Free Republic

Restaurants, recalls and resistance are giving California Gov. Gavin Newsom one of the worst months of his political career. California held its presidential primary election on Super Tuesday, March 5, but it was far from super for the state’s ambitious governor. Voters showed more than a little resistance to passing the ballot measure Newsom had branded with his name and image in TV ads for which he had raised $20 million. Given the razor-close outcome, what was really shocking was the amount spent to oppose the governor’s effort: nothing at all.

SACRAMENTO — A frenetic last-minute attempt to place a massive public works bond on the June ballot failed late Wednesday, handing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a key legislative defeat in his bid for re-election. The collapse of negotiations over the bond measure came just hours before an administrative deadline to place measures on the primary election ballot. "We ran out of time," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said, after the Senate passed an urgency bill appropriating $1 billion for levee repairs from the state's reserve fund. A partial deal had appeared possible just hours earlier after legislative leaders from both...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking lawmakers to scrap a $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond measure already on the November ballot to clear the way for his massive, $222.6 billion public works program. "We could not afford the entire package of infrastructure (in the governor's plan) if we did the $10 billion for high-speed rail," state Finance Director Mike Genest said Friday. "We did not see it being affordable in a 10-year cycle." He called high-speed rail "a visionary idea (that's) kind of far in the future." Democratic supporters of high-speed rail said they would try to put...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California assemblywoman who suspects pollution contributed to the cancer she was diagnosed with last year announced plans Wednesday to seek an air cleanup bond that could cost the state between $2 billion and $5 billion dollars. The announcement by Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, followed a hearing in which lawmakers heard nearly three hours of testimony linking air pollution from California's ports, trucks and other shipping sources to deaths, childhood illnesses and even poor fetal development. The state Air Resources Board released a study earlier this month that found diesel emissions from the Los Angeles...

State Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, proposed Wednesday a $7.7 billion bond to complete the new Bay Bridge and reinvest in highways, port security and ailing levees up and down the state. Though no date is set in the bill for when voters would consider the general obligation bond, Perata aides said the measure is unlikely to appear on ballots before June 2006. In the meantime, a companion bill, introduced by Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, would increase Bay Area bridge tolls by $1 to pay for the planned tower on the eastern span of the Bay Bridge. If either bill...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Californians overwhelmingly approved a plan Tuesday to borrow a record $15 billion to bail out the state budget, handing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a crucial victory Tuesday in his bid to turn around the world's sixth-largest economy.</p>

<p>Lodi, San Joaquin County -- If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger succeeds in persuading voters to approve his $15 billion deficit bond, then the victory may well hinge on how it plays in Central Valley towns like Lodi, a community that traces its fiscal conservatism back to the frugal German farmers who settled the area.</p>

<p>FRESNO - California's political odd couple kicked off their campaign to pass a $15 billion bond on the March ballot, stressing that the state faces ``Armageddon cuts'' if voters reject it.</p> <p>Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Controller Steve Westly appeared in a town hall-style meeting at Duncan Ceramics in an industrial part of east Fresno to stump for the bond and a companion measure that would limit state spending.</p>

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces an uphill battle to win voter approval of the first phase of his fiscal recovery plan March 2. But if he is willing to place his personal and political credibility on the line, he can probably pull it off.</p>