Tag: California

Un-Fantastic: Our hyper-competitive Gov. Schwarzenegger has bested top Gop President Bush in the competition to see who Californians loathe the most. The governor’s 36 percent approval makes him even more unpopular than President Bush, who has a 38 percent approval in the state.

Congratulations, Governor:

Barely more than one in three Californian voters would re-elect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger if he decides to run for a second term — and contests between him and his Democratic challengers, Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly, would be too close to call if they were held now, a Field Poll released today shows.

The poll illustrates how the Republican governor’s once-diverse base of support — independents, Democrats and Republicans who gave him a victory in the unprecedented 2003 recall election — has now shrunk almost exclusively to his GOP base.

“Clearly, he’s in a vulnerable category,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll. “His core is sticking with him — and just about everyone else isn’t.”

In the 1994, former Gov. Pete Wilson came back very low numbers to win re-election over Kathleen Brown, the popular state Treasurer – and the sister and daughter of two of California’s most popular governors, Jerry and pat, respectively. But Brown proved to be a weak candidate – especially when Wilson used the cudgel of the anti-illegal immigrant Proposition 187 to change the topic from education and the economy. While Wilson won the State House with Prop 187, the Republicans ultimately lost California. The harsh, anti-Hispanic rhetoric from the Right during the campaign drove millions of Latinos to register as Democrats.

Wilson was pro-choice but his rightwing bona fides were in good order. Schwarzenegger is as liberal as Republicans come, so his first big threat will be from his right. It’s a dead cinch that a true believer like state Sen. Tom McClintock will go after him in the primaries, where hard right voters dominate. These voters will very likely vote for a real conservative over the Hollywood liberal, and could take the once mighty Terminator out in the first found.

Arnold will veto: The Democratic Party in the California Legislature passed the first bill legalizig same sex marriage yesterday:

With no votes to spare, California’s lawmakers became the first in the United States to act without a court order to sanction gay marriages. The measure was approved after three Democratic lawmakers who abstained on a similar proposal that failed in June changed their minds under intense lobbying by bill author Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and gay and civil rights activists.

No Republicans voted in favor of the bill. Forty-one of the Assembly’s 47 Democrats voted yes; four Democrats voted “no,” and two abstained.

The bill, which would change California’s legal definition of marriage from “a civil contract between a man and a woman” to a “civil contract between two persons,” now goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has signaled that he will veto it.

“As a matter of fact, he was seen out in front of Fenway Park tonight raising funds by scalping tickets and tee-shirts.”

— Mick Jagger, at the Stones concert in Boston this week, referring to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who sold only three $100,000 tickets to the show

The $55 million special election called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is 11 weeks away, and, so far, Californians are not enthused, according to a Public Policy Institute survey released today.

The governor’s overall approval level is at 41 percent, holding steady from last month. Among likely voters, however, on 38 percent of registered voters and just 34 percent of California adults did not believe Arnold to be a “fantastic” governor, as he might say.

Three of the seven propositions were placed on the ballot by the governor, and none of them is supported by half the state’s voters:

• Proposition 74 – Teacher Tenure: This bizarre attempt to micromanage the time required for public school teachers to gain tenure is strangely the only one among Schwarzenegger’s three that has even a minimum of support — 49 percent favor, 42 percent oppose and 9 percent undecided.
• Proposition 76 – Budget Cap: The governor’s signature “Live within Our Means” reform measure that would place yet another arbitrary cap on state spending is losing big time — 28 percent favor, 61 percent oppose and 11 percent are undecided.
• Proposition 77 – Redistricting: This proposal is Schwarzenegger’s attempt to become a player in national Republican politics by delivering the entire 50-plus member California delegation to the GOP, and everybody knows it – 34 percent favor, 59 percent oppose and 17 percent are undecided.

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The San Francisco Chronicle has an article today about a consumer group that has mounted an advertising campaign against retailer Target for its nearly $300,000 in donations to groups supporting California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political initiatives. The group, California Consumers United, has spent $50,000 for a Bay Area radio campaign aimed at seniors to counteract Target’s recent ads intended to lure seniors and families to new pharmacies in its larger stores.

Oh, irony, thy name is Arnold!

The ad slams Schwarzenegger for taking money from drug companies and vetoing a bill that would have made it easier to bring lower-priced drugs into the state from Canada.

It also suggests that Schwarzenegger’s Proposition 76, which would give the governor more control over the state budget, would allow him to slash health care spending.

Since 2004, Target has given $100,000 to Citizens to Save California, which worked to qualify the governor’s initiatives for the special election ballot, and $210,000 to the governor’s California Recovery Team, which supports Schwarzenegger’s political aims.

Target also spent $250,000 to back a referendum that erased a law that would have required many California businesses to provide health care for their workers, $100,000 to the California Business Properties Association, another of Schwarzenegger’s backers, and tens of thousands of dollars to the state Republican and Democratic parties and legislators on both sides of the political aisle.

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In a unanimous decision, the Federal Elections Commission has voted to allow House members from California to raise unlimited money to fight Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s special election in November. Under California law, Schwarzenggerhas no limit on the funds he can raise.

Had the ruling gone against the Congressmembers, each donation the anti-initiative campaigns would have been limited to $5,000.

The redistricting initiative, Proposition 77, would take the responsibility of drawing boundaries for California’s congressional and state legislative districts away from lawmakers and give it to a panel of retired judges. The judges would be picked by legislative leaders from a pool selected by the state Judicial Council. The redistricting would occur as soon as possible, instead of after the 2010 census, which would be the normal timeline…

House members of both political parties have concerns about the redistricting plan.. .Republicans fear redrawing district lines in Democratic-leaning California could cost the GOP House seats. Democrats suspect Schwarzenegger’s motives, in part because of the example of Texas, where a GOP redistricting plan cost four Democrats their House seats last year.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was voted into office in a barrage of hyperbole and obfuscation clearly intended to deceive the voters of California. He never sat down for a serious interview – but rather got his message out via soft sitdowns with the likes of Oprah and Entertainment Tonight.

Despite the soft focus, however, he made enough campaign promises to fill 24 single-spaced pages on his website, most of which he broke within days of taking office – and some of which he continues to break over and over again.

Chief among these was his promise not to seek donations – ever. He and his flying monkeys sneered a then-Gov. Gray Davis, who was a prodigious fundraiser, as a political ATM. At first, Schwarzenegger said he would take no campaign money and pledged to work to reform the fundraising system. Later, he said he would take money as long as it was not from a special interest.

Now the governor is heading out across the country “on a whirlwind, 17-event fundraising tour from here to Boston, tapping donors who have a stake in bills soon to arrive at his desk for signature or veto.” His aides say he will likely raise $5 million on this Grand Hypocrisy Tour.

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