Posted on 09/18/2003 7:05:36 PM PDT by PhiKapMom
Schwarzenegger unveils political reform plan
By Adam Tanner, Reuters
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - As a court across town examined his main Democratic rival's campaign finances, California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger called for reforms Thursday that could put politicians in jail for currently acceptable campaign finance practices. "The people of this state do not trust their government," he said in front of a 19th century locomotive in the state railroad museum. "They feel it is corrupted by dirty money, closed doors and backroom deals." "They see contributions go in, the favors go out, and the people are punished with wasteful spending and high taxes." At the same time as his press conference, a Sacramento court heard a lawsuit charging that Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who leads Schwarzenegger in recent polls, had improperly placed money into an old campaign fund to skirt current limits ahead of an Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election. Publicity about six-figure contributions to Bustamante's old campaign fund from Indian gaming interests and unions have dogged the candidate's campaign in recent days. Meanwhile, the future of the Oct. 7 election to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and choose a replacement remained uncertain, pending a decision by a U.S. appeals court on whether to review its decision on Monday delaying balloting until March.
Davis campaigned in Los Angeles with civil rights activist Jesse Jackson. Davis, borrowing a phrase from Jackson, urged voters to "make it nice, vote no twice" by casting ballots against the recall and against a controversial measure that would stop the state collecting racially based data.
Schwarzenegger, tanned and wearing a three-button gray suit jacket and light purple tie, said the law should be changed to make political funding tricks felonies.
"As governor, I will propose legislation to make the willful violation of campaign finance laws a felony punishable by up to one year in prison," he said. Schwarzenegger declined to say whether he thought Bustamante had skirted present campaign finance laws.
NO COMMENT ON CRUZ
"That is something for the experts to decide. I do not pay so much attention to such things," he said. "Everything that I have said just now relates to future events. We want to prevent all of those things from happening."
The multi-millionaire actor -- whose past openness about sex and drugs have raised questions on the campaign trail -- , also proposed making more functions of the government open to the public, including internal e mails. He also called for a ban on campaign fund-raising during the months the state budget is under discussion.
As Bustamante campaigned in a different part of the state, a Sacramento County Superior Court Judge tried to cut through the complexities of California's campaign financing laws as they apply to Bustamante's campaign.
"We're talking about six- and seven-figure contributions made many months after the relevant election," said Attorney Eric Grant, representing State Sen. Ross Johnson in arguing Bustamante had not held to $22,200 limits on contributions.
Bustamante's lawyer Deborah Caplan replied: "What the Lt. Gov has done is follow the law precisely." She also said he was using the money for ads featuring Bustamante talking about a controversial initiative banning the state's gathering of racial information. "The money is not going to be used for the gubernatorial race," she said.
Schwarzenegger also criticized conservative Republican Tom McClintock, who has enough support in polls to possibly deprive the actor victory, for also taking money from Indian tribes with casino gaming interests.
"The question I have for him is: on what side is he on?" he said. "Does he represent the Republicans or does he represent Bustamante, because he is getting money from the same Indian tribes."
Reuters/VNU
09/18/03 21:12 ET
NOTE: My bold!
Make it Nice -- Vote YES Twice!
As to the gambling angle, I suspect that religious fervor on gambling is a lot stronger in Oklahoma than in California.
I assume this means Arnold will return all that lovely money he took from the Wall Street bankers who hold that $43 billion in overpriced electricity bonds?
So I suppose you supported McCain-Feingold?
This is just hysterical, because the man has time for this, but no time to present a plan to take care of the budget crisis.
You sure have a problem with people spitting on you.
What's really frustrating is to see real conservatives like yourself are backing a liberal Republican whose liberal policies will fail in practice and who will pull the entire national party to the left. And you, a real conservative, are backing him to the point where you zealously attack real conservatives like yourself.
Not that it's going to matter for the election, but a lot of people are selling their souls here for an election victory. They're forgetting that politics is not about winning elections--it's about governing well.
The ONLY thing, that you can count on for sure, is that with Cruz as governor, you won't get anaything you want and a lot of things you don't want. With Arnold, you'll at least get some of what you claim to want and a HUGE help, in re-electing President Bush, in '04. Hey ... with Arnold as a GOP governor, California might even turn the tide in having those who would never before even consider pulling the GOP lever, doing so, once they have done so for Arnold.
No politicain, NONE is going to give his/her supporters 100% of what they want; they're mighty lucky, to get even 65%, from the candidate they help get elected. What the DOGS IN THE MANGER voters here don't get, is that instead of NOTHING, something is a far better choice. Some see a glass as 1/2 full, some see it as 1/2 empty, the PURISTS don't even see a glass!
Right. And if Arnold wins, conservatives do not win, because he has shown no signs he will govern like anything resembling a conservative.
That's what I'm talking about.
He has said no such thing.
encourage business,
Which is why he won't promise to repeal the family leave law?
and do what he can on illegal immigration.
Which is push Bush for an amnesty, according to his website.
As Gov of Cal he really is not going to have any effect, one way or another, on abortion.
Although this is untrue, it is also irrelevant, because he is either liberal or spineless or both on nearly every economic and fiscal issue.
More than 2.3 million undocumented immigrants currently live in California. They cannot continue to live underground. I will work with federal officials to address this problem.
Emphases mine. I'm a realist, so I don't think he's advocating mass deportations.
Your era is over.
Note that although the abortion issue alone would be enough for me to never support Schwarzenegger, I haven't brought up abortion or any other social issue even once on this thread.
Arnold is so bad on all the other issues that I'd have a really hard time supporting him even if he were pro-life. I might do it, but I'd swallow hard.
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