Posted on 10/28/2005 1:53:02 PM PDT by calcowgirl
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is going back on the air to appeal to voters in the waning days of his special election campaign, less than a week after television commercials featuring the governor were dropped from circulation.
In his new ads, Schwarzenegger does not specifically mention any of the four propositions he supports on the Nov. 8 ballot. Instead he asks voters to give "me the tools to do the job you elected me to do.
"Two years ago, you elected me to change Sacramento and put California back on track. I've had a lot to learn, and sometimes I learned the hard way," the governor says in the 30-second commercial, which shows him standing in his office and wearing a suit and tie. "But my heart is in this, and I want to do right by you."
The commercial was to begin airing statewide today.
Schwarzenegger is promoting four ballot measures: Proposition 74, which would make teachers work longer to get tenure; Proposition 75, which would require public employee unions to get written permission from members before dues could be used for political purposes; Proposition 76, a state spending cap; and Proposition 77, which would strip lawmakers of the power to draw political boundaries.
He uses the spot to repeat a consistent theme -- that the measures are an extension of the reforms voters sought when they elected him during the 2003 recall.
"We will either shape the future or suffer it," Schwarzenegger says.
Todd Harris, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team, said the commercial does not demonstrate a change of course for the campaign.
"The governor is the absolute best messenger for reform, and this spot is going to play a key part in communicating that message," Harris said.
Polls have shown the popularity of the movie star-turned-politician has plummeted since initiative opponents began running commercials directly attacking him.
That's why he needs to repair his image so he can be a more effective spokesman for his initiatives, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political science professor at the University of Southern California.
"I think it's part of a strategy to turn those job-approval numbers around," she said. "I think that they have decided that there is a link between what the voters think of the governor and what the voters think of the governor's reform agenda."
Whether it's too late for Schwarzenegger to turn his numbers around depends on how closely voters are paying attention and how much the campaign is willing to spend to make them notice, she said. But Bebitch Jeffe said it would be unwise for the governor to continue selling himself as an outsider.
"Not much has changed since he took office," she said. "This is his way of saying, 'Please don't hold this against me, I'm still learning on the job.' He knows he hasn't delivered, and this is one way of explaining it to the voters."
http://www.joinarnold.com/
"Not much has changed since he took office"
My car registration fee went down by about 2/3. I consider $200+ to be significant.
No it didn't. You still paid the missing $200 annual fee through consumption taxes, fees and income taxes. The $8B dollars that Schwarzenegger shielded you from for the past two years is still a General Fund revenue. Schwarzenegger simply borrowed the $8B you owed, passing your immediate obligation on to your children.
"Schwarzenegger simply borrowed the $8B you owed, passing your immediate obligation on to your children."
Fortunately I don't have any children. That makes me the winner!
Indeed it does, but the attitude expressed by the observation, if not an effacing sarcasm to lessen the sting of self-realization , also makes you part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Does this count as flipping, or is it flopping?
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