The governor's decision to call a special election officially became the third most significant story in the state this week, as the Los Angeles Lakers announced the rehiring of coach
Phil Jackson. That makes two days in a row that someone named Jackson has knocked the governor below the fold of the front page.
But the governor was back on the campaign trail yesterday, giving a little red meat to the GOP faithful by pumping up on a heavy dose of Proposition 13. Given the governor's touring schedule, it's clear the Republicans believe this special election will be about rallying the base. Yesterday, the governor began the official special election campaign in the
hamlet of Santee.The governor
hit the road yesterday to launch the campaign for his ballot measures. In Santee, he spoke in an elderly couple's backyard, "'I remember the time when I saw a woman in Venice crying the next day after that election in 1978,' Schwarzenegger told about 20 people, most of them elderly and retired, as protesters marched in the street nearby."
'If this wouldn't have passed, she would have had to sell her house because she could not afford the property tax anymore. I have seen all that. This is what we want to avoid.'"
In the next episode of
As The Election Turns, we hear the story of elderly people eating cat food to pay their vehicle license fees.
Today, the governor will be in Bakersfield and Orange County to "focus on attempts by Democrats in the Legislature to
increase the sales tax and the car tax," according to a release from the California Recovery Team. "At the events, the Governor will warn Californians that unless we pass real budget reform to keep the state from spending more than it takes in, all Californians will be vulnerable to calls for higher taxes."
Who knows what kind of showmanship awaits us as the governor readies his appearance at
the Cruz Thru car wash in Bakersfield.Also last night, the governor
stopped by his former hometown of Santa Monica to speak to the local community college's graduating class. While the California coast was
under a tsunami warning, the governor also narrowly escaped what could have been a disastrous event.
"Graduating students mostly cheered, but some audience members booed Tuesday as Arnold Schwarzenegger
returned to one of his alma maters, Santa Monica College, to deliver his first commencement address as governor of California," according to the LA Times.
The governor finished the speech among a blend of cheers and jeers and then sped off in a golf cart. Well, inasmuch as one can "speed" off in a golf cart.
Meanwhile, Democrats are busy finishing the work the governor has started, firing up their own base, and calling the governor a liar. "'When there is no power of your own ideas, make things up,' said
Gale Kaufman, a political strategist for Assembly Democrats."
BudgetThat sound you hear is the sound of
Democrats caving on this year's budget fight. Normally, in June of an odd numbered year, we'd just be hunkering down for a long summer of negotiations. But now, it seems, we may actually get out of town close to on time. Of course, we've all heard those stories before.
The LA Times reports: "Shifting their focus to the coming special election fight, the lawmakers are
surrendering to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the major spending issues that have separated the two sides for months. For the first time in years, they are rushing to meet their constitutional deadline for passing a budget today with a viable plan."
"Several lawmakers said Tuesday that the Democrats changed strategy
at the urging of the politically powerful California Teachers Assn. "No such decision was going to be made without them," said Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg). The teachers group is gearing up for its own fight against a measure on the fall ballot that could clip the ability of state employee unions to fund political campaigns. The unions are among Democrats' biggest backers."
But nobody would be surprised if this alleged deal that is rumored to be so close completely falls apart by sundown.
Meanwhile, a new study by the PPIC says "Medi-Cal costs are likely to
rise faster than state revenueand could consume
one out of every five dollars the state spends by 2015," according to the Sacramento Bee.
Westly Jumps in Controller
Steve Westly plans to formally
announce his bid for governor on Saturday. "The former eBay executive spent $8 million of his personal fortune to win election as controller in 2002, defeating Republican state Sen.
Tom McClintock by two-tenths of a percentage point.
Campaign manager
Jude Barry said Westly is prepared to spend $10 million of his own money on the 2006 gubernatorial run. He will join state Treasurer Phil Angelides in the Democratic gubernatorial race. The governor has said he has not decided whether to seek another term."
So, he's willing to spend $8 million to beat Tom McClintock for controller, but only $2 million more to beat
Phil Angelides and possibly
Arnold Schwarzenegger? Of course, the real decision day for Westly will come in December, when he must actually decide whether to run for governor, or for reelection.
The Republican political picture for 2006 also began to come into focus yesterday as former gubernatorial candidate and current porn star
Mary Carey announced that she was a Republican. All it took was
lunch with the President and Karl Rove to convince her. She said yesterday that she's been a member of the Grand Old Party "for a couple of days." And now, California's other actor-turned-politician has announced that
she is backing the governor's reelection bid, and hopes to run alongside him as a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Better look out,
Tom McClintock.