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Posted on 11/08/2006 3:31:56 PM PST by calcowgirl
LOS ANGELES - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tirelessly promoted himself and his ambitious package of public works bonds en route to his landslide re-election.
But he spent little time campaigning for fellow GOP candidates gunning for six other statewide offices on Tuesday's ballot.
Some experts believe that was one reason only one other Republican joined Schwarzenegger in victory.
"Arnold is bigger than the Republican Party in California," said Thad Kousser, an expert in state politics at the University of California, San Diego.
"He wants to be known as the person who rebuilt the infrastructure of the state rather than the person who rebuilt the Republican Party here," Kousser said.
Republicans account for 34.3 percent of registered voters in California, compared to 42.5 percent for Democrats.
Four years ago, Democrats made a clean sweep of the statewide ballot. Republicans hoped Schwarzenegger's resurging popularity would help them take back some of those posts and gain power in Sacramento.
Instead, Democrats won races for lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and controller.
In June, Democrat Jack McConnell was elected state superintendent of schools.
The governor will be joined in Sacramento by another centrist Republican, Steve Poizner, a Silicon Valley multimillionaire.
He spent more than $8.5 million of his own money to defeat two-term Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante in the race for insurance commissioner.
"I'm not a big believer in the coattail theory," said Poizner, who intends to take a nonpartisan approach to his new office.
The GOP lost a constitutional offices it had controlled, when Democratic state Sen. Debra Bowen won a surprise victory in the race for secretary of state.
She edged out incumbent Bruce McPherson, a moderate Republican and former state legislator appointed by Schwarzenegger last year after Democrat Kevin Shelley resigned amid scandal.
Democrat John Garamendi, who currently serves as insurance commissioner, won a close race for lieutenant governor against Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, an anti-tax ideologue.
"The conclusion to be drawn here is that California is still a true progressive state, even though it has a nominally Republican governor," Garamendi said.
Analysts said McClintock and other Republicans may have collected some benefits from Schwarzenegger's appeal, even though the governor did little campaigning on their behalf.
McClintock did well when he ran against Schwarzenegger in the 2003 recall. This year, he collected 46 percent of the vote after helping unite the state GOP behind the governor.
"It's a remarkable accomplishment that McClintock did as well as he did under the circumstances," said political scientist Jack Pitney, a professor at Claremont McKenna College in Pomona.
"On the whole, Republican candidates did better than they might have otherwise," he said.
Democrat Jerry Brown, a well-known two-term former governor and current Oakland mayor, easily won the race for attorney general against Republican state Sen. Chuck Poochigian.
Outgoing Attorney General Bill Lockyer, also a Democrat, became state treasurer after defeating Republican Claude Parrish, a member of the Board of Equalization from Los Angeles.
And Democrat John Chiang, a member of the state Board of Equalization from Los Angeles, won the contest for state controller against McClintock protege Tony Strickland.
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STATEWIDE RESULTS:
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Arnold's a Republican?! Who knew?
Arnold's just figured out how to win CA elections without the GOP base.
Conservatives are officially a nonentity in this state.
Arnold is the absolute worst idiot that the dumber than dumber pubbies could have pushed into office. My blood boils at his name metioned because I see dimwit pubbies thinking he is the best conservatives can get.
Arnold is a womanizing scumbag who sold out Joe GOld's World Gym so that he could put a gymnastic studio. Arnold is also a Rino. He could have helped McClintock but he didn't. Watch Arnold to sign into law DL for illegals soon...
I have to admit...I did not vote for Arnold this time around (regrettably, I voted for him in the recall). Fact is, I didn't vote for anyone for governor.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
I believe Bush will now become as self obsessed as Ahnold is, he will rush to compromise with Pelosi and Reid on a number of issues. I can see him having weekly meetings at the WH with them, lunch in his private dining room, and dinner in his residence. He's going to do exactly what Slick did in 1995, compromise in order to pass popular legislation (comprehensive immigration reform to name one) and then try to take credit for it, and the heck with his fellow Repubs. Case and point, when Slick signed Welfare Reform, against the wishes of many in his party, in order to improve his standing with the American people, and it worked. His personal numbers will more than likely go up over the next two years as he compromises and "triangulates," but at what expense to his party? Very soon I think Bush will announce with great fanfare a significant change in our prosecution of the war in Iraq, i.e. the adoption of the soon to be released Baker Commission Report (written with the help of Robert Gates, the new Sec of Defense), which I'm sure Bush and his staff have already seen. I'm sure Rummy's sacking is step one in the President's effort to distance himself from the neocons and the so far failed attempts to restore calm in Iraq. I'll make a friendly bet that the Baker Report urges some sort of direct negotiations/compromise/deal with Iran and Syria. Remember Nixon's trip to China? I don't think the President is going to visit Tehran or Damacus, but just like Nixon's offer to Beijing of direct talks with Washington, which shocked many in this country, I think Bush will propose direct talks with Tehran on Iraq and Iranian nukes. The Iranians will love it, liberals and moderates will love it, the euroweenies will love it, but his base will be left wondering what the heck is he doing.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Four years ago, Democrats made a clean sweep of the statewide ballot. Republicans hoped Schwarzenegger's resurging popularity would help them take back some of those posts and gain power in Sacramento.
Four years ago we had NO Republicans statewide, now we have TWO and while that isn't as good as hoped it is progress. McPherson's love for Diebold machines hurt him though the article gives no analysis of why he was turned out despite claiming it was a surprise result.
No mention of the challenge to Brown's qualifications, only his easy win.
Arnold has never been a party loyalist, only a fool would expect he'd become one. What we need to demand is a return to Arnold-the-Reformer. We might pick up a seat in the state senate. The Republican is leading by 13 voters but thousands of absentees still to come.
Exactly.
Yes, both Schwarzenegger and Poizner are regisitered in the Republican Party but only the latter would be classified as a Republican for anyone other than a CaGOP official. Schwarzenegger is a blue dog Democrat in all but party affiliation.
Looking closer at the Insurance Commissioner's race there is also an obvious reason why a Democrat was not elected. The candidate was widely reviled in both Democrat and Republican circles. Republicans saw him as a cultural separatist and Democrats, as a Judas, chiefly responsible for the 2003 recall of their governor.
From a nonpartisan perspective, Republicans did not earn a single, statewide office seat in the 2006 contest. Schwarzenegger is a Democrat and Mickey Mouse, if registered in the Republican Party, would have triumphed over Bustamante.
Beg to differ on that statement. Arnold is his own man and won the Governorship on HIS own merits.The Republican Party in California is in shambles courtesy of an inept leadership.(BTW what did the CRP did to help him?)
He saw it and forged HIS own agenda as to how to be a "uniter/winner" if you will. For what I have heard from his statements he really gives a shit about the state of the State of California and not the well being of the California Republicans.
He had proven to be an extremely savvy politician and a damn good one if you ask me.
He had made good on his promises and that's a OK in my books.
Me thinks so far The Governator is better than Wilson and Beige Davis combined.
How he will fare, we shall see as the time goes by...
McClintock didn't even come close. And there were people here who actually thought he could have beaten the Democrat in the special election for Governor. I'd like to hear from some of those people now.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
John Ziegler on KFI was upset about McPherson's pandering to the Mexican leftists and encouraged people to vote for his opponents. I didnt want to vote for Bowen so I voted Libertarian.
McPherson = Diebold machine apologist
Bowen = doesnt care about people voting as someone else in the polls.
I hope Brown gets fired with the lawsuit against his qualifications.
Maybe Arnold needs to do stuff that would not upset the right or left, maybe establish a vote by mail program like Oregon.
The list is long and shameless. In the beginning, they disenfranchised members of their own party when they closed the gubernatorial primary (poof, an election just disappeared) allowing a very unpopular, liberal, foreign national to run for office.
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