CA: Westly toughens his message .. calls Schwarzenegger's policies too conservative.

Sac Bee ^ | 4/15/05 | Alexa H. Bluth

[NormsRevenge]

State Controller Steve Westly on Thursday said he has decided to make a move toward running for governor because Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger "has taken a conservative right turn."

The former eBay executive, who will be eligible to run for re-election in his controller's post next year, announced that he is forming an exploratory committee in a first step to seek the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006.

Westly had said in the past that he did not plan to run for governor if Schwarzenegger seeks re-election. But on Thursday, Westly said that has changed.

"This year the tone and direction of his administration has changed. He's become more conservative and has become frankly harsher," Westly said. "He's beating up on nurses, teachers and firefighters - people who are important to our state - and I don't think he can turn back.

"That is why I am standing up because I think he has taken the state in the wrong direction."

By forming the committee, Westly did not formally enter the race but said, "We are certainly moving quickly in that direction."

He said he will make a final decision in the next 30 to 60 days whether to join Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides, the only person to declare his candidacy in the 2006 governor's race.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer also has said he wants to run in the Democratic primary but has not made it official.

Each of the three will appear at the California Democratic Party's statewide convention in Los Angeles this weekend, where delegates will be focused on challenging Schwarzenegger if he seeks re-election. The governor has not said whether he will run again.

[NormsRevenge]

"That is why I am standing up because I think he has taken the state in the wrong direction."

Take a number, Steve,, , after last year's duck and roll with the c'Rats over the state budget, there are many of us who feeeel the same way. ;-)

[Brilliant]

Says he's too CONSERVATIVE... I guess that shows where this guy is coming from.

[Rodentking]

The problem, of course, is he is not conservative at all. That is why he will likely not be re-elected. The people who voted Gray Davis out were tired of the SoS. Here S+13 is with another order of SoS.

[ken21]

how could california get any worse than gov grey davis' prison union suck up?

or indian tribe suck up?

or the senor davis' first trip after he was sworn in, to see his boss el presidente fox in mexico city?

[Brilliant]

Well, I don't know about that... I think he might be a bit too conservative for the average Californian. Truth is that he's the most conservative CA governor since Reagan. In fact, I'm not sure that CA has had any politician who won a statewide election who was that conservative since Reagan.

But you are right he ain't a conservative.

[Wiseghy]

""He's beating up on nurses, teachers and firefighters - people who are important to our state"

You're right, the libs and labor unions are the one's who REALLY run our state. Let's turn it back over to them! /sar.

[Carry_Okie]

Just think, if the CAGOP had supported Tom McClintock's candidacy, he would be controller now.

[Carry_Okie]

Truth is that he's the most conservative CA governor since Reagan.

Both Wilson and Deukmejian were more conservative.

[NormsRevenge]

if the CAGOP had supported Tom McClintock's candidacy, he would be controller now.

sigh..

another irony will be if the Gub runs next year and Tom wins Lt Gub and ... the initiative to neuter the Lt Gub position passes as well.. and a dem wins the Gub seat.

Stranger things have happened. ;-)

[GOP_1900AD]

RE: "has taken a conservative right turn."

When a Rat says that a RINO is too conservative, then I would judge the Rat who said it to be a freakin' Communist!

[Brilliant]

Both Wilson and Deukmejian were RINOs. It's a matter of opinion whether either was more conservative than Schwartzenegger.

[Carry_Okie]

It's a matter of opinion whether either was more conservative than Schwartzenegger.

It's a matter of public record. Here's my current list of Arnold's "accomplishments":

• He supported a Sierra Nevada Conservancy that Gray Davis vetoed, authored by a socialist from Santa Cruz.
• He has a appointed member of the Sierra Club hierarchy to the CalEPA.
• His hydrogen fuels program is a thinly veiled corporate agricultural scam.
• He didn't lift a finger to stop gay marriage and has signed "domestic partners" legislation that violates in spirit, if not in letter, Proposition 22.
• He continues to negotiate with Cedillo on drivers' licenses for illegals.
• The prison guards rolled him completely for a pittance now in return for more later.
• He "negotiated" minute concessions from the universities in return for more money later.
• He grabbed revenues from cities and counties with a promise to return it later.
• He "negotiated" a minute reduction in workman's comp premiums when all he had to do was copy Arizona's plan and put it on the ballot.
• He signed SB 50.
• He's raising more campaign money faster than Davis ever did, INCLUDING from the tribes he swore he would never solicit. In return for that he got a pittance compared to his the amount of gambling revenue he was boasting he would get. My bet is that the revenue won't even offset the direct cost of State social programs to deal with the results of gambling. Instead, he is well on his way to implementing organized gambling statewide.
• His planned "deregulation" of electrical rates has totally ignored the illegal contracts Davis' people negotiated under a conflict of interest.
• He used his popularity to foist a constitutional amendment that makes it possible for the State to balance a budget by borrowing and called it "cutting up the credit cards." From McClintock's analysis of 58 (http://republican.sen.ca.gov/web/mcclintock/article_detail.asp?PID=262): "The second assumption is that Proposition 58 “tears up the credit cards” to assure the state never borrows to balance its budget again. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Proposition 58 made no practical change in current law beyond suspending the oldest provision of the state constitution that for 154 years has prevented exactly the kind of borrowing that Proposition 57 now begins. "Under the “Balanced Budget Amendment,” a balanced budget is whatever the legislature says it is. Every one of the budgets that got California into financial difficulty was defined by the legislature as “balanced.” California’s budget deficits are the result of uncontrolled spending and dishonest accounting -- and the short-term borrowing to cover them -- and Proposition 58 does nothing to change that."
• He opposed Prop 54 (Racial Privacy), calling Ward Connerly et al., "Right wing crazies."
• He didn't support the Save Our State initiative.
• He abandoned the spending cap.
• He endorsed Proposition 68 supporting open primaries, a proposal similar to Louisiana's famously corrupt election system.
• He backed the $3 Billion Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Proposition 71
• He tried to co-optTed Costa's effort to give California a just reapportionment system with one of his own and then quietly dumped his highly publicized effort in favor of Costa’s.
• He appointed a socialist labor activist to run the State Employment Development Department
• He appointed a person who advocates tracking every mile you drive and charging you for it as head of the DMV.
• On the plus side he appointed a talented auditor, Donna Arduin, to be Finance Director, but then didn't listen to her.
• He killed the Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority.
• He appointed Tom Campbell to be Finance Director. We'll see if Arnold listens to him.
• He appointed Nancy Drinkard to the Board of Forestry (an outstanding candidate).

So, please tell me how Arnold is a conservative.

[Brilliant]

I never said he was a conservative. I said he was more conservative than his precessors, which ain't sayin' much.