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November 09, 2005
It's Time for the Governator to Be a Politician Again
Every statewide initiative on the California ballot lost. And Governor Schwarzenegger's proposals lost by wide margins. In fact the more they seemed to be supportive of the tools he thought he need to govern the greater the margin of the loss. Here are the results of his initiatives as of 6:12 this morning:
Proposition 74 - Teacher Tenure
Yes Votes - 2,986,287 Percentage - 44.9
No Votes - 3,662,429 Percentage - 55.1
10.2 point difference
Proposition 75 - Public Union Dues
Yes Votes - 3,091,713 Percentage - 46.5
No Votes - 3,550,563 Percentage - 53.5
7 point differenceProposition 76 - Spending/Funding
Yes Votes - 2,521,709 Percentage - 37.9
No Votes - 4,114,787 Percentage - 62.1
24.2 point differenceProposition 77 - Redistricting
Yes Votes - 2,672,882 Percentage - 40.5
No Votes - 3,919,919 Percentage - 59.5
19 point difference
All four of these initiatives had significant intuitive appeal. I think they lost for three reasons.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- George Bush
- Frightened and angered state employee trade unions
While I thought that each of the initiatives deserved to lose on its merits, I do not believe that is why they lost. After his first few months in office, the Governor stopped being a politician (that's good) and started being something else (not good). Rather than working with the State Legislature, he started working on them. Rather than working with the unions, he started working on them. In so doing, he instilled fear and anger in both these groups and a sense of personal incompetence combined with arrogance in the general public.
And despite his efforts to disassociate himself from the President physically, he was associated with Bush by way of the impression of personal incompetence combined with arrogance. In addition, whether or not the Governor lied to the teachers' union over school funding, it was easy for him to be portrayed as a liar. The fact that he engaged in almost non-stop fund raising at a greater level than his much maligned predecessor also significantly contributed to the perception of the Governor as someone who could not be trusted to do the people's business in the way the people desired. And it didn't help that he transparently chose a special election in the hope of low voter turnout. The people saw it as the expensive trick that it was.
When he stopped being a politician, he turned on the state employees unions. And he turned on them in a way that both frightened them and angered them even beyond the natural anger caused by fear. And there is nothing that motivates people like fear.
So now, it is time for Governor Schwarzenegger to go back to being a politician. He needs to work with all the people he estranged, the unions, the State Legislature's Democrats and the people to find ways within the system to solve our states problems. It is not bad to be a politician. It is politicians that get thing done in the political arena.
Posted by DuaneSmith at November 9, 2005 07:57 AM | Read more on Current Events |
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