Posted on 05/06/2006 8:10:07 PM PDT by Amerigomag
More good news for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the wake of Friday’s early morning passage of the $37.3 billion infrastructure bonds package, now set for California’s November ballot. He is getting major credit from Democrats for his role in making the deal happen. And major Democrats will be campaigning with him Monday on a flyaround tour of the state for the measure.
Joining the former action superstar, according to multiple sources in both parties, on his jet will be Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, along with the Republican legislative leaders, Senator Dick Ackerman and Assemblyman George Plescia. There may be more, it’s not a small plane. And look for other Democrats to turn up at the stops. Since this is the biggest plan for building for California’s future since the era of legendary Democratic Governor Pat Brown, that is a name you will hear often.
There have been sharp questions in many quarters, including here, about what Schwarzenegger did to make this happen. Although the highlight of his State of the State address, this version of the plan was put together during more than a month of negotiations between the “Fab Four” legislative leaders, with the governor seeming to follow along from a distance. Most of the sessions, according to informed sources, took place in Perata’s office. Those that did not took place in Nunez’s office. (Perata got the ball rolling last year with a major infrastructure proposal. Nunez keyed the insertion of spending on educational facilities.)
Perata called yesterday afternoon to discuss the deal and the governor’s role in it. He says Schwarzenegger played a key role in making it happen.
“The governor,” the Senate Democratic leader says, “was very engaged at the end. He played a big role in getting Republican votes.”
Perata and others described a series of private meetings between Schwarzenegger and Republican legislators to get the bonds over the constitutionally required two-thirds vote in each house.
“He pushed hard and effectively,” says Perata of Schwarzenegger’s involvement in the end game. Schwarzenegger was not the only one pushing on his behalf in some of those meetings with Republican legislators, both in “the horseshoe” (the Governor’s Office) and elsewhere. Schwarzenegger campaign manager Steve Schmidt weighed in as well. Schmidt, a protege of Karl Rove, has a somewhat intimidating reputation in Republican circles from his role in George W. Bush’s re-election war room and in shepherding Republican Supreme Court nominees through confirmation.
With evident amusement, Perata recounted what a Republican legislator told him of one Schwarzenegger/Schmidt private session with their fellow partisans. “The governor laid out the stakes, very directly.” And Schmidt? “He talked but he mostly sat there and stared. He wasn’t like Tom Hagen, Michael Corleone’s consigliere (referring to The Godfather’s “reasonable” mob honcho, played by Robert Duvall). He was like Frank Nitti. (Al Capone’s "enforcer.")”
Perata first proposed a major infrastructure package, in the $10 billion range, last year. But the idea was quickly sidelined by the harsh partisan politics of the former Mr. Universe’s disastrous “Year of Reform” special election agenda. After the collapse of the Arnold-driven negotiations in March, things looked bleak for a time. But Nunez, Perata, and the Republicans decided to take up Schwarzenegger on what had then seemed like an unhelpful suggestion, that they negotiate among themselves.
“It was very different this time,” says Perata. “Legislators are always deferential with Arnold because of who he is,” he explains, “in many ways it was easier for us working separately with him monitoring. That’s an appropriate role for a chief executive.”
“The deal points were already there” from the end of the earlier round. The legislative leaders realized toward the end of the March round of negotiations that the package had to be focused on core elements. “Our work,” says Perata, “centered on methodically going through each point in detail.”
Although there was friction during the March round of negotiations, Perata says of this successful round: “Fabian and I were like bookends.” He also praises Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman, who many sources say joined with Perata in a very effective bipartisan legislative team.
“Fabian and I got the Proposition 42 people (advocates of spending the gas tax only on transportation projects) and CTA (California Teachers Association) together on a compromise,” says Perata. That was necessary to head off a ballot measure about to be filed that would have blocked using that money for any other purpose in perpetuity. The compromise allows borrowing from those funds during times of budgetary crisis, but on a much more limited basis.
That set the stage from the Democratic side. From the Republican side, a sense of collegiality that had grown between the legislative leaders and Schwarzenegger’s late direct intervention in the process were the keys.
“This is a huge statement about California’s future,” says the happy Senate chief. “I think the public is ready and waiting for this.”
Oooops... it looks like I somehow missed you on that original ping! Sorry!
Anyway, follow the link above and see posts starting at about #9.
Ok, here I go. Then I'm goin ta bednego!!!
No problem. Sorry about my curt response.
I appreciate that you go out and take action on behalf of conservative candidates. I wish there were a whole lot more Tom McClintocks across the country.
By the way, I believe Carry_Okie is a huge Tom McClintock fan as well.
"By the way, I believe Carry_Okie is a huge Tom McClintock fan as well."
It's funny all we have now is McClintock and Arnold.
In 1994 we thought Ex Marine Pete Wilson was too left wing for us (and he was).
Now I wish I could go back to that time.
But like Reagan might have said, you play with the cards you have, and work for a better hand, next round.
Uh huh. Tell me, F.O.: What percentage of California voters chose Republican Bill Simon over Davis?
Don't chicken out.
I don't remember the Simon numbers, but I looked up Davis vs. Lundgren and Lundgren got about 35% of the votes -- i.e. all Republicans voted for him and nobody else. I think Davis got some 56% ofthe votes.
I think Simon vs. Davis was similar.
You can't fight the reality of the demographics.
CALIFORNIA VOTER AND PARTY PROFILES
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/JTF_VoterProfilesJTF.pdf
"The Democratic Party currently has an advantage of 1.4 million voters over the Republican Party (7.1 million to 5.7 million) or 9 percentage points (43% to 34%), according to the Secretary of State.
Among those most likely to vote in this year’s elections, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 7-point margin (44% to 37%), while 15 percent of likely voters are registered as independents.
... the fact that independents are more likely to lean toward Democrats than Republicans (42% to 28%) tends to work to the disadvantage of the GOP in statewide elections."
Unfortuantely for FO, one of those eeeeeeeeeeeeevil "unelectable" conservative Republicans won the Governorship of Rhode Island in 2002 and is expected to handily win re-election. He got the vast majority of independant voters on his side and crossover votes from the socially conservative, pro-life Catholic Dems (none of whom would ever vote for Ahnuld).
YOu want to try for larger letters next time?
Actually, the choices given to votes will look more like this:
A) ARNOLD (CLAIMS he will "bring the buisnesses back" [yeah right], pro-abortion "Catholic", socialist, spend-and-borrow Republican)
B) WESTLY or ANGELIDES (CLAIM they will "bring the buisness back" [yeah right], pro-abortion "Catholic", socialist, tax-and-spend-Dems)
C) CAMEJO (claims he will go after "the corporations", pro-abortion "Catholic", socialist, spend-spend-and-spend-some-more Green)
D) JORDAN (Put Saddam Hussien back in power!!! Kill Whitey!!!)
E) OLIVIER (WILL "bring the buisnesses back", but is also pro-abortion, pro-open borders, and agrees with the above candidates about Saddam)
F) NOONAN (WILL "bring the buisnesses back", pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun conservative)
Davis 47%, Simon 42%.
As I said, Davis won handliy.
But either Arnold or a Dem will actually get elected.
So the real choice is between Arnold or the lib Dem.
FYI, Gavin Newsom is quite pleased with your boy.
"Schwarzenegger is becoming a Democrat again, It's a good sign for him and a bad sign for the Democratic Party. He gets it. He's learned his lesson. ... He's running back, not even to the center -- I would say center-left.''
--Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco
The only way Arnold can get elected, is exactly by running to the center and center left, especially after the failed special election propositions, which revealed him as a strong fiscal conservative.
Then, you wrote: I don't remember the Simon numbers, but I looked up Davis vs. Lundgren and Lundgren got about 35% of the votes -- i.e. all Republicans voted for him and nobody else. I think Davis got some 56% of the votes.
I think Simon vs. Davis was similar.
Finally, in answer to my asking you what percentage voted for Bill Simon over Davis in 2002, you wrote: Davis 47%, Simon 42%. As I said, Davis won handliy.
Nice try at face-saving, but you didn't make it. You actually thought Gray Davis not only won a majority of the 2002 vote, you thought he won "handily." Now, for the truth, F.O.:
On Friday, November 1, 2002, four days before the election, the always Demo-tilted Field Poll projected Davis with 41% of the vote, Simon with 34%, and a whopping 17% undecided.
The always Demo-tilted San Francisco Chronicle reported in its November 6, 2002 post-election edition that Davis had won a "tight race":
"Handily." Yeah, right. To paraphrase Tommy Lee Jones as Marshal Sam Gerard in The Fugitive: "Do you want to change your bull---- story, sir?"
Los Angeles -- Gov. Gray Davis, after a caustic and costly campaign that tested the patience of state voters, won re-election Tuesday night, squeezing out a surprisingly tight victory over Republican businessman Bill Simon.Simon called to congratulate Davis on his victory at 11:40 p.m. and an upbeat and relieved Davis finally came out of his hotel room to speak to cheering supporters just before midnight.
(snip)
[B]ack-and-forth, razor-thin margins in the early vote count were a surprise for Davis, who for months had confidently predicted a double-digit victory.
In recent days, [Davis' political director Garry] South had scaled back the optimism and said Davis would win by 8 to 12 percentage points. Anything less, he added, "would be a disappointment."
Simon rolled up big numbers in California's interior, a growing Republican stronghold, but it wasn't enough to overcome huge Democratic margins in the urban Democratic strongholds of Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Good job, Smithee... Excellent work!!!
Schwarzenegger is what the GOP - as a party - wants to become.
Far from being a fraud, he is the truth of what the GOP will be in the future without a serious change of direction. We need a new "morning in America" if we are not content to see the GOP implement a mostly-Democrat agenda.
The Republican and Democrats are OFFICIALLY exactly the same parties.
The FairOpinion account is working overtime to cloak the truth. Notice the seemingly innocent duplication "lib Dem". That wasn't an accident. It was the only phrase the FairOpinion account could use with any honesty.
If not familiar with California politics here's why: There are three, principal, gubernatorial candidates going into the partisan primaries:
1) Phil Angelides - a socialist
2) Arnold Schwarzenegger - a liberal
3) Steve Weslty - a liberal.
That's two liberals and a socialist. No moderate or conservative. Of course, there is a choice between a liberal and a socialist but no alternative that repugnant circumstance. Regardless of who wins, and it won't be Angelides, California will have a liberal governor in the next election cycle.
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