Arnold Schwarzenegger Watch: First California Lady Maria Shriver NOW Interviewing Potential Candidates for Senior Staff
Governor and First Lady Schwarzenegger voting at polls, November 8, 2005.
The Los Angeles Times and Dog Trainer has Results Unsettle Gov.’s Supporters.
On a day of fierce recriminations, Republican allies and friends of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared shaken Wednesday by the collapse of his agenda in this week’s special election, saying he needs to recapture the confidence of voters by jettisoning some of his political advisors.
Among those distressed by the direction of the governor’s administration is First Lady Maria Shriver, who is interviewing potential candidates for senior staff jobs in the governor’s office, according to people familiar with the matter.
As rumors swirled, names surfaced of people who might be asked to join Schwarzenegger in high-level jobs. They included Democrats; one was Susan Kennedy, a California Public Utilities Commission member who had been a top aide to former Gov. Gray Davis. She declined to comment.
The Governor needs to reflect upon the words of sage and blogger Hugh Hewitt:
1. Clear out the left from inside the “horseshoe,” the Governor’s offices inside the Capitol.
2. Bring in some senior advisors with pedigrees on the right and listen to them. Ask Bruce Herchensohn to spend a couple of days a week in the offices, as a “minsiter without portfolio.” You don’t have to do a thing he recommends, but there is no more respected figure on the California right than Bruce. Associated with Bruce, but also with Reagan, is Ken Khachigian. Ask Ken to take up a post somewhere on the battlements. And raid Hoover –get Peter Robinson to convene a three day idea-fest with the folks who haven’t spent their lives trading quarter percents with Sacramento’s lobbyists.
If you are going to appoint Democrats to the bench –even one–don’t ask me to get excited about your re-election.