No candidate for governor that I’m aware of is less deserving of a second term than Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it appears all but a dead certain he is going to get one.
After his disastrous 2005, he has stuck to his playbook this year, kowtowing to the left on the environment and education, keeping his mouth shut unless scripted (we never hear an extemporaneous word from him; and the number of public gaffes has fallen to zero), and avoiding controversial topics as much as possible.
He has almost certainly won back California independents, but in wooing the left could the governor lose the right?
To keep conservatives in line, Schwarzenegger campaign operatives have quietly launched efforts to rally support among Christian fundamentalists, gun owners and other Republicans who have long been wary of the governor and backed him only grudgingly.
His stands on illegal immigration, the state’s swelling debt, gay rights and other matters continue to rankle many of them, and his high-profile courtship of Democrats and independents risks repelling them further as the campaign intensifies.
Schwarzenegger faces no danger of a broad defection of conservatives to his Democratic challenger, state Treasurer Phil Angelides; polls show they overwhelmingly favor the governor.
The governor — who is a notorious serial adulterer — is actively courting fundamentalists Christians:
Meanwhile, to drum up support for Schwarzenegger among evangelicals, the state party has hired Ben Lopez, a lobbyist for the Rev. Lou Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition, a group that seeks to outlaw abortion and roll back gay rights.
Lopez and Anna Bryson, statewide coalitions director for Victory ’06, the party’s November election operation, plan to meet next week in the Sacramento area with roughly 200 conservative ministers — the first of several such gatherings to promote the governor, Bryson said.
“The governor believes strongly in family values,” she said.
Good luck with that, Gov. Plowchops.
