely be preaching to the choir.

Arcata has 10,700 registered voters, and only 1,835 of them are Republicans.

There are lumberjacks and fishing boat captains to be found, but more and more there are small businessmen and folks who cater to the growing number of upscale tourists who stay at the growing number of bed-and-breakfast inns with names like the Cat's Cradle and the Gingerbread Mansion.

One of the small businessmen, veteran banjo maker Mark Platin, has been turning out two dozen of his Wildwood five-string banjos every month since the 1970s from a wood shop south of town. Each banjo sounds better and rings truer than the noblest campaign speech. Platin says he's voting against the recall.

The governor, says Platin, is getting blamed for things like rolling blackouts that weren't really his fault -- even though several of the blackouts occurred while Platin was in the middle of the intricate process of trying to mill a banjo neck from a chunk of fancy maple, forcing him to throw a couple of them into the trash.

"I'm not blaming the governor for that," Platin said Wednesday. "I'm not sure anyone else could have done things differently."

There are a few Schwarzenegger backers in town, none very vocal about it. Joedy Cactus, a 32-year-old construction worker who has been between construction jobs for some time, was hanging out in the plaza with his pal, Austen, and a black kitten who was trying to bum some of their turkey sandwich.

He said Schwarzenegger was OK.

"He's smart, he's won a lot of titles, and he's got cash," Cactus said. "He said he wasn't going to take contributions, and then he took them, but so what? All politicians are a little crooked. That's the way it is."

Gregory Collins, who manages a state park campground just outside town, was sitting on a fire hydrant and said it was just about time to fill out his "permanent absentee ballot." He's in favor of recalling Davis and is backing Schwarzenegger because "he seems to the the one who's floated to the top."

"He says he's not a politician," Collins said. "I don't know. He's sold himself, but maybe he's sold less of himself than anyone else. Maybe he'll taken money from everyone equally."

High school student Kjersti Kjesbu was hanging out in the plaza, too, and she said she was for anybody except Schwarzenegger.

"He does shoot-em-up movies," she said. "So what? I can't look at him. He says lines from his movies when he's campaigning. It's funny, but it's not anything else except funny."