Posted on 05/29/2006 10:02:56 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is attempting a political comeback as he faces reelection this year, courting Democrats and independent voters by distancing himself from President Bush and pushing an expensive bond proposal to rebuild California's levees, schools and highways.
Schwarzenegger, one of the nation's most prominent Republicans, has criticized Bush's plan to dispatch the National Guard to the Mexican border. He has appointed Democrats to key state jobs. In recent weeks, he helped engineer a bipartisan compromise to get the $37 billion bond proposal on the November ballot, traveling the state with Democratic legislative leaders to promote it. And he has embraced other causes popular with California's Democratic voters, including an increase in the minimum wage and a cap on greenhouse gases.
Last November, Schwarzenegger's fortunes looked grim. California's voters handed him a stunning loss in a special election that would have changed several state laws and given him more political power.
That election night, Schwarzenegger vowed to change and to show voters that "I am not to the right or left, that I just see things best for California."
Since then he has courted the public-service unions that exert enormous influence on California politics and that had spent millions to try to defeat his plans. Schwarzenegger has tried to smooth relations with the California Nurses Association, whose demonstrators dogged him at public appearances last year, by dropping his quest to overturn state nurse-patient ratios.
Buoyed by an additional $5 billion in tax revenue, he has pledged to increase education spending by billions of dollars, hoping to patch strained ties with the California Teachers Association. And he has put off a significant overhaul of California's troubled prison system, leading the California Correctional Peace Officers Association to delay plans to open a $10 million war chest for attack ads against him.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Long story short...he's a Democrat.
Schwarzenegger is in over his head. Return to movies, Arnold. Take on The Rock in Terminator 4 or something.
Well, considering the demographics of CA, that's they only way he can get reelected, especially after his conservative special election propositions got defeated.
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."
"I think it's really important to recognize that the staff that he surrounded himself with [before the special election] is completely gone," Nuñez said. "I think that his new staff and his new advisers are looking down the road at the next election and how they can position themselves to win this horse race."
The democrats can't lose--all three contenders in the race are liberals.
Perhaps you should learn more about his Dem opponents and compare Arnold's positions to theirs.
Here is where Arnold's opponents, the Dems stand on issues.
Remember it's Arnold or them.
"Westly and Angelides were twins on the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill (yes), fully funding education (yes), affordable housing (of course), health care (yes), same-sex marriage (yes), and signing a bill to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants (yes)"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1631511/posts
WESTLY:
In the “Stand” spot, Westly says, “I’m Steve Westly – before I ask for your vote, I owe it to you to tell you where I stand. I’m strongly pro-choice and I believe protecting our environment is fundamental. As governor, I’ll make education my top priority.” Then the announcer adds, “Steve Westly. Require big corporations to provide adequate health insurance, expand the Healthy Families Program, incentives for hybrid vehicles and solar energy, stop any new offshore drilling.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1627880/posts
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ANGELIDES:
Angelides calls himself a champion of "progressive values." As state treasurer, he has pushed public pension funds to dump tobacco stocks, invest in urban renewal projects and pressure corporations into cleaning up the environment. A close ally of labor, he also supports abortion rights, gay marriage, gun control and driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
If he makes it into a general-election race, his call for increasing taxes could pose problems; Schwarzenegger has been steadfast in opposing higher taxes.
http://www.calcoast.org/news/cpr0060122.html
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In the meantime, Arnold:
"They're focused on the Capitol's perpetual war between business and the big four Democratic Party subfactions: labor unions, personal injury lawyers, environmentalists and consumer protection advocates.
The past two years have been bleak ones for the Big 4 because Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has aligned himself with the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, rejecting nearly all of the measures they had dubbed "job killers." Schwarzenegger and business, moreover, bulldozed the Legislature into approving an overhaul of worker's compensation that authorities say is reducing employers' costs by $15 billion a year. It was the most significant advance either side had made in the war in many years and one that Democrats and their allies now want to undo. "
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1627876/posts
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Arnold also vetoed the homsexual marriage bill, which Anglides and Westly are on record of supporting.
Arnold made the legislature rescind the drivers licenses for illegals bill, then when they put it on his desk again, he vetoed it. Angelides and Westly are on the record FOR the bill.
Arnold categorically refused to raise taxes, despite Dem pressure and his Dem opponents are proposing huge tax increases.
There are huge differences with major impacts on CA, between Arnold and the Dems.
Look! It's the Baghdad Bob of the California threads!
I guess you lose on facts and issues and the only thing left for you is to resort to personal insults. That's an admission that YOU lost the argument. Thanks for admitting it.
The same demographics existed when Ronald Reagan (R), George Deukmejian (R), and Pete Wilson (R) were elected.
Did they hire all democrats, go on borrowing sprees, make record increases in spending, and join the Greens in promoting envirowackoism?
Abandoning the Republican platform is not the way to win, unless you become a member of the Democratic Party.
Please quit spamming this on every thread.
I am not spamming. People keep trying to spread misconceptions, and I am CORRECTING them.
What IS spamming is when people keep posting "Arnold is a Democrat", with NOTHING to back up their assertions.
Funny, you don't seem to have a problem with that.
I didn't lose anything, toots.
You're a die-hard GOP groupie who believe that we must support Republicans regardless if they're more liberal than Dems. You don't care that your support is counterproductive or flawed, so therefore there's no need for me to keep correcting your spin.
Do us all a favor and leave discussion of the real issues that impact conservatives to grown-ups.
Twenty years ago the Democrats weren't as far left as they are today, rmember the "Reagan Democrats"?
Those of us who live in California and have the chance to vote MUST choose Arnold. It really will be hell-in-a-handbasket time if the Dems get total control with the Governorship as well as the legislature, not to mention the union bosses and the illegals. I was talking to a very liberal friend who preferred a particular Dem and who hated the thought of Arnold staying in the Governor's chair. If he irritated her, he's the best choice.
Please explain to me how it helps the conservative cause to elect a leftist Dem as Governor of CA -- almost every other statewide office is already in Dem hands, including having an overwhelmingly Dem Legislature.
How does that help conservatives? I can hardly wait for your erudite response.
Arnold is a joke- he'll espouse whatever position he thinks will keep his sorry butt in Sacramento. He should be ashamed of himself.
Oh brother. Are you still chanting that mantra? Let's all re-register. There's no point in being Republican anymore.
This is only news to the WaPo.
Susan Kennedy, Arnold's chief of staff for the last five months or so is a lifelong liberal Democrat.
Arnie - like many in the GOP - don't seem to know there is a difference.
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