California's Politics Heating Up

He’s hoping first and foremost that the state doesn’t undergo widespread blackouts. Blackouts, you might recall, were the very thing that launched his Democratic predecessor into the steady downward spiral that ended in his recall from office nearly three years ago. 

Politics in America’s megastate on the Pacific is heating up. And Schwarzenegger’s electoral comeback from last year’s disastrous special election  —  in which he lost all four initiatives he put on the ballot (to make it easier to fire teachers, limit union political power, redraw political districts, and get more power over the budget)  —   that nearly destroyed his high-flying new political career, highlights the biggest set of elections in the country. Returning to his centrist, mostly bipartisan ways Schwarzenegger now has a good chance of winning re-election over his Democratic challenger, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, who I’ve also known for a long time. But in a state election season in which hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent  —  an election season in which movie stars, high tech pioneers, powerful unions, and giant corporations are only some of the players  —  the governor’s race only tops the marquee in the still somewhat tarnished Golden State. 

Former Governor Jerry Brown, the two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination and current mayor of gritty Oakland, who I’ve known longer than Schwarzenegger or Angelides, is embarked on his latest incarnation as the frontrunner to become California’s state attorney general. That’s the job his father, the legendary builder of modern California, Pat Brown, won back in 1950 before he became only the second Democratic governor here in a century.

There are six other statewide offices up this year  —  along with Dianne Feinstein’s slam dunk re-election to the U.S. Senate over a hapless conservative Republican  —  but in some respects the most fascinating part of the ballot is the raft of initiatives.

California has a heritage of direct democracy  —  now frequently manipulated by special interests and big money  —  and this year’s ballot is a weighty one. Schwarzenegger and his formerly heated adversaries in the mostly Democratic state Legislature negotiated the biggest infrastructure bonds package in history, placing a massive package on the ballot of over $37 billion for transportation, education construction, repair of the state’s damaged levee system, and affordable housing along employment transportation corridors. Toss in another $5 billion in water quality and park improvement bonds that self-styled environmentalist Schwarzenegger also endorsed and you’re almost talking real money.

But that’s only the start.

There is an initiative to crack down further on child molesters and force them to wear GPS tracking devices for life even after being paroled.

There is parental notification for teenagers wanting abortions.

There is a big new cigarette tax to fund health care programs.

There is a real property parcel tax for more education funding.

There is an oil severance tax to fund alternative fuels development and fight global warming.

There is a measure to limit government’s ability to seize property through eminent domain.

And there is a “clean money” initiative to sharply cut political contributions and set up public financing of electoral campaigns. 

A dizzying array of issues and outsize personalities is on tap. And that’s just with regard to the protean Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Seriously, I’ll keep it all straight for you. And keep a focus on the fascinating saga of Schwarzenegger. 

A month after opening Terminator 3, the former action superstar parachuted into California’s crazy-quilt recall election of 2003, ousting Democratic Governor Gray Davis and winning in a landslide. In his first year, playing up his promise of bipartisanship, he became the most popular California governor in history, only to squander much of what he’d won in an ill-conceived fight against the state’s powerful and rather popular public employee unions, striking an oddly partisan Republican pose in this mostly blue state. Now he’s on the comeback trail, perhaps his biggest problem being not his Democratic opponent but his fellow Republican in the White House, who is about as popular in California as Gray Davis was when voters tossed him out of office in 2003.#