Posted on 11/18/2005 8:23:40 AM PST by calcowgirl
Two days after the special election, the California Chamber of Commerce held its post-election powwow in the former Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach.
The talk of the two-day affair was the keynote speech from campaign strategist Mike Murphy, who told the room full of business leaders that they were to blame for the governor’s defeat.
Numerous sources in attendance said Murphy chided the business community for not matching the spending by labor unions during the election. And because of the governor’s defeat, Murphy warned the room that they should prepare for some uncomfortable moments in the year ahead.
Murphy did not return calls seeking comment for this story.
“He said the governor is now basically in reelect mode, and that we should prepare for him to sign some things we’re not going to like,” said one business donor who heard the speech and requested anonymity.
Many in the room, which included executives from high tech firms, energy companies and developers, bristled at Murphy laying the blame at their feet.
They say the governor adopted a piecemeal agenda for the election that embraced a number of measures the business community essentially didn’t care about. “Why would we give a sh-t about teacher tenure, or even public employee unions?” said one attendee. “We didn’t even know what the governor was going to be pushing until the State of the State.”
While Murphy’s message did not go over well with some business leaders, some of whom blamed Murphy for the governor’s defeat, the chamber is bracing for a new set of post-election political realities. They expect the governor to embrace a political agenda in 2006 that will include curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, an increase in the state’s minimum wage (which he vetoed last year), and a host of new fees on everything from water use to state roads.
User fees may wind up as a key funding source for the massive new infrastructure bond the governor is expected to endorse next year. There has also been talk of using the roughly $1.3 billion in transportation money, set aside in Proposition 42, as a guaranteed funding stream for the new bond.
And business leaders privately acknowledge that a discussion of tax increases may be on the table.
After a disastrous campaign season in 2004, and a major setback in the governor’s special election, the California business community and the Chamber of Commerce is bracing for the governor to move to the left, and they may be moving along with him, albeit grudgingly.
Republicans say that the specter of the 2006 elections will keep business groups closely aligned with the governor. “The two scariest words in the chamber’s vocabulary are ‘Governor Angelides’,” said GOP strategist Bill Whalen.
In the meantime, the chamber is looking to tweak their image as a knee-jerk, anti-tax organization. “There’s an assumption that we’re anti tax,” said Dominic DiMare, the chamber’s vice president of government relations. “We want to make sure there are sufficient safeguards and accountability for the investments we make.”
Ben Austin, spokesman for Rob Reiner, says the universal preschool initiative headed for the ballot was hashed out with members of labor and the business community. Though the measure would implement a new income tax on the wealthiest Californians, the measure has the backing of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce as well as chambers in Oakland and San Francisco.
And while the state chamber is not supporting the measure, Austin says they did have a role in crafting it. “There is language in our initiative that the state chamber suggested. As we were draftng this, they gave us suggestions we took seriously and incorporated into the initiative.”
Austin said he did not want to talk about specific provisions suggested by the state chamber, since they are not backing the initiative. But he did say the LA Chamber was pivotal in determining how the new preschool programs should be funded.
“The LA Chamber was very interested in funding stream not being a split roll,” he said, referring to a hike in the commercial property tax. “We accommodated that.”
While it is far from peaceful between the chamber and labor groups, business leaders are beginning to think about changing their political approach.
Internally, there is an ongoing discussion about the community’s willingness to fund negative advertising, and to run candidates who may not necessarily be talking primarily about business issues.
(snip)
This guy is stuck on stupid.
Mike Murphy will likely not be one of those discarded from the staff of the Gub.
RE: California Chamber of Commerce
Why won't businesses get off their butts and get a viable Right Wing moving in this state? What a bunch of do nothings!
Hopefully...
Followed closely by 'liberal Austrian'.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Angelides, Reiner or Schwarzenegger. I have a responsibility to vote in November but these choices don't provide much motivation.
But apparently they love to bear insanely high taxes and looney left regs to the hilt! What a bunch of limp wristed loosers!
Could always do a write in or put up someone good on a 3rd party nomination. Or, do a grass roots primary challenge to Arnie. Many things are possible. But need to get crackin' now to do any of them.
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