Posted on 03/19/2006 6:23:31 PM PST by SmithL
The Republican governor of California was in trouble as he contemplated his chances of winning a second term.
Early polls said well over half of the state's voters were inclined to turn him out, and two prominent Democratic officeholders were vying to succeed him. He suffered from defection among Republican voters, stemming from ideological quarrels with conservatives who considered him to be a RINO (Republican In Name Only) who was too liberal on spending, abortion and environmental regulation.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006? It could be, but it also describes the uncomfortable position in which Schwarzenegger's political mentor, Pete Wilson, found himself in early 1994, when the venerable Field Poll reported that 61 percent of voters were opposed to giving him a second term, including 40 percent of Republicans.
Nine months after the poll was taken, however, Wilson was not only re-elected, but rang up a 15 percentage-point landslide over Democrat Kathleen Brown, who earlier had enjoyed a 23-point polling lead.
While Brown hoped to make Wilson's unpopular governorship the issue, a traditional strategy for any challenger, the governor and his advisers turned it around, making crime and illegal immigration the driving issues of the campaign, helped by Brown's fumbles on both. Wilson championed a ballot measure, Proposition 187, that would deny public services to illegal immigrants, and the voters who approved it overwhelmingly also voted for him.
The conventional political wisdom ever since is that while Proposition 187 worked for Wilson that year, it poisoned the Republican Party's claim on Latino voters and sowed the seeds of the party's fall from favor in subsequent elections - a dubious rationale.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Hard to lose what you never had.
Clearly it's all just a campaign issue. (Do I really need a /sarc tag, or is it dripping enough?)
I am less simpatico, as it were, with Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters’ suggestion that Arnold can win by “playing the immigration card.” Drawing a false analogy with the 1994 governor’s race, Walters suggests that Arnold can jump on the illegal immigration horse and ride it to victory over some hapless Democratic campaign.
For starters, Pete Wilson was in much stronger shape than Arnold at this stage of the campaign. His problems were in previous years, not in his election year. He had not just lost on his biggest issue of the year. Though he was not popular, few doubted that he was a real governor, which is not the case with Arnold. He had a real campaign plan, which was developed and executed over a long period of time with a consistent, proven winning team in California. By this point, he had been establishing immigration as a principal issue for him for about eight months, so it was not something he suddenly jumped on to as other things went sour. And immigration was much more of a hot button issue then than it is now. Unlike now, a strong majority of Californians regarded illegal immigration as a serious problem.
Then there is the question of the reality of Arnold’s record. Although he did vote for Wilson’s Proposition 187 measure, Schwarzenegger publicly announced in 2002 that he opposes it, winning a standing ovation at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco declaring: “I would never stand in the way of a child going to school.” And while he did away with the, shall we say, less than security-minded drivers licenses for illegal immigrants bill signed by then Governor Gray Davis, he has also made statements that make it clear he will support a much more limited license — that looks different from the regular license and can’t be used for purposes other than lawful driving — when the federal government comes up with its guidelines.
My problem with Bradley's take is that there is little evidence to support his 8 months claim except maybe an isolated speech or comment which a Google search doesn't produce. Bill's claim, however, may be true since he was on scene during those years but there is a big difference between concern over the consequences of illegal immigration an a concrete plan to take action.
My fading memory says that Wilson did not hammer or focus on illegal immigration until Prop 187 petitions were in front of grocery stores.
Please correct me if I'm wrong Bill.
Cartoon with unintelligible foreign accent rambling about immigration, what an image that will be. Someone better get him a dialect coach first...
Now they are tone deaf toward the grassroots conservatives wishes to rid the state of a Governor who has proved himself WORSE than Gray Davis in every respect except one... Davis still has no personality!!!
I can't even watch the man's movies any more, and I'm an action/adventure fan!
Yeah, he fills me with Schwartzenegativity anymore!!!
LOL
Prop 187 single handedly resurrected Wilson's campaign in 1994.
It absolutely galvinized republican/independent voters like nothing else and that paid off big at the polls.
Here's a blast from the past
Proposition 187 - Wilson Puts Immigration on the Ballot. Wilson's history with Proposition 187 is nearly identical. In the fall of 1993, three conservative immigration proposals surfaced as potential 1994 initiatives. Two of these were similar to Wilson-backed bills introduced in the Legislature, relatively moderate proposals such as requiring hospitals to make an account of undocumented immigrants served with public funds.
The third, the "Save Our State" initiative (which later became Proposition 187), was far more extreme. It proposed excluding undocumented immigrants from public health care and undocumented immigrant children from California's public schools. Its backers came from the fringe of the anti-immigrant movement. SOS newsletters were peppered with overtly racist rhetoric such as, "Wake up and smell the refried beans."
By early 1994, the two moderate measures had folded, citing a lack of funds and public support. The SOS measure, however, persevered, pushed by a small band of conservative activists. The SOS campaign had all the signs of a half-baked effort destined to become a political footnote. The SOS campaign began its signature drive with $11,000. In mid-March, with less than six weeks to go, the campaign reported having collected just 150,000 signatures of the more than half million they would need to qualify for the November ballot.
With a month left to go, the California Republican Party made a decision to adopt "SOS" and assure its presence on the November ballot. The party rolled out a 200,000 piece fundraising mailing for the initiative and helped field an army of paid signature gatherers to finish the task of qualification. Shortly after, Wilson endorsed 187 and made it the core of his reelection effort. "It became almost hard to distinguish the YES on 187 campaign from the Pete Wilson campaign, " says Patrick J. McDonnell, who covered the immigration initiative for the Los Angeles Times.
So much for Bradley's take on the issue!
As usual, Dan Walters makes sense.
Unfortunately, Maria and Arnold's rich friends won't let him do it.
Gov. Pete Wilson and a coalition of Latino leaders are planning a meeting after a couple of false starts and a round of recriminations over the governor's attacks on illegal immigration.The organization called Pride, for Proponents for Responsible Immigration Debate and Education, says it will oppose ``immigrant bashing or racist'' proposals by any politician or candidate.
The group wants to meet with several top elected officials, Robert Alaniz, spokesman for Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, said Wednesday.
``The whole idea, both for Democrats and Republicans, was to put a stop to all this inflammatory rhetoric and unworkable proposals'' on the immigration issue, Alaniz said.
Wilson in recent months has blamed illegal immigrants for a variety of social problems and called for tougher border controls. The administration has angered Latino leaders by releasing reports suggesting links between immigration and crime.
The coalition, which includes Latino organizations and government leaders from around California, sent a cordial letter asking for a meeting with Wilson, said Pride member Molina.
``Instead, he sent us a letter that accused us of grandstanding,'' she said.
WASHINGTON -- Calling the national immigration policy "a disgrace," California Gov. Pete Wilson said Monday that Congress should increase border patrols and stop mandating that states pay for social programs for illegal immigrants.Wilson, speaking to reporters at a breakfast meeting, said that citizens of every ethnic group risked being deprived of services because state money was being drained for education, health care, welfare, and criminal justice needs of illegal immigrants.
"Federal immigration policies," the Republican governor said, "are causing state governments to spend literally billions of dollars on illegal immigrants at a cost so great we are unable to provide needed services to our own legal residents."
"We are providing incentives for illegal immigration, rewarding people for their success in evading the Border Patrol," he said.
(snip)
Wilson estimated that California's emergency health care program had increased 18 percent since 1989 and that the state had spent a billion dollars on education and prison costs for illegal immigrants.
The governor, who faces a tough re-election effort next year, has been increasingly critical of the impact of illegal immigration on his economically ailing state.
On Monday, he said that illegal immigrants are not taking jobs from higher-paid workers but from lower-paid ethnic workers who have been recently legalized.
Wilson said the Border Patrol should emulate manpower-intensive efforts to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country. He cited the success of Operation Blockade at the border in El Paso as an example of intensive efforts that should be replicated elsewhere.
(snip)
Wilson also said better efforts have to be made to prevent tamper-proof identification for workers who are required to show proof they are not illegal before they are employed.
"You can walk into almost any flea market and for 15 to 30 dollars get yourself a set of identification that is more than adequate to satisfy the requirements," he said.
This holds up the standard definition of today's CA Republican "leaders!" Somebody looking for a cause to hijack, or jump out in front of the bandwagon/parade!!!
This just proves that the people... The GRASSROOTS conservative people can initiate something and then if it looks promising, the corporate candidates will rush in to snatch it/seize it like a sucker fish sucking up pond scum!!!
There are some interesting comments about Field in this interview with Arnold Steinberg, a Republican pollster/strategist that is a straight-talker.
http://www.flashreport.org/special-reports0b.php?faID=2005110202424596
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