I'm sorry Arnold's had such a politically turbulent time and some truly awful advice. I imagine there's still a chance he can recover and be reelected. It really comes down to giving Democrats a solid lock on the state with their nominee becoming governor or having opportunities to hold them at bay with Arnold. As I see it, it doesn't matter what Republican is in power, the unions will treat him (or her) just as nastily as they've treated Arnold.
And as I've mentioned elsewhere, Labor're replicating their 2005 assault locally locally now with attacks on the San Diego mayor for suggesting voters be able to decide if public employees should have to compete with the private sector for providing services in an effort to avoid bankruptcy due to out of control pensions.
Will conservatives stay home, vote, or move out of state?
Probably correct but the effectiveness of their assault would be another matter.
In round one, the Austrian pulled a bonehead move. He attacked the union rank and file instead of the institution or its leadership. The Austrian delivered a gift from the gods to union leadership and they used it effectively.
Many pundits attribute the Austrian's mistake to political amateurism. I don't. I attribute it to the Austrian's core beliefs in the fraternal goodness of the union movement. When his large donors demanded he attack, he couldn't bring himself to lash out at the institution. Instead, he lashed out at teachers and nurses waving ad homenim venom in his face. From his perspective the institutional concept was righteous, but the evil folks directly confronting him, who had corrupted the tradition, were the problem.
A right thinking conservative would have embraced the mob and engaged them. A right thinking conservative would have listened to their grievances and consoled them, pointing out how good, reasonable, hardworking folks had been snookered by Barbara Kerr into becoming a political tool benefiting the union management and not the rank and file.