The governor spent the weekend passing out his
new voter guide, hoping to pick up votes in return. Meanwhile, opponents continued to haunt the governor, urging voters to not accept the governor's trick.
If you haven't gotten your mask for the festivities tonight, the California Nurses Association
plans to distribute anti-Schwarzenegger masks on the north steps of the Capitol between 11am and 1pm today.
The LA Times reports that Maria Shriver "
appears to be sitting out this election." "Aides to the couple say that isn't expected to change before the Nov. 8 special election. They and others don't blame Shriver for her silence, even if it has deprived Schwarzenegger of one of his most articulate and charismatic advocates."
"After all, Shriver would be breaking family ranks no matter where she came down on the measures, Democratic and Republican activists say. As a Democrat and a Kennedy, they say, she would have to all but shape-shift to endorse proposals despised by the party that counts three of her uncles as icons.And if she were to publicly criticize the initiatives, things presumably would get chilly on the home front."
"It's a lose-lose for her," said Republican consultant Kevin Spillane. "She has my sympathy."
George Skelton says the governor is now "paying the price" for "
breaking his promise to schools."
"
Advisors strongly urged him to keep his promise to schools, Schwarzenegger has told people privately. But when he checked into how deeply he'd then have to cut health programs for children, the poor and disabled,
he didn't have the stomach. And he wouldn't consider a tax increase."
USA Today's Jim Hopkins writes that
Wal-Mart and its founding family have emerged as one of Schwarzenegger's biggest backers.
"The Wal-Mart and Walton political gifts appear in new public campaign finance documents. They show that the same day Schwarzenegger vetoed the health care disclosure bill — Oct. 7 — his California Recovery Team logged a $250,000 gift from
Christy Walton. She is the widow of
John Walton, a Wal-Mart director who died four months ago. In the next three weeks, the Schwarzenegger-backed Proposition 77 campaign got $250,000 from Wal-Mart Chairman
Rob Walton and $100,000 from Wal-Mart. Those gifts and others followed $200,000 to the Recovery Team last year from John Walton about two weeks after Schwarzenegger vetoed" a bill prohibiting employers from locking in employees.
Carla Marinucci
checks in with the common folk for opinions on the special election.
"In random interviews with voters up and down the state, Californians had mixed reviews about the election -- and the governor. And even regular voters and loyal partisans expressed considerable confusion about the ballot measures."
Meanwhile Matier and Ross
check in with Schwarzenegger insiders about the governor's money "shortage." "Reliable sources tell us that Team Arnold
isn't raising nearly the megabucks it had expected, and is having to work overtime to play catch-up with the unions.
"I don't know if he's got a fund-raiser every night, but he's got one damn near every night,'' said one big-dollar supporter who has spent the last couple of months dialing for Arnold.
Nov. 8 will also be the day East Los Angeles
elects a replacement for Antonio Villaraigosa on the city council. And the LA Daily News says, "Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's name does not appear on the Nov. 8 special-election ballot, but his influence is prominent in two City Council races - including one in which he is trying to handpick his successor.
In
the first real test of his political muscle since taking office, Villaraigosa is backing LAUSD board member
Jose Huizar for his former 14th Council District seat over longtime rival
Nick Pacheco, who previously held the post.
When President Bush said he would pick judges in the mold of Antonin Scalia, he wasn't lying. Bush
tapped another Italian-American conservative, Samuel Alito, for the high court to help placate his base after the
Harriet Miers debacle. Alito has gained the nickname "Scalito," which cites his shared heritage and political philosophy with Scalia.
Finally, from our
Heart Like a Wheel Files, the Chronicle reports that this Haloween,
Jerry Brown has
summoned the ghost of a former girlfriend to raise some campaign cash. "
Linda Ronstadt is back in Oakland Mayor
Jerry Brown's life -- joining with actor
Sean Penn as a special guest for a $1,000-a-head fundraiser planned for Tuesday at Tosca Cafe in San Francisco to benefit Jerry's run for state attorney general.
No word yet on the
Pat Benatar event for
Rocky Delgadillo.
