Amidst a windy but idyllic backdrop, the governor signed
AB 32, the emissions bill, taking away a traditionally Democratic issue from
Phil Angelides.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
signed legislation Wednesday setting California on course to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, a major political victory for the governor and a step that environmental and political leaders predict will have worldwide ramifications," writes Mark Martin in the Chron.
"In a ceremony on San Francisco's Treasure Island with the city's skyline as a backdrop, Schwarzenegger declared the beginning of "a bold new era of environmental protection in California that will change the course of history" as he approved AB 32, which calls for the state to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases by 25 percent by 2020."
"Joining Schwarzenegger was San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsome, Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez and New York Gov.
George Pataki, who helped instigate an effort by New York and seven other Northeastern states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants."
Flags from 141 nations? Check. A Golden Boy in attendance? Check.
Tony Blair via satellite? Check. The Bee's Clea Benson looks at the
governor's use of stagecraft.
Michael Finnegan
writes in the Times: "For Angelides, the spectacle offered more than the obvious embarrassment of having such allies as San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom pay tribute to Schwarzenegger's "vision and leadership" on climate change. It also laid bare the limitations of a central argument of his campaign: that Schwarzenegger is 'just like
George Bush,' as one Angelides ad put it.
"'There's no comparison,'
Tim Carmichael, president of the Coalition for Clean Air, said of the Bush and Schwarzenegger environmental records. 'George Bush has done nothing constructive on the environment. Zero.'
With Schwarzenegger as governor, he said, environmentalists 'recognize that the greatest potential for moving the ball forward is here in California right now.'"
"Like other environmental leaders, Carmichael supports Angelides and views Schwarzenegger's environmental record as mixed. But the contrasts they draw between Schwarzenegger and Bush clash with the Angelides effort to cast the governor as a Republican in the president's mold."
"Angelides campaign strategist
Bill Carrick said Schwarzenegger 'got dragged kicking and screaming' by Democratic lawmakers into signing the global warming bill, approving it only as an opportunistic gesture to help his reelection campaign. If anything, he said, the move shows that voters cannot trust Schwarzenegger."
"
'Bush wouldn't do that,' Carrick said. 'He has principles.'"
I'm sure the president thinks that means a lot coming from you, Mr. Carrick.
The Angelides campaign, however, desperately wants to change the subject from the Democrat-friendly issues the governor is wrapping up with his signing pen this week, and continues to rally against the war. Today, Angelides will be holding a
"Rally Against the War" to "Put a Stop to the Bush/Schwarzenegger B-S Agenda" at noon at Sacramento City College.
George Skelton writes that
Phil Angelides's anti-war message
won't help him win the governor's race. "Bush has botched the war — on terror and in Iraq — by trying to wage it on the cheap. He didn't commit enough troops or equipment and failed to ask for national sacrifice, such as a surtax to pay for the war. Instead, he cut taxes and drove up the deficit."
"The more voices demanding that the president change his disastrous course, the better for the nation."
"It's just that, normally, the best way to get elected governor is not to campaign like you're running for president."
Dan Weintraub writes that it's now or never for Angelides, and his
best hope rests on the Alliance for Better California's ad campaign.
"These two commercials, if they get significant airplay, should be effective. They will remind Democrats, and many independents, why they were so unhappy with Schwarzenegger a year ago. And they turn the governor's strength -- his moderation and openness to compromise -- into a weakness by raising questions about the depth of his commitment to the values he sometimes seems to share with Democrats."
"If these ads succeed in pushing Democrats back to their nominee and giving independents a reason to rethink their support of the governor, Angelides will have the opening he needs to offer his own, positive message when he faces Schwarzenegger Oct. 7 in what will likely be the one and only debate between the two candidates."
"If not, and the debate ends with Angelides still far behind in the polls, the race could be over before it really begins."
Race? What race?
CW's Shane Goldmacher reports on
the ever-increasing price of TV advertising, which is driving up the cost of political campaigning. "Political-advertising costs on television, already at all-time highs, have skyrocketed by as much as 50 percent in the last three weeks alone."
"Every election, it has become almost axiomatic to say that airing political ads is more expensive than ever before. But this year, media buyers say,
the costs are reaching unprecedented levels."
"The rising cost and shrinking ad inventory is exacerbated by two ballot measures, Propositions 86 and 87, that have antagonized the well-heeled tobacco and oil industries. Cigarette makers already have poured in $40 million, much of it devoted to television advertising, to beat the tobacco tax. The oil companies have raised more than $40 million so far to beat the oil-tax initiative. Meanwhile,
Stephen Bing, a billionaire Hollywood producer, has committed $40 million of his own money to support Proposition 87, most of which will go to television."
"But even the oil industry-backed No-on-87 campaign is impacted by rising prices. A single spot on NBC's The Tonight Show in Sacramento cost $1,200 in August, but nine weeks later--the day before the election--the same spot cost more than double, $2,500. And that spot was booked two months in advance."
Goldmacher also looks at the
evolution of the California Nurses Association. "On first blush, nurses would seem an odd choice to spearhead the effort to take money out of politics. But with national ambitions, deep ties to the social-justice and consumer-advocacy movements and a long-standing relationship with
Ralph Nader, the DeMoro-led
nurses association is no ordinary union.
'It is arguably the most progressive union in the country,' says Nader, who
first worked with the nurses on a failed health-care measure, Proposition
216, in 1996.
"
"But in the process, CNA has not been afraid to step on toes, and not only Republican ones. The union has clashed with Democratic campaign consultants and has angered others in the labor movement, who have accused the union of going outside state lines to try to steal potential members."
Menawhile, "[r]esponding to complaints of financial abuse, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a four-bill package of legislation Wednesday to overhaul the conservatorship system serving thousands of California's oldest and neediest residents," reports Jim Sanders in the Bee.
"'We have a responsibility to help ensure that individuals entrusted with the well-being of our most vulnerable citizens are not taking advantage of or harming them,' Schwarzenegger said in a prepared statement."
"The four bills -- proposed by Democrats -- target licensing, fees, standards of conduct, monitoring, investigation and court review in a pivotal system designed to oversee financial affairs and living arrangements for people too fragile to handle their own affairs."
"California dog owners will be barred from tethering their animals for long periods under legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger."
"Senate Bill 1578, effective Jan. 1, bars the tethering of a dog to a tree, fence, doghouse or other stationary object for more than three hours."
Yes, the Republican governor managed to satiate environmentalists, seniors and the PETA crowd on the same day.
And, he has 619 bills to go, writes Steven Harmon in the Contra Costa Times.
While the governor has hit what seems to be a perfect political stride, legislative Republicans would like to pursue a 1994 political strategy.
"Under pressure from constituents angry with the state and federal government's failure to curtail illegal immigration, a panel of Republican legislators Wednesday convened the first in a series of town hall meetings to focus attention on the divisive issue."
"The panel came to this conservative-leaning bedroom community in Ventura County to ask local activists, residents and elected officials their thoughts on reducing illegal immigration -- and they left with a mixed list of ideas as well as complaints."
"Among the complaints: Mexicans shouldn't be allowed to fly their country's flag in the United States, and the rising population of illegal immigrants is bad for the environment because more toilets have to be flushed."
Because, clearly, they don't flush in Mexico.
"Among the suggestions: Cities should enforce housing laws to ease crowding in neighborhoods, and communities need to clamp down on the things that attract illegal immigrants."
"'If there's no jobs, no housing, no cars,' said Steve Frank, a Simi Valley consultant who compiles a conservative blog for more than 200,000 subscribers, 'illegal aliens will go home.'"
Meanwhile, CW's Malcolm Maclachlan takes a peek at the year ahead, and finds an overhaul of the state's gun laws may be in the works."
"Toward the end of session, the Assembly unaniomously passed "ACR 73, which calls on the California Law Revision Commission to reduce the "length and complexity" of state gun laws. It was put forth last year by Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, at the request of the Gun Owners of California. Sam Paredes, the group's executive director, said they have been seeking for years to have the code simplified."
"The Commission board of directors will meet on October 27 to determine their agenda for the next year. According to executive secretary Nathaniel Sterling, firearms-code revision definitely will be one of the top priorities. He said the Commission will deliver preliminary recommendations next year, hold numerous meetings for public comment, and then prepare final recommended legislation by July 1, 2009."
The race for attorney general is promising to keep us interested through Election Day. "Though Democrat Jerry Brown is better known, has more money and enjoys a double-digit lead in the polls, a state Senate Republican is making a serious bid to defeat him for the office of state attorney general," writes Steve Geissinger in the Merc News.
"Sen. Chuck Poochigian of Fresno is warning that Brown is too 'flaky' for the job of the state's top cop. The senator principally calls Brown soft on crime and cites his opposition to the death penalty."
"'Jerry Brown is the last person who should have the responsibility of protecting California's families as attorney general,' said Poochigian spokesman Kevin Spillane."
"But Brown, a former California governor and now Oakland's mayor, is saying Poochigian is 'too extreme' for the state, considering his opposition to gun control and abortion rights."
"Brown campaign strategist Ace Smith said Poochigian is 'trying to pass himself off as a moderate when in fact he's an extremist.'"
"The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor said Wednesday his Republican rival is out of sync with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's many laudable achievements — perhaps not what Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides ached to hear," reports Josh Richman in the Mercury-Register.
"Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi's news release noted state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, voted against the landmark greenhouse-gas emissions reduction bill Schwarzenegger signed into law Wednesday."
"Yet in providing a laundry list of what McClintock opposes, Garamendi essentially sent reporters a laundry list of what he sees as Schwarzenegger's assets."
"'We're making the point forcefully and clearly that Tom McClintock is woefully out of step with where a majority of Californians and where a lot of mainstream Republicans are, including the top of his own ticket,' Garamendi campaign consultant Jason Kinney said later Wednesday, adding Garamendi supported these 'popular and progressive initiatives that will move California forward, and Tom McClintock continues to party like its 1899.'"
