California Special Election Watch: Ballot Measures Crucial for California Reform
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger responds to questions during the Special Election Showdown, at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, Calif., Monday Oct. 24, 2005. Schwarzenegger and state Sen. Don Perata and others appeared at the forum to discuss issues in California’s upcoming election.
The ASSociated Press has Schwarzenegger: Special Election Crucial.
Defending his November special election before an audience of voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday the ballot initiatives are crucial to continue changes he launched 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.
“We need reform. We have a broken system. That’s why you sent me to Sacramento — to fix the broken system,” he said. “Please give me the tools.”
He contended his policies have created 400,000 new jobs and billions in new revenue.
The 90-minute forum in the east San Francisco Bay area was the first time Schwarzenegger sat for an extended time to field unscripted questions from an audience not chosen by his staff.
Dan Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee was live-blogging the event.
We’ll have to see if anybody’s watching this forum or will watch others if they are held. But if the governor is smart, he’ll barnstorm the state and do them in every city. Most voters haven’t seen Schwarzenegger since the campaign, other than in brief snips on the news. They’ve seen and heard him portrayed as an ogre, a bully, an idiot. But his command of the issues is far better than it was two years ago, and he can articulately make his case for his measures, even in the face of tough questions from voters who disagree with him. He relied on his stump speech material at times, but he wasn’t overly scripted. He mixed in humor. He used anecdotes to make his points. He wasn’t perfect. But he was close to it. His opponents weren’t terrible, but they were what they were: defenders of the status quo. If two-thirds of Californians think the state is going in the wrong direction, they’re not likely to be convinced by these folks that everything is just fine.
Sacramento Bee Columnist Dan Walters and Proposition 77’s Steve Poizner, Photo Courtesy of Dan Weintraub
The Governor is performing well and although he has already won the special election, he may be initiating a new era in California governance.
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Cross-posted to the Bear Flag League Special Election Page