The governor has set aside the props and is
counting on one-on-one contact with voters this election season, writes Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in the Register. And if turnout in November is anything like turnout last week, the governor may indeed be able to meet every single voter in person.
"Political-image experts say it's little surprise Schwarzenegger is resorting to his celebrity appeal to reconnect with middle-of-the-road voters he needs to secure a victory this fall. His movies remain more popular than his political record. And the Republican governor's failure to win a single initiative in the special election last fall shows that aiming solely at his party's core voters doesn't work in a heavily Democratic California, the experts say.
"
Nor do they want a governor using props and gimmicks that antagonize those who disagree with him, said
Bruce Cain, a political science professor at UC Berkeley who leads its Washington, D.C., Academic Center."
"Cain of UC Berkeley predicts Schwarzenegger will have to reach out to areas that are not so friendly if he is to regain the support of Democratic and independent voters who are key to a gubernatorial win.
"'
There will be some tense moments, the possibility of things that can't be managed (by his campaign team), but I think Arnold is good enough at it to handle it,' Cain said."
The guv spent time in Arizona this weekend, telling a group of Western governors they need to start focusing on global warming. He even endorsed
the use of more Ethanol, just in case Senator Hatch does somehow get some traction on
that constitutional amendment some day.
But if the guv is going for the tree hugger vote, he may have to
tweak that transportation bond package, reports Erik Nelson.
"Local neighborhood activists are involved in a quixotic effort to stall or at least alter the area's most ambitious public-works project, a fourth bore for the Caldecott Tunnel that now carries six lanes of the state highway under the hills into Contra Costa County. Few even dream of being able to stop it."
The reason? To save a few maple trees. Good luck with that.
"At best, opponents will 'try to finesse this' when Caltrans officials come to Oakland's Claremont Middle School to hear testimony on the project's draft environmental assessment and impact report at 6 p.m. Thursday."
While the governor was on the road, the legislative conference committee wrapped up its work on the state budget this weekend. The budget is expected to be put up for a vote on Thursday, the oft-overlooked and penalty-less June 15 constitutional deadline. However, many key issues were approved on a 4-2 vote, with Republicans expressing their dissatisfaction about the Democratic-crafted compromises.
Still even money on whether the speaker will get to see that World Cup finals match in Berlin on July 6.
The Bee's Dan Smith
profiles Angelides campaign manager Cathy Calfo. "In the end, Calfo believes, it was the grass-roots network in that plan -- the endorsements, the thousands of contributors and lists of environmental backers -- that carried Angelides over the top in the Democratic primary."
"It has launched Calfo -- a 48-year-old longtime Democratic campaign strategist and technician who has toiled behind the scenes -- into a high-profile governor's race against Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign team."
"To Calfo, the victory not only vindicated her abilities and her plan, it validated the philosophy of grass-roots campaigning she has embraced her entire career, one learned under activists like
Tom Hayden and honed in the liberal political caldron of Santa Cruz."
"'On a scale of one to 10, this is about a 15,' she said of Angelides' win. 'Personally, it just reaffirmed what I always knew -- that there's real value building support at the ground level.'"
Rob Reiner emerged from his undisclosed location on election night, and is now
pledging not to go away, reports Laura Mecoy in the Bee. "Only after all the votes had been cast did he step back in front of the television cameras to declare: '
I am not going away.'"
"'We are going to fight for progressive causes,' he said. `We are going to fight to make sure we lift everyone up, we fix our education system, we improve our economy and we move forward in California.'"
"Speaking to a crowd of cheering preschool supporters at an election-night watch party in downtown Los Angeles, the 61-year-old activist sounded like the gubernatorial candidate he had once been considered to be -- and may still be considering himself."
Meanwhile in Washington, "Democrats will
introduce a domestic agenda for the 2006 campaign this week, confident that their opportunity to pick up seats is the best in a generation, yet divided over how much an agenda will matter," writes Marc Sandalow in the Chron.
So much for the vision thing. Here's a hint: just try not to say "you don't need papers to vote."
"The Democratic program will consist of bread-and-butter priorities:
increasing the minimum wage, cutting costs of prescription drugs, reducing interest rates on student loans, rolling back subsidies for oil companies, and pay-as-you-go budgeting, according to party officials."
From our
Alcohol Isn't Stupid, People Are Files, air traffic at Dallas Love Field was backed up yesterday after a phony bomb threat. "Passengers said that about a third of the way into the nearly two-hour flight, a clean-cut man in dark sunglasses and short blond hair said, 'There's a bomb on the plane.'"
"'When I heard that, my heart kind of dropped,' said
Ian Perez, 15, of Mansfield, who had been visiting his father in New Mexico. Ian said he was seated two rows in front of the man making the threat."
"'He had had a few drinks,' Ian said, adding that later
the man said he was just 'impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger... It was clear he was intoxicated.'"
