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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he "absolutely" loves the idea of holding a constitutional convention to overhaul state government. California hasn't had such a confab in 131 years. ... The Republican governor would like the convention to consider, among other things, eliminating some statewide offices -- like treasurer, controller, superintendent of public instruction and, especially, lieutenant governor, all currently held by Democrats. "It makes no sense that the governor is surrounded by constitutional officers who are trying to derail him," Schwarzenegger says. "Look at the way the nation runs: The president appoints those Cabinet positions." ... Meanwhile, two blocks from the...

Every political campaign, be it a contest between two candidates for office or a duel over a ballot measure, is an exercise in definition. Every campaign begins with an assumption that a candidate or cause has an automatic base of friendly voters, and winning hinges on appealing to those who are not automatically committed to one side or the other by defining the terms of the contest. It's Politics 1-A, but Arnold Schwarzenegger flunked in what must be regarded as his single-biggest political blunder. As the governor launched the mother of all California political battles a year ago, he wanted...

With California's "year of reform" skidding off the runway because of pilot error, the cynical view of the Golden State may be the only one that makes sense: The state is dysfunctional, ungovernable and worse, the public doesn't really seem to care. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has admitted that he bungled last month's special election. His political low standing has emboldened special interests and left legislative Democrats feeling secure that they can duck the state's toughest problems. The year of reform will be followed by the 2006 election when almost every state office will be on the ballot. Politicians running for...

Nearing the end of his first year in office shortly after the November 2004 elections, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gathered a large group of his political and policy advisers in a conference room at the Sheraton Hotel a few blocks from the state Capitol. Over the course of an afternoon, the governor and his team dissected the pros and cons of an emerging strategy: a plan to confront the powers that be in Sacramento with an ambitious agenda for change and to threaten to call a special election if the Legislature refused to go along. In the end, it was an...

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in 2003, Republicans were hopeful he would restore the credibility of their party. Since Pete Wilson's reelection in 1994, the party had been in steady decline for nearly a decade-losing every single statewide office, and mired hopelessly in the minority in both legislative houses. Schwarzenegger built early momentum during his first year in office. But after the November 2004 election, Schwarzenegger and his advisors hatched an ambitious agenda, which would be laid out in the State of the State address in January 2005. The agenda would amount to a declaration of political war on many...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Despite voters' rejection of Proposition 77, the Legislature's top leaders are promising to try to get a new plan on the ballot as early as next June that would strip lawmakers of the powerful job of drawing legislative and congressional districts. "I'm more than open to a redistricting effort which takes the power to draw boundaries from the Legislature and gives it to a truly independent group," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said Wednesday. He wouldn't discuss details but said a fresh proposal would be unveiled shortly. Proposition 77, one of four initiatives on Tuesday's...

Thank you. [Cheers] Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you....welcome. Thank you, it's great to see you all here. Thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it. You know, there are so many people that I want to thank here tonight. So many people. First of all, I want to thank all of the people of California. I want to thank them... I want to thank those who voted for our propositions, and also I want to thank those who did not vote for our propositions. I want to thank them for being part of the...

California's reformer-in-chief looked a lot better in the previews For an action-hero politician who likes to taunt "girlie-men," Arnold Schwarzenegger sure turned out to be a wuss. Two years after sweeping into office with promises to "blow up boxes," perform "the Miracle of Sacramento," and "not rest until our fiscal house is in order," California's Milton Friedman–quoting governor is wasting our time with a special election that does little more than tweak his unionized political tormentors and tinker at the margins of mis-governance, while the state's fiscal house maintains its disorder of $6 billion budget deficits. The governor is tramping...

The multimillion-dollar special election campaign that is grinding to an end has demonstrated a couple of things about the current condition of California's political system. The most obvious is there can't be a serious discussion of important policy issues in an election campaign because political consultants would rather appeal to voters' emotions than to their intellect. That may be a good strategy if the only goal is to win an election, but it does little to improve the quality of state government. (snip) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been calling this the "year of reform," but you wouldn't know much about...

Tony Quinn is co-editor of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan analysis of state legislative and congressional elections. Lost in the aftermath of September 11 was the enactment of new district lines for California’s 120 legislative districts and 53 House seats. The once-a-decade redistricting had been expected to generate political heat and partisan fireworks, but this year’s exercise passed with almost no one noticing. That’s because both political parties early on agreed that this year the reapportionment process would be a status quo redistricting in which each party kept the existing number of seats. It was, in effect, a bipartisan...

I've been getting calls about the various ballot propositions for the Special Election. Here's how I see them: Proposition 73: Parental Notification for Abortion. If parental consent is required for a child to use a tanning booth or get her ears pierced, shouldn’t parents at least be notified if she’s getting an abortion? YES. Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, this should be the all-time no-brainer. Proposition 74: Teacher Tenure. Do parents have a right to expect a higher level of competence before a teacher is granted life-time tenure? YES. This modest measure simply increases the teacher probation period from two...

Former Gov. Pete Wilson's one-time finance director has filmed a television advertisement blasting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget initiative - prompting a response Tuesday by Wilson that his former appointee has developed a case of "amnesia." In the ad that began airing last week, the state's former budget chief, Craig Brown, said that Proposition 76, scheduled for the Nov. 8 special election ballot, "doesn't fix the budget or stop new taxes." Moreover, Brown said the governor's budget measure "destroys our system of checks and balances." "This isn't reform," Brown said in the ad. On Tuesday, Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team fired back,...

'Curtain up! Light the lights! You got nothing to hit but the heights!" Arnold Schwarzenegger might not sound like Ethel Merman, but he's belting out her song as the curtain rises on the November special election. He's gambling as Merman puts it in the 1960's Broadway hit "Gypsy," that his "lucky star is due." And soon we'll know whether "everything's coming up roses" for Arnold and the GOP. With a month to go until the Nov. 8 vote, the oddest thing about this election is that it is not really about the four initiatives he's endorsed, nor the four others...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - To help promote his "year of reform" ballot initiatives, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has turned to one of the best known political reformers on the national stage - Arizona Sen. John McCain. The Republicans will campaign together Monday for the measures Schwarzenegger is promoting on the Nov. 8 ballot, Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Todd Harris said. McCain has endorsed the four initiatives favored by the governor, which would curb the power of the Democrat-controlled Legislature and their allied public employee unions. "John McCain is known for two things - one is being a reformer, and the other is...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Common Cause and two other political reform groups on Wednesday endorsed Proposition 77, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to take the power to draw legislative and congressional districts away from the Legislature. "The current system, where self-interested politicians are responsible for drawing political boundaries, is rotten to the core," said Chellie Pingree, national president of Washington, D.C.-based Common Cause. "It's time to get the fox out of the henhouse and to put an end to California's rigged system of elections." Proposition 77, one of eight measures on California's Nov. 8 special election ballot, would give the power to...

Listening to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speak last week, in an early evening interview session at his celebrated courtyard cigar tent, he sounded at times like the fellow who ran for governor two years ago: Lots of optimism, big dreams, a sense of possibility. He talked of a vision to "create this huge boon and have cranes everywhere." He said he is growing impatient with the slow pace of government, relating with mock astonishment a recent conversation with House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Schwarzenegger had asked Hastert how long it had taken to pass a recent bill that got through Congress. "He...

Revving up his campaign to reclaim the political initiative in California, Governor Schwarzenegger addressed a bipartisan crowd of 1,000 people at the Orange County Forum on September 26. In his prepared remarks, he urged the crowd to support his four reform measures on the November 8 special election, Propositions 74 through 77. He then detailed why Prop. 76, the Budget Reform initiative, was deserving of support, specifically countering the false claims made by the union-sponsored attack ads. He asserted that two-thirds of the governors in America have similar powers to reduce spending in line with revenue if the legislature refuses...

A hotly disputed study of Proposition 77's likely effects concluded Monday that California's redistricting initiative would produce an additional 11 competitive seats in the Legislature and 10 in Congress. The Rose Institute study, likely to become a centerpiece of debate over Proposition 77, was immediately touted by supporters of the initiative as a boost to their campaign and by opponents as one-sided propaganda. The 36-page study, using computer modeling, predicted that passage of Proposition 77 in the Nov. 8 election would boost the number of competitive seats in California politics to: * Ten in the U.S. House of Representatives, compared...

Former Silicon Valley Rep. Tom Campbell brought the fight over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives to San Jose on Wednesday, warning members of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce that new taxes are "highly likely" if a proposal to curb government spending is not passed by voters in the Nov. 8 special election. Last week Campbell announced he was taking an unpaid two-month leave from his job as the state finance director to campaign for Proposition 76, a proposed state spending cap. "This is the most important thing I can do for our state," Campbell said at a round-table discussion...

Has California's biggest political pitchman lost his punch? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's folks say "no," but Democrats and unions are betting big money -- and votes -- that the onetime Hollywood he-man has turned into just another Sacramento girlie man. The issue: his ability in the next several weeks to sell voters on his "reform" package. The stakes: everything from extending teacher tenure and giving the governor increased budget clout to redrawing the state's spaghetti-like political lines. The question: Do voters still believe Arnold? According to polling by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, it's a serious issue. Surveys show...