Tag: California

San Francisco Chronicle:

[A] new poll this week from San Jose State University’s Survey and Policy Research Institute shows the governor’s approval ratings in free fall. The governor’s approval rating among California voters is at 36 percent, while his disapproval rating now stands at 53 percent. And among those who disapprove of Schwarzenegger, more than 83 percent say they would vote against him in the next election, the poll showed.

Sign up: This effort needs all the encouragment we can give it:

A California physician launched an effort to gather a million signatures to force a recall vote on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who came to office two years ago following an unprecedented recall.

Kenneth Matsumura announced the campaign prior to submitting a petition to California’s Secretary of State, who oversees elections.

“People are desperate, they’re suffering, and I think the governor’s going to have to listen,” he told reporters, saying Schwarzenegger has hurt the poor and students.

“The task at first seemed daunting but in the last week the number of hits to our Web site at SaveCalNow.com has been really overwhelming.”

The Republican star of the “Terminator” films rode a wave of discontent against his Democratic predecessor Gray Davis in 2003 to become the state’s first governor elected in a recall election. Yet Schwarzenegger has seen his own poll numbers fall to record lows this year after enjoying wide popularity in a state where Democrats are the largest party.

Not a Kennedy: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – a serial philanderer and adulterer – has quashed the first-ever gay marriage bill passed by a state legislature:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today delivered on his promise to veto legislation that would have given same-sex partners the right to marry, but said he would not support any rollback of the state’s current domestic partner benefits.

The governor passed up a historic opportunity:

The legislature’s passage of AB 849 marked the first time that a legislative body in the United States has approved a bill that legalizes gay marriage.

Ironically, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has said the ultimate decision about gay marriage in California will be left up to the courts.

Funny how judicial activism is just fine with Republicans when it suits there ends. (Bush Vs. Gore comes to mind.)

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger thought he could shake off the protest groups that dog his every step, he was wrong:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t the only Californian to travel to Mexicali, Mexico this past weekend for the Governor’s meeting with Baja State officials.

As the Governor’s motorcade pulled in front of the building for the meeting, he heard from protesters who drove from San Diego to express their opposition to the Schwarzenegger administration’s immigration policies…

“He said he wouldn’t take money from special interests,” protester Vicente Rodriguez told CNN. “Yet his has raised more money than the two governors before him put together.”

Equality California has a very effective ad up that calls on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the Marriage Equality Act, the historic first-ever bill legalizing gay marriage to be passed a state legislature.

Schwarzenegger is tanking in the polls. His only remaining support comes from the hard right, so the chances are slim he will make history by signing the bill, even though he is liberal on gay rights.

The ad goes after the governor where he lives by aligning signing the act with the groundbreaking Civil Rights records of President John Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, his uncles by marriage to Maria Shriver. The ad also associates vetoing the bill with George Wallace, the late governor of Alabama, who was a segregationist icon and vocal opponent of Civil Rights.

Here’s the script:

(Voice Over) Those who have made America great are the ones who have brought America together – who have stood for fairness and against discrimination.

Now Governor Schwarzenegger will make a decision for which he will forever be remembered.

He can stand up for the basic rights of all Californians and sign the Marriage Equality Act.

Or he can stand with the forces of discrimination.

Governor, the choice is yours.

Text in the final frame addresses Schwarzenegger’s former career as an action movie star: “Governor, Be a Hero.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has gotten himself into what appears to be a no-win situation. He’s put his political future on the line by forcing voters to hold a special election to vote on a rack of propositions dealing with issues that very few people care about. This move has cost him the support of decided majorities of both Democrats and swing voters in poll after poll.

He still retains the support of the GOP base but there aren’t enough registered Republicans in California to win an election. The bind he’s in is caused by the fact that he can’t afford to lose the support of this base under any circumstances, so he must dance to the rightwing agenda, even on issues where he himself hold centristl views:

Schwarzenegger’s challenge was on clear display over the weekend. On Saturday in Orange County, he roused a state Republican convention crowd with tough talk on blocking higher taxes, battling “union bosses” in Sacramento and stopping illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses.

On Sunday in South Los Angeles, the Republican governor adjusted his message. Speaking to parishioners at a black church, he played up his wife’s Kennedy family pedigree, government aid to fight poverty and the struggle for “equal education.”

In a state where barely one in three voters is a registered Republican, Schwarzenegger has no choice but to reach beyond his party base.

But with the Nov. 8 special election just over seven weeks away, he must find a way to do that without turning off conservatives, his only strong bloc of support after months of declining popularity. This raises the question: How much of a Republican can Schwarzenegger afford to be…?

In the recall, candidates ran with no party labels. Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood fame made him an instant favorite. With no record as an elected official, he was easily able to define himself as a centrist in sync with mainstream California, a fiscal conservative with moderate-to-liberal views on such social issues as abortion, guns and gay rights.

Fallen star: With his approval rating in the 30’s, and his campaign war chest already depleted, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will announce that he is running for re-election today at noon in San Diego.

In reality, of course, the governor has never stopped running, and the Bush/Rove style permanent campaign is costing him plenty:

[Like] other major problems that Schwarzenegger faces, his poor financial shape is at least partly a self-inflicted injury. His campaign committees reported spending nearly $26 million in the first six months of the year, leaving his political accounts all but depleted by the end of June. The $1.2 million in cash left was entirely offset, and then some, by $3.8 million in debts.

His summer fundraising has yielded nearly $7.5 million in new money. But unions and Democratic Party groups are still likely to continue vastly outspending the Republican governor on TV ads in the 53 days left in the fall initiative campaign.

Even by the costly standards of California, the most expensive state for running campaigns, Schwarzenegger’s spending on consultants, pollsters and other vendors has been lavish. It included $5 million in the spring for television ads that failed to stop his slide in popularity, more than $550,000 in pollster fees and unspecified sums for ballot measures that Schwarzenegger abandoned.

[…]

Dept. of Irony: In a move that can only be meant to pander to extreme rightwing voters – who represent the only base of support he has left in California – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will veto the nation’s first legislation that grants full marriage rights to same sex couples.

Ironically, the governor is an admitted philanderer, who has had at least one long-term relationship outside his marriage to Maria Shriver. (According to the woman, the affair allegedly started when she was under age.) He has also been accused by no fewer than 15 women of making unwanted sexual advances.

In high places within the film industry, it is rumored (at the very least) that Schwarzenegger has indulged in sex practices that would shock and appall the very ultra-rightwing voters he is pandering to.

Ms. Shriver is, of course, a member of the Kennedy family, which – until now – has been a bulwark in the move toward civil rights in the United States. Her tacit connection to this denial of the civil rights of roughly 10 percent of California citizens – 3 million of us – besmirches her family name.

This is a dark day in Calfornia, a bitter pill for gay people and a very low point for the Kennedy family.

Conversely, it is a time for rejoicing for the cadre of professional homophobes in this country – thanks to a hollow man playing at politics.