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During Monday evening's Special Election Showdown, readers joined a team of reporters in fact checking what both sides had to say. The Truth Squad told everyone when the Showdown participants lied, when they exaggerated and when they got it right.: #1: Rose Ann DeMoro, head of the California Nurses Association, and Sen. Don Perata said the governor put Proposition 74 on the ballot to punish teachers. The governor says he proposed the measure because he got complaints from parents that it was too hard to dismiss poorly performing teachers. #2: Rose Ann DeMoro said Proposition 75 "tries to entangle the...

WALNUT CREEK — For the first and likely only time in the government-revamp special election campaign, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was directly grilled by voters Monday night and often wound up on the defensive, insisting he hasn't "bitten off too much." The governor — who demanded to speak separately from his Democratic and union foes repeatedly touted his uphill battle for four voter-qualified initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot as a "fight for the people" and dismissed accusations they are "power grabs." Schwarzenegger said he was seeking to "fix a broken system" while preserving the "balance of power." "They (lawmakers)...

WALNUT CREEK – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last night insisted his spending-control initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot is not a gubernatorial power grab that would produce draconian budget cuts, as opponents contend, and that it could actually lead to a tax increase. Struggling to gain traction for his four-part ballot agenda with two weeks to go until the special election, Schwarzenegger fielded questions for the first time during the campaign from voters not selected by his campaign. He and two of the most persistent critics of his agenda made separate appearances during a 90-minute forum. His opponents – state Senate...

WALNUT CREEK - This very odd political campaign spawned a very odd political event Monday night - a kinda, sorta, more-or-less, quasi, facsimile, pseudo-facade of a faux-debate between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and two critics of the ballot measures he wants voters to approve on Nov. 8 - and Schwarzenegger delivered a strong performance to claim at least a semi-victory. Had it been a real debate, Schwarzenegger and his rivals would have mixed it up face-to-face. Instead, Schwarzenegger and his foes, state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and California Nurses Association chief Rose Ann DeMoro, appeared in separate segments of...

WALNUT CREEK - For the first time since he called a special election, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stood before an unscreened audience Monday night and fielded random questions about his initiatives. But the unusual format, dictated by Schwarzenegger and his campaign team, infuriated his foes, who called it "just another Schwarzenegger performance." "He defined all the rules before we got started," said Gale Kaufman, the lead political strategist for the campaign against Schwarzenegger's special election initiatives. "He got to do another show, which he's very good at, but that's all it was. Nothing more than showmanship." Sell It Yourself Schwarzenegger has...

Was this the revenge of the suburbs? When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced plans to take unscripted questions from a random group of voters out in Walnut Creek, there was a hint of a smile from the burbs. This was the flyover governor, the guy who announced his candidacy on "The Tonight Show," and who spent more time on "Larry King" than out in the hustings. And now, last night, there he was, in tree-lined Walnut Creek, right across from Cheap Pete's framing store, just down the street from Crogan's Sports Bar, meeting with the real people. Was this a sea...

This very odd political campaign spawned a very odd political event Monday night — a kinda, sorta, more-or-less, quasi, facsimile, pseudo-facade of a faux-debate between Gov. Schwarzenegger and two critics of the ballot measures he wants voters to approve on Nov. 8 — and Schwarzenegger delivered a strong performance to claim at least a semi-victory. The result, not surprisingly, was an exchange of pre-digested assertions about both the measures and the motives of Republican Schwarzenegger and the Democrat/union coalition that opposes the four propositions that would, at least marginally, reduce their influence in the Capitol. It's more than a little...

Following is a selection of comments from Monday's special election forum, featuring Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and California Nurses Association Executive Director Rose Anne DeMoro. On Proposition 74: "I know what terrific teachers we have, but we cannot get rid of the bad teachers. They're called the lemons. Each school has those lemons. And they call it the dance of the lemons, where they kick them from school to school but you can't get them out. What I say is, 'Let's kick them right out and let's dance them out the door rather than...

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (AP) - Defending his special election before an audience of voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday said his "year of reform" ballot initiatives are crucial to continue the changes he started after taking office two years ago. He cast the Nov. 8 election as the next step of the 2003 recall election that propelled him to office. Voters, he said, sent him to Sacramento to rebuild the state's economy and fix a moribund political system. After 400,000 new jobs and billions in new revenue, it was time for him to enter Act II, he said. "Now is...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will face real questions from real voters tonight as he defends his special election efforts in a televised town hall meeting in Walnut Creek. State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association, will provide the opposition in the 90-minute event, which will be shown live on KTVU beginning at 6 p.m. --snip-- While Schwarzenegger has been stumping the state for his initiatives, most of his appearances have been limited to handpicked crowds of friendly supporters or calls to conservative radio talk show hosts. But in a state where Democrats...