Posted on 12/08/2005 3:53:30 PM PST by SierraWasp
Angry Republicans request meeting with governor over appointment
By Tom Chorneau ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:39 p.m. December 7, 2005
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to hire a prominent Democrat as his chief of staff has sparked a growing uprising among Republican Party loyalists, who have requested a meeting with Schwarzenegger to hear him explain the choice. The governor has agreed to meet next Thursday with leaders of the California Republican Party to hear their concerns that Susan Kennedy, an aide to former Gov. Gray Davis, is now positioned to learn critical details of GOP campaign strategy and political policy.
Some Republicans said they want the governor to rescind the appointment and warn that Schwarzenegger's support in the upcoming re-election campaign could be jeopardized if their concerns are not addressed.
California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim said he is optimistic the differences can be resolved without a major rebellion.
"Every indication is that this will be a constructive meeting," Sundheim said. "The two major things people want to understand is what her role will be in the campaign. To what extent will we be interacting with her, or will there be others that we can discuss things with? You understand that we are concerned about races other than the governor."
Rob Stutzman, the governor's communication director, said Republicans have raised legitimate concerns but added that Schwarzenegger is not inclined to consider rescinding Kennedy's appointment.
"Any elected official has the right to hire the person he believes will best help him accomplish his mission," Stutzman said. "This is not something for a political party to decide.
"There are obviously understandable concerns given Susan's work prior to coming to the administration, and that makes it a good story," he said. "But my caution to Republicans that are talking about rather drastic measures (is) they are overreacting. They should judge the governor on how he governs, and that's all that matters."
Kennedy, 45, served as cabinet secretary to Davis and campaigned for her former boss during the 2003 recall election that brought Schwarzenegger to power. She also is a former director of an abortion rights group and a former staff aide to Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Kennedy will replace Patricia Clarey, who will leave as chief of staff Jan. 1.
Clarey was deputy chief of staff to former Gov. Pete Wilson and was one of several Wilson aides who caught on with Schwarzenegger's team during the 2003 recall election.
Kennedy's appointment comes after Schwarzenegger lost badly in the November special election, seeing voters reject all four of the ballot measures he promoted.
Republican legislative leaders said they share the same concerns over Kennedy as their party leaders, but said the directors acted on their own in forcing next week's meeting with the governor.
Assembly Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield said he does not support the Kennedy appointment: "I think it is a step backward."
Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman of Tustin said it sent "the wrong message." Still, Ackerman said he would not ask that the appointment be rescinded.
"That's up to the governor to decide," he said.
Several Republicans said they are watching for signs that the governor has moved to the left on policy issues, some of which will arise next month. Those include the 2006-2007 budget and his State of the State speech, in which he will lay out his agenda for the coming year.
More immediately, however, is the governor's decision on a clemency appeal from condemned inmate Stanley Tookie Williams, a co-founder of the Crips gang who was convicted of murdering four people in 1979. The hearing is Thursday, and Schwarzenegger's decision is expected this weekend.
Some believe that if the governor grants clemency, it could further undermine his support from inside his own party.
"I'd be very surprised if Schwarzenegger would commute the sentence," Republican analyst Allan Hoffenblum said. "But if he did, it would certainly exacerbate his problems."
Hoffenblum said he was not sure if it would result in a call for a new nominee to represent the party next year.
"But he might find that he has lost so much of his base, he might not be able to put a winning team together," he said.
Indeed, Sundheim said the people most upset with the Kennedy appointment are those who put in the most time working for the party. Other observers said they do not view the uprising over the Kennedy appointment as a serious threat.
"This brouhaha will not hurt him in the long run," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political scientist at the University of Southern California.
Jeffe said the biggest concerns are being raised by the party leaders, not rank-and-file members. She noted that leaders typically are those who put in the most time on the campaign and are also likely to be the party's most conservative members.
"I suspect that early on, Republicans fell into line simply to get rid of Davis," she said. "What I find astonishing is that they believed that Arnold Schwarzenegger was a conservative. He is not, never has been."
Stutzman agreed.
"This is a governor who repealed a $4 billion car tax, brought the state back from insolvency without raising taxes, fixed workers comp and helped create 425,000 new jobs," he said. "He also just got done waging a campaign on some issues that Republicans have waited years to be brought to the ballot.
"But at the end of the day, he is a centrist," Stutzman said. "He will have Republicans and Democrats around him."
Million dollar question:
Is there a viable candidate to replace him who is not to his left?
That people didn't vote, or vote for the initiatives Arnold put on the ballot. Obviously, voter concern was "elsewhere".
I tell ya, at the speed these guys serve it up, they oughta be waiters. (I'm so gonna have to stop there before I really go post-nuclear on 'em.)
Eek! I mean...uhhh...I didn't say nothin'. `8o]
Please come to grips with it, ok?
They effectively did. Named Tom McClintock. Lost.
McClintock ran against Schwarzenegger in a primary? When was that? I must have missed it.
He has governed more conservatively than expected by his critics on the right.
Ummm.... no. He is turning out to be their worst nightmare.
He has attempted getting fiscal affairs straightened out, making some progress.
He has increased spending at a greater rate than his predecessor and funded this inflated budget by borrowing more than double what his predecessor was trying to borrow (who was stopped in court by Republicans, btw). The budget is still out of balance, a huge deficit remains, and the cost of servicing debt looms on the horizon for more than a decade. How exactly is this progress?
75% of the judges he's appointed in LA County have been Dems. Another opportunity lost.
And you forgot... He's raised far more creepy contributions from unsavory "Special Interests" than Davis EVER did, which was one of the biggest reasons for the historic Davis Recall!!!
Give it up on trying so hard to justify this celebrity goofed up gubernatorial mistake, will ya???
Yes. But the ones who didn't vote are the same action-hero worshippers that got him elected. How will moving leftward help him if these know-nothing, celebrity-loving voters won't show up to the polls?
According to Republican analyst Dan Schnur in this analysis:
Most recently, he invested almost his entire store of political capital in a special-election reform effort supported almost solely by conservative voters.
That confrontation of a strong and motivated opponent is a surefire way to lose a campaign (while touting that one supported a "conservative" platform). This helps the socialist GOPers to promote the "conservatives can't win in California" mantra.
LOL. That one was a classic. To that poster, I would suggest a mirror. ;-)
First Prime Choice and now you. You both disturbed my bait. That's the last time I take you guys RINO hunting.
Oh... but they're OUR special interests so it's okay. /sarcasm
Seriously, I only mentioned the budget actions, but there are so many other acts that have been contrary to the platform of "fiscal conservativism" upon which he ran. The SNC land grab, for one. The subsidized programs he has promoted is another (solar roofs, stem-cell research, hydrogen highway). 2nd Amendment rights another (Assault weapon ban and other anti-gun legislation). Appointment of liberal judges. Appointment of leftists in his administration (Reiss, Tamminen, Henning, Kennedy, etc.)
I know I forgot something in there. So many are outraged by the Kennedy appointment and the possibility that Arnold will commute Tookie's sentence. Why haven't they been outraged by any of these other things? Or, are they just expressing outrage now, only to become an apologist after he takes yet another wrong step?
LOL. I was going to respond last night, but decided to let your bait stay undisturbed. I was interested in the response, as well. Apparently your bait only generated the same tiresome myth (see #74), so I figured it was fair game.
Not true. Tom has never run against liberal Arnold in a Republican primary. If they did, McClintock would clean his clock.
The only explanation is that Schwarzenegger has decided that the "true conservative" Republicans are never going to be in his base, and that he thinks he needs to build a new base that explicitly leaves the "true conservative" Republicans on the outside.
What you had better pray for is that he doesn't succeed in that effort. Because if he does, you're never going to get a damn thing in California ever again.
Worst case for "true conservatives" would be as follows: Schwarzenegger gets thrown out in the primary, runs as an independent in the general election, and wins. The California GOP will officially be dead and buried at that time.
Second-worst case: he survives a bitter, divisive primary, and wins anyway. At that point, "true conservatives" will be forced to make an unpleasant decision: leave the GOP (and lose all that walking-around money), or stay in the GOP (and show themselves to be a bunch of craven money-grubbing wimps).
Over the past 38 years, since coming home from Vietnam, I have seen more effort being spent on trashing "RINOs" of various flavors (sometimes, "RINO" ends up equaling "A guy I agree with generally, but he ain't me, and this state ain't big enough to accomodate both of our egos") than on fighting the loony left in this state. The result is that the legislature is a moonbat-leftist Democrat monopoly.
Rubbish. Schwarzenegger showed his Liberal streak long before this special election fiasco. He's championed MORE gun control, MORE borrowing (and for embryonic stem cell research no less), and MORE liberal judges for California. That ain't the work of anyone who's remotely interested in even trying to pay lip service to the core conservative platforms of the Republican Party.
With that in mind, that whole blame-the-conservatives Bravo Sierra just ain't got legs. Hell, if I came across an animal that lame, I'd put it out of its misery.
What "walking around money"? From what I've read, the CA GOP has left conservatives high-and-dry election after election while asking them to be supportive of their annointed "moderate" candidate.
"What "walking around money"? From what I've read, the CA GOP has left conservatives high-and-dry election after election while asking them to be supportive of their annointed "moderate" candidate.""
"Walking-around money" is soft money given to "grassroots organizations" of various sorts for "outreach" and other vaguely election-related tasks. And conservative groups are the first to make a beeline for the trough.
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