Posted on 10/24/2005 7:25:41 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (AP) - Defending his special election before an audience of voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday said his "year of reform" ballot initiatives are crucial to continue the changes he started after taking office two years ago.
He cast the Nov. 8 election as the next step of the 2003 recall election that propelled him to office.
Voters, he said, sent him to Sacramento to rebuild the state's economy and fix a moribund political system. After 400,000 new jobs and billions in new revenue, it was time for him to enter Act II, he said.
"Now is the year of reform," he said. "But I need the people's help. I need your help."
The 90-minute forum in the east San Francisco Bay area city of Walnut Creek was the first time Schwarzenegger sat for an extended period of time to field unscripted questions from an audience not chosen by his campaign staff.
His comments came after a leading Democrat and a nurses union official criticized his attempts to control state spending, change the rules for raising union money, reform teacher tenure rules and redraw legislative districts.
Looking for feedback ..
Opponents use voter forum to attack governor's special election
http://www.bakersfield.com/state_wire/story/5645277p-5663052c.html
By BETH FOUHY, AP Political Writer
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (AP) - Opponents of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" ballot initiatives on Monday criticized his attempts to control state spending, change the rules for raising union money and reform teacher tenure rules as an attempt to grab more power for Republicans.
Schwarzenegger's opponents answered questions during a voter forum focused on the Nov. 8 special election ballot, with the governor scheduled to appear later in the evening.
State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said Schwarzenegger placed Proposition 74, his teacher tenure initiative, on the ballot to punish teachers for speaking out against his proposals. Perata, a former teacher, said the measure would not add textbooks, boost test scores or in any other way improve the state's public schools.
He called the measure "a way to blame teachers for what's wrong with education. ... This simply is divisive."
The 90-minute forum in the east San Francisco Bay area city of Walnut Creek was the first time Schwarzenegger was scheduled to sit for an extended period of time to field unscripted questions from an audience not chosen by his campaign staff.
Perata and Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association, opened the session by fielding questions about the union dues proposal, a spending cap and an effort to change the way legislative districts are drawn.
Responding to question about Proposition 75, the so-called "paycheck protection" measure, DeMoro said corporations outspend unions 13 to one.
"What this governor wants to do is make that 13 to zero," she said. "He wants a football field with only one team."
Perata said the governor's attempt to reform the way union dues are raised hurts middle class Californians such as teachers, nurses and firefighters.
"What gets lost in this whole discussion is that somehow these people are bad, they are evil. It is not true," Perata said. "They are representing their memberships."
The questioners were selected from nine Bay Area counties by a survey research company and were chosen to represent a diversity of political, ethnic and economic backgrounds.
The forum was designed to allow the governor to make his case to a skeptical public, but it also included time for his opponents - Democrats and union members who see his agenda as a Republican power grab.
Before it began, hundreds of protesters representing teachers, nurses and other union members clustered outside the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts.
"What brought me out here is fairness. ... It's a waste of money, a political power grab by the big corporations. If they silence our voice, they'll have the right to do whatever they want," said Bobby Lux, 57, an iron worker from Novato who was among the protesters. "If we lose our voice, this country will be a two-party system - the very, very rich and the very, very poor."
Democrats and unions object to all four of the initiatives that comprise Schwarzenegger's reform agenda. They are most incensed about the proposal that would require public employee unions to get their members' written permission before dues could be used for political purposes.
Schwarzenegger also is pushing: Proposition 74, which would extend the probationary period for teachers from two years to five and make it easier for school administrators to fire veteran teachers; Proposition 76, which would cap state spending and give the governor authority to make midyear budget cuts; and Proposition 77, which would transfer authority for drawing legislative boundaries from the state Legislature to a panel of three retired judges.
On Monday, the governor won endorsements for propositions 76 and 77 from the California District Attorneys Association, the California State Sheriffs Association, the Chief Probation Officers of California and Memory of Victims Everywhere, a crime victims group.
Most unions representing rank-and-file law enforcement officers and firefighters have opposed Schwarzenegger's agenda. The governor has said the attacks are meant to preserve the status quo in Sacramento, which he vowed to change when he was elevated to the governor's seat during the 2003 recall election.
Public opinion polls show Schwarzenegger's popularity has plunged and his ballot initiatives largely running behind. His campaign has said that its internal polling shows the initiatives and the governor with greater support than other polls indicate.
"I think it is incorrect to say my poll numbers are going down when in fact my poll numbers are going up," Schwarzenegger said during the endorsement event earlier Monday. "It has been a bumpy road ever since we started, and it's going to be a bumpy road every day until Election Day."
State Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres and Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim were set to will appear together onstage to close the forum, sponsored by the Contra Costa Times of Walnut Creek and Oakland television station KTVU.
Also Monday, Schwarzenegger's campaign team announced future voter forums. A similar forum is scheduled Friday in Fresno, while a pre-taped forum on Spanish-language television station Univision is scheduled to air Saturday.
Rinold wiped the floor with most of the questioners. On second thought, he wiped the floor with all the questioners and their pathetic prepared preambles to their equally stupid questions.
I got my absentee ballot in the mail today. Everything Schwartzenegger is proposing should be common sense. But hey, common sense never seems to fly in California
"On Monday, the governor won endorsements for propositions 76 and 77 from the California District Attorneys Association, the California State Sheriffs Association, the Chief Probation Officers of California and Memory of Victims Everywhere, a crime victims group.
Also Monday, Schwarzenegger's campaign team announced future voter forums. A similar forum is scheduled Friday in Fresno, while a pre-taped forum on Spanish-language television station Univision is scheduled to air Saturday."
"Rinold wiped the floor with most of the questioners. On second thought, he wiped the floor with all the questioners and their pathetic prepared preambles to their equally stupid questions."
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I am glad to hear it. :)
The only one that doesn't make sense is 77. As convoluted as some of these districts are, I don't think it's a good idea to let 3 unknown, unelected people draw them. Even if they are judges.
How can the union thugs say that 75 will take away their rights? All it does is to give the union MEMBER the right to say how their money is spent. Soulds fair to me.
Of course, he was lying through his teeth, but what else is new?
How can the union thugs say that 75 will take away their rights? All it does is to give the union MEMBER the right to say how their money is spent. Soulds fair to me.
But I am sure you were impressed by how honest and truthful the Democrats were, right?
The thugs think their membership is too stupid to know what's good for 'em. 75 forces the thugs to ask, anyway. ;)
It's a better option than having the Democrat-controlled legislature rig them so they can all keep their jobs while continuing to drive California into the ground.
Personally, I was more impressed by the honesty and truthfulness displayed by the DemocRATS who identified themselves as Republicans.
It is so easy for you to say that isn't it? Especially when you are in disagreement. Let's not debate the merits, but just throw a hard ball out there proclaiming the governor is lying. since you do not like the props, then the governor must be lying!
"by the DemocRATS who identified themselves as Republicans."
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Yes, I know what you mean, we seem to have a flock of them running around here too. "We are conservatives, we are Republicans, every vote we cast matches exactly with that of the Democrats, but you must listen to us, because we tell you that we are conservatives"
That sounds good on paper but one thing Rinold got right was that Republicans and RATS conspire to draw the lines to protect their own jobs. I believe California will trend Republican over the coming decades and will therefore be able to draw the lines to protect even more Republican districts.
Gave the lefties a lesson in civics.
Total smackdown.
two items that I questioned; I believe that it was the nurse that stated that New York spent 2 times what we spend on education and Senator Perata said that it was a fact that Statea with 1 yr tenure outperformed those with longer tenure. I find this hard to be true. So I don't have to look up the facts, do you know?
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