Yesterday's 5.6 temblor near Palm Springs will be dwarfed by the political earthquake forecast for 5:01 p.m. tonight, when the governor is
expected to call a November 8 special election.
The Merc News
reports: "Dissatisfied with the pace of change in Sacramento, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will go on television tonight to call a historic special election this fall he hopes will shake up California's government and political climate.
In bypassing the Legislature and taking key portions of his agenda straight to voters, the governor will embark on
the riskiest gambit yet of his unorthodox 19-month tenure. It's a decision that could
deepen the partisan divide and shape the rest of his term and the 2006 governor's race."
The LA Daily News reports "Despite
polls showing tepid support for a special election and the
refusal of majority Democrats to negotiate on education reforms and other constitutional changes,
Schwarzenegger is ready to fulfill the vow he made when elected to shake up Sacramento and change the way state lawmakers do business."
The
San Francisco Chronicle reports that "critics" of the governor say he's "warping the process that allows citizens to take issues to the ballot."
Among those expressing concern with the state of the initiative process is former secretary of state
Bill Jones who tells the Chronicle "that California's initiative system is 'becoming a commercial process, not a political process' as special interests spend millions to qualify measures that will help them financially."
Tim Herdt of the Ventura County Star writes: "With
eight measures expected to qualify in time for the special election, the stakes are high. The financial resources already marshaled indicate spending on the combined campaigns will
easily exceed $100 million. Television commercials planting the seeds of campaign themes have been airing for months."
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat headline
says it all: "Special election sets up long, hot summer."
Over the weekend, the
California Teachers Association successfully
raised annual dues by $60 for three years to build a $50 million war chest to defeat the governor's initiatives (and possibly him).
We're betting that someone got video of the
voice vote to hike dues, which will show up in ads for the ballot measure requiring individual members to approve political dues. Already, the governor's team is blasting the new "teacher tax."
Speaking of gearing up for the fight, we couldn't help but notice a couple of standouts on
the list of Gov. Schwarzenegger's recent contributions, courtesy of our partners at
ElectionTrack.com. Not only was there a $5,000 contribution from the Chicago lawfirm of
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, better known to Californians as the firm of former Clinton trade rep Mickey Kantor and former Speaker
Robert Hertzberg. There was also a $10,000 from Texas businessman
Sam Wyly.
Wyly, a major Bush backer, was the primary funder behind a series of misleading ads that ran during the 2000 Republican primaries falsely attacking the environmental record of Sen. John McCain in California, New York and Ohio. One of the main critics of the-Wyly sponsored ads, of course, was McCain consultant
Mike Murphy who called the ads a "slimy scam" in a Los Angeles Times interview.
Matier and Ross look into
Friday's change in strategy of legislative Democrats, who separated a fight over education and taxes from the state budget. They talk to a Democratic leader: "If you had told me in January that we'd have a budget ready to go by July, I'd have said you were nuts. ... It just goes to show the power of this special election. It's completely changed all the chromosomes in the political body."
They quote a "prominent education lobbyist" as saying "given a choice between fighting the governor's plan to cut education funding and the idea of trying to convince voter to raise new taxes -- we felt fighting the governor's cuts was the bigger fight."
However, don't expect the quick adoption of the scaled-down spending plan. From the Merc News: "'
There will be no Republican votes,' said Senate Republican Leader
Dick Ackerman of Tustin. '
It's a total sham.'"
The Bee profiles
Chamber of Commerce president Allan Zaremberg.
Zaremberg comes from a family of Democrats, "'[s]o we were kind of surprised that he did this - that he became this Republican person,' [sister
Darlene] Golbitz said."
"Critics say the one-time Air Force navigator who served as chief legislative secretary to Govs.
George Deukmejian and
Pete Wilson is leading the current governor to his political Waterloo."
Now, now, no need for short jokes.
Whether this is indeed
Waterloo or the
Battle of Austerlitz remains to be seen, but as of 5:01 this evening, the battle is officially joined.