Posted on 07/22/2006 9:47:29 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NORWALK, Calif. - Ask Arely Gonzales about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the 27-year-old nurse sums him up in a word: "Awful."
"He cut the budget for the schools," Gonzales said. Her answer is not unusual in this heavily Hispanic section of Los Angeles County. Mentioning the Republican governor elicits an almost invariably negative opinion about him.
The harsh views illustrate how far Schwarzenegger's star has fallen among Hispanics since the heady days of the 2003 recall election, when he won 32 percent of their vote. That accomplishment was magnified because his main Democratic opponent was Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Hispanic.
Today, polls indicate Schwarzenegger's support among Hispanic voters is much lower as he seeks re-election. A recent survey by San Jose State University found 58 percent supported his Democratic rival, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, while just 12 percent supported the governor.
Other polls put his support higher, but not to his 2003 levels. The Field Poll had it at 23 percent in April and the Public Policy Institute of California put it at 26 percent in May.
Schwarzenegger strategist Matthew Dowd said Hispanics are a key part of the coalition the governor needs to win re-election. Dowd said the governor will recover the support he had among Hispanics in the recall on the basis of issues that also appeal to other voters: education and the strong economy.
This week, Schwarzenegger began courting Hispanics with a show of support at a Mexican restaurant in Lynwood, south of Los Angeles.
But even there, he stepped on his own message by repeating his support for the Minutemen, a volunteer militia that has patrolled the Arizona border with Mexico, infuriating many Hispanic leaders.
The governor's slide among Hispanics has been tied in part to his support of the group a year ago on a Los Angeles talk radio station. It was widely repeated in the Spanish-language media, and his advisers said they have had trouble getting beyond it to draw attention to what he has done to improve the lives of Hispanics.
But in this working class neighborhood, where many residents own modest homes, rely on the public school system and are beginning to send a first generation of children to college, voters often did not remember the Minutemen episode.
They were focused almost singly on education, blaming him for cutting money to schools, repeating the California Teachers Association's arguments.
The union lashed out at him last year after he reneged on a promise to pay public schools money they temporarily gave up to help with the state budget deficit. Although the governor has since restored the money, almost no one interviewed gave him credit for doing it.
Instead, they said he could not be counted on to support education — typically the top issue for Hispanic voters, followed closely by health care.
Gonzales, the nurse, said the governor's decision to repay schools this year was "just a trick he has up his sleeve, so he can get the voters to vote for him, especially the Spanish population."
Hispanics make up just 14 percent of the California electorate, but they are the fastest growing group and in recent years have tipped elections toward Democrats. While white voters have more or less split their support between the two major parties, Hispanics have voted overwhelmingly Democratic.
Dowd said Hispanic opinions about Schwarzenegger are improving along with those of other voters, despite what the San Jose State poll found.
The governor's advisers say that for a Republican to win in Democratic-leaning California, he still needs a third of Hispanics along with a majority of white votes. To that end, Schwarzenegger has embarked on a series of campaign and state-sponsored events designed to win coverage in the Spanish-language media. He also has hired Hispanics in his state office as well as his campaign.
In Norwalk, where the governor's stock is so low, some Hispanic voters have come back to his side.
Fernando Vasquez, 52, a groundskeeper for the city of South Gate, voted for Schwarzenegger during the recall but got turned off by last year's special election because he believed that propositions the governor sponsored would have hurt schools. Vasquez has since forgiven him.
"Probably I'm going to vote for him — if he doesn't do anything crazy again," he said.
What's a conservative to do?
Liberals call conservatives extremists and Republicans partisans refer to them as Ilk.
Democrats on the left will never get the conservative vote and Republicans are going to have a hard time in November with 15% of the electorate MIA as a result of vitriolic, partisan insults.
Good job Republicans. Excellent example of how to court your largest plurality of traditional supporters when you're already in the minority.
1. Hello America. You lost a LONG time ago. You failed to stand up and DEMAND that your politicians do something about illegal immigration.
2. You aborted your race into oblivion. Hispanics by and large don't do that.
3. You became complacent and lazy and were unwilling to do work you considered beneath your dignity.
Thanks. The ilk would love to get 15% of conservatives staying home, that is your goal. Good thing the fifth columnist ilk herd only appeal to 1.5% of conservatives. The remainder have enough gray matter to see through the ilk facade.
Good news and bad news:
The Good News (for California): The Ilk probably won't vote for a liberal Republican and certainly are urging Republicans to vote ... for a conservative.
The Bad News (for the CAGOP): During the last gubernatorial election, October 2003, the Ilk comprised about 15% of the electorate that exercised their franchise. Not about 15% of conservatives or not about 15% of Republicans but, according to the CSS, about 15% of the total votes cast for governor.
For those from Rio Linda or out of state, these contemporary stats means that the Ilk represent about 1/3 of registered Republicans in California and they obviously weren't happy with the Austrian then or the CAGOP now. Even mainstream, California, Republican supporteres/commentators like Jon Fleischman aren't happy with the Austrian's liberal forays.
Good luck and don't forget to clean up the mess when the big tent collapses.
I know we won't be able to count on the ilk for help. Your specialty is collapse!
15% of the electorate are lying phonies, pretending to be conservatives in order to cause division? I don't think so. The ilk herd are disruptor's, fifth columnists, deceivers.
Who is "we"? The CAGOP?
Help doing what? Giving support to La Raza? Going into Bondage to the tune of $6 billion for infant stem cell boondoggles? Papering over the state budget deficit with borrowed money, year after year? Trying to push another $87 billion in bonds thru that have already been earmarked for pork and patronage projects? Packing more Dem partisans onto the benches (not to mention the Governor's office)?
What exactly is the CAGOP asking for help with? Because very little of what the Gov is doing appears to have much to do with advancing conservative issues. I'll be voting, because there are down ticket candidates and issues, but if Arnold wants my chad, then he better by hell start pandering to me instead of Villaraigosa's flying monkeys.
Isn't that a shame. At one time conservatives were the most dependable constituency in the Republican Party. Today's GOP has abandoned conservatives and is pressing on with its liberal causes.
Conservatives inside the GOP are only recognized by the MSM to discredit the GOP. I wonder where conservatives will go?
Most probably they'll continue to support conservative candidates and causes and continue to work against liberals and liberalism. The irony is that many of the candidates that they'll refuse to support are within the Republican Party.
Stupid ilk.
Welcome to our forum. Freepers can only hope that if Republicans regularly participate they may, some day, become conservatives.
In the meantime, welcome, but expect partisan promotion of liberals, championing liberal pursuits and philosophic pragmatism/nihilism to be challenged by the membership on the California Topic.
Also be mindful that attacks on conservatives, in their own house, does little but strengthen their resolve. "See I told you so!"; is a common reaction from Freepers when partisan Republican vitriol is used to condemn those who won't conform to the political party dictate of the day.
You aren't a conservative, you regularly suggest support for demoncraps, you constantly try to reduce numbers who would vote for conservatives and you aren't the base. Your advice would do nothing but cost us elections. You are the one the wants conservatives to be thought of as your (stupid) ilk. This isn't your house, either, as you're one of the pretenders. Let me know when you can coalesce, rather than divide. Therein is the evidence you are not a fifth columnist disruptor.
No surprise. Happens to Republican partisans and especially moderate, Republican loyalists when they visit FreeRepublic.
Partisans lack core values, simply supporting party over principle. Partisans will support any candidate, regardless of that candidate's governing philosophy and historic actions, as long as that candidate is sponsored by the party.
Moderates can't understand that being against raising taxes isn't necessarily conservative. Moderates absolutely believe that verbal opposition to raising taxes is conservative, when in fact, it's pure moderation. Conservatives seek to reduce taxation. Conservatives advocate a reduction in taxation and actually reduce taxation.
Partisans would never consider voting for a member of an opposition party even if that opposition party's candidate's values were perfectly aligned with those of the partisan. From the perspective of the blind partisan, voting for a member of an opposition party is simple heresy.
Moderates spend a great deal of their time seeking consensus and have few values that they won't compromise to reach an amicable settlement of a pressing matter. Revolt is simply not in their political lexicon. They will join patriots on the barricades only if drug kicking and screaming from the comfort of their homes.
Blind partisans are retisant to act on their own behalf to pursue what is personally best for them as an individual. They instead, prefer to seek the comfort and guidance of others, typically party leaders, because they aren't confident of their own judgment and feel overwhelmed by political decisions. They prefer a collective process rather than a democratic process. Partisans have trouble accepting defeat in a democratic environment.
You're projecting, faux-conservative.
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