Shrewd Move

15 June 2005



Schwarzenegger Calls Special Election for Reform

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, announced on Monday that he was appealing over the heads of the legislature and taking his reform package directly to the people of the state. He wants to put a spending cap in place, which would undo minimum funding levels for schools that a 2000 referendum enacted, to have retired judges and not legislators draw electoral boundaries and extend the time teachers need to put in before winning tenure from 2 to 5 years. Even if he loses, it is a stroke of political genius.

In general, the Republican Party understands far better than the Democrats the value of losing on contentious issues in the run up to an election. Core and swing voters are both more likely to turn up and vote if the great issues of the day have not been settled. Far more energizing is a close vote on a divisive matter that results in no real solution. For that reason, the GOP is pushing judicial appointments and the Ten Commandments – if they win, great, and if they lose, they can raise money and march the voters to the polling stations because their values are under threat. The Democrats only caught onto this in 2004, and they have much ground to cover before they catch up to the GOP.

In California, the situation is ever better suited to the governor’s goals. First, he can get his core to circulate petitions and get a referendum scheduled. Second, he can decide exactly how to frame the question, which means framing the debate. Third, he gets to spend months slamming the Democratic-controlled legislature for its unwillingness to act (although, it may be quite diligent on other matters).

Where matters get dicey for Mr. Schwarzenegger is in overturning previous referenda. Telling the people that the legislature is not doing its job is one thing. Telling the voters they got it wrong earlier is a different kind of sale. The school minimum spending idea was meant to fix the state’s education system. Now that the money is getting tight, he must return to the people with “Yes, but . . .” Or as he put it, “How can we just stand around while our debt grows by billions and billions of dollars?” Despite having lived in America for so long and being a citizen for years, he still has the rather un-American idea that the debt has to be addressed by this generation. How quaint.

California’s Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said in response to the announcement of the special election, “This special election is not about the legislature. It's about the governor wanting to star in another war movie. Only this is a war he alone has started." One bets it’s a war he wins, either way the election turns out.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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