Free Republic

...Whitman doubts she will ever again run for elected office, and for many months she said little about the campaign. But she has started popping up recently on radio and TV. For a beaten candidate who wishes to remain relevant in politics – Whitman is advising Republican front-runner Mitt Romney in his presidential campaign, and she plans to involve herself in California ballot initiatives – it helps to stay in view. (snip) She said she plans to support ballot initiatives perhaps as early as this summer, likely involving education policy. She said she will recruit and support Republican candidates for...

Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman said Monday that she would place pension cutbacks on the ballot if negotiations with state workers fail and would consider using her personal fortune not only to win office but to advance her agenda if elected. Taking the issue to voters is "not my first choice," she told The Bee's editorial board. "But if we have to … this is an issue we have got to take up." The former eBay CEO and billionaire said she "possibly" would put her own money behind a ballot measure campaign. "My preference would be to raise the money,...

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Oil billionaires David and Charles Koch have jumped on board an effort to suspend California's global warming law by making a million-dollar contribution this week. A subsidiary of Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries, the nation's second-largest private company with oil refineries and pipelines, made a $1 million contribution Thursday to the campaign for Proposition 23. It joins two Texas-based companies, Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp., in backing the measure.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today denounced Proposition 25, which would lower the legislative vote margin for state budgets from two-thirds to a simple majority, and declared that it's a back-door attempt to make it easier to raise taxes. Schwarzenegger,speaking to a business group in Goleta, responded "absolutely no" when asked about his position on the measure, placed on the ballot by Democrats and unions, and then added, "I believe this is also...a majority vote for tax increases."

If marijuana was legal for adults in California, would more people show up at work high? And how would that change the definition of a "smoke break" during work hours? That's the latest issue facing proponents of Proposition 19, the ballot measure that would make marijuana legal for adults in California. Voters will have a chance in November to decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes for adults over 21 but the political debate over the controversial issue has been heating up for quite some time. The latest argument against the ballot measure is that given the legal freedom...

Sacramento - Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman said Wednesday that she probably will vote against a November ballot initiative that would suspend AB32, California's landmark greenhouse gas reduction law. Whitman, appearing on the conservative John and Ken radio show on KFI in Southern California, said, "In all likelihood I will vote no on Prop. 23," adding that she still backs a one-year moratorium that she would impose if elected. Proposition 23 would suspend AB32 until unemployment drops to 5.5 percent or lower for a year. Whitman had been pressed on the issue but had not stated her position on the...

A Sacramento judge on Tuesday ordered Attorney General Jerry Brown to reword a ballot initiative that would roll back the state's landmark climate change law. In a ruling Tuesday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley agreed with measure proponents charging that Brown's office used misleading language when it drafted the initiative, Proposition 23. As the Democratic candidate for governor, Brown opposes Proposition 23 and supports the state's climate change law, AB 32. Frawley said use of the term "major polluters" in election materials carried negative connotations with voters and ordered Brown's office to use the less loaded term "major sources...

Two propositions on the November ballot could create a $1-billion hole in California's already beleaguered budget by undoing one of the few agreements that lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have struck this year to shrink the deficit. Tucked into both measures, written before the budget agreement, are provisions that apply retroactively to all of 2010. Opponents are now accusing the special interests behind the initiatives of pressing their agendas at the expense of the state. "These two initiatives are Exhibits A and B as to why the initiative process needs to be reformed," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg...

SAN FRANCISCO — California's high court on Monday upheld the state's 14-year-old law barring preferential treatment of women and minorities in public school admissions, government hiring and contracting. In a 6-1 ruling, the state Supreme Court rejected arguments from the city of San Francisco and Attorney General Jerry Brown that the law, known as Proposition 209, violates federal equality protections. Opponents of the ban say it creates barriers for minorities and women that don't exist for other groups, such as veterans seeking preference. The ruling written by Justice Kathryn Werdegar came in response to lawsuits filed by white contractors challenging...

In a stunning reversal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Tuesday he would attempt to pull an $11.1 billion water bond off the November ballot and instead ask voters to approve it two years from now. The governor said the delay was needed to focus on the budget, but the economic climate and persistent criticism of the bond's cost was making the measure a tough sell.

Regulation: An initiative to suspend California's draconian climate law has qualified for the November ballot. The people can now choose between jobs and junk science and fight hot air at the ballot box. Thomas Jefferson once said that when people fear the government, there is tyranny, but when government fears the people, there is liberty. And right now there are politicians and bureaucrats in Sacramento who are at least very concerned. An initiative to suspend Assembly Bill 32 officially qualified for the ballot last week by gathering more than 800,000 signatures, far more than the 433,971 required. Those who signed...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - An initiative that seeks to suspend California's landmark global warming law until unemployment drops will appear on the November election ballot. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen certified the initiative on Tuesday. It's the sixth proposition to qualify for the ballot. The California Jobs Initiative seeks to delay the state's global warming law until the unemployment rate falls from its current rate of 12.4 percent to 5.5 percent or lower and stays there for a year.

In case anyone missed the tea leaves scattered around the country, California’s primary results offer more evidence of voters’ dislike for political parties. The Golden State on Tuesday passed Proposition 14, creating a so-called open primary in which any voter is allowed to cast their vote for any candidate in the primary, regardless of party affiliation. The top two vote-getters would face each other in the general election, even if they were from the same party. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a big backer of the change, arguing that it would push politics away from the polarized extremes and toward a...

New poll finds only 33 percent of Americans favor, a 9-point drop since April The number of Americans who support same-sex marriage has plunged over the last few months, according to a new poll. The CBS News/New York Times study found that 33 percent of respondents favor same-sex marriage. That represents a 9 percent drop since April. Everett Rice, legislative coordinator for the California Family Council, said he has a theory about the decrease. "People really recognize their core and their values, their heritage," he said. "When people want to go in and redefine that, it really goes against everybody's...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today told a federal court in San Francisco that the state does not dispute that Proposition 8 may violate the federal Constitution and called for quick action to resolve the legality of the ant-gay measure law. "Plaintiffs' complaint presents important constitutional questions that require and warrant judicial determination," the governor said in a written response to a federal challenge of the anti-gay marriage ballot measure. " In a constitutional democracy, it is the role of the courts to determine and resolve such questions. … The administration encourages the court to resolve the merits of this action expeditiously."...

Two of California's top pollsters said Tuesday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some lawmakers are miscasting last month's special election as a clarion call against any new taxes to solve California's fiscal crisis. Instead, pollsters Mark DiCamillo and Mark Baldassare characterized the May 19 vote against five budget measures as an order to a dysfunctional state government to fix California's budget mess – and do so quickly. "We've heard a lot of people say the vote means 'no new taxes.' I would question that," said Baldassare, survey director for the Public Policy Institute of California, in the pollsters' joint appearance...

With the ink barely dry on the California Supreme Court's decision upholding a ban on same-sex marriages, proponents are already preparing new political and legal efforts to overturn the ban. But at least some pollsters and legal experts think those efforts may be too soon to have a good chance to succeed. "I think the pro-side would have a significant challenge in 2010," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll. "I think it would be less of a challenge in 2012." DiCamillo's observation was echoed by Mark Baldassare, director of research at the Public Policy Institute of California. "It...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger considers himself a glass-half-full guy, and he ended his California Small Business Day speech in Sacramento with a dose of optimism. But it seemed clear the governor has just about had it with California's governance system, especially after last week's special election was a colossal failure. Though he blamed many of the state's budget problems on the current economic collapse, he said part of our woes are "self-inflicted." "California hasn't had a responsible fiscal system since Earl Warren in the late '40s and early '50s," he said. The governor ticked off a number of complaints about the...

California is facing economic failure resulting from years of a liberal legislature pursuing a liberal version of utopia. The liberal utopia has become the Forgotten Man's hell. California has been at the forefront of many trends in America including a tax revolt that led to Proposition 13. Is it time for a repeat? Californians have just given the raspberry to the state's legislature's plan to fix the current budget deficit. Had the initiatives passed, California would only be under water by $15B as opposed to the current $21B, and that number is sure to rise as unemployment in the state...

CALIFORNIA FINDS itself in more than a bit of a bind: Facing at least a $21 billion budget deficit, the state could run out of money in a matter of weeks. Borrowing to help fill the hole will be challenging and expensive, given that California has the lowest credit rating of all 50 states. Last week's warning by Standard and Poor's to Britain about a possible debt downgrade will make risky government borrowing even more difficult. The state would like to see Uncle Sam pick up part of the tab; but as steeped in the bailout business as the feds...

... Like other states, California is suffering from a collapse in tax revenues brought on by the recession. Unlike other states, it suffers from severely dysfunctional politics, including gridlock-inducing budget procedures and a deeply anti-tax strain that plays itself out in endless voter referenda, dating back to the Proposition 13 property tax cap from the 1970s. As a result, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared recently that more tax increases are politically impossible. Yet, his proposed spending cuts are also unappealing, if not impossible, including slashing education and health care funds and releasing prison inmates early. What the Obama administration should make...

By a nearly two to one margin, California voters rejected the “compromise” tax hike propositions put on the ballot by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and the Democratic majority of the state assembly. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) called voters’ rejection of the measures “a tragic error.” “It’s a demonstration of lack of trust in those of us charged with governing this state,” Bass said. “We tried to minimize the pain. Now, it will be severe.” “Now we will get to see how voters like having their kids home early from school, paying for their own medicine, dodging the thousands...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and many leading California politicians have been warning of dire consequences if the state's voters rejected their five budget-related initiatives on Tuesday's ballot. The combination of so-called reforms and large tax increases wouldn't have come close to fixing the states' problems even if they passed, according to the governor's own budget projections, so voters should shrug off any of the blame politicians are laying at our feet. Legislators and the governor are hired, so to speak, to deal with the government's budget, and they are the ones who continue to fail at their jobs. It is clichéd,...

As bad as California's budget crisis is for the state's $1.8-trillion economy, just wait. It could get worse. The spectacle that played out in the national media this week of a state unable to get its fiscal act together is reinforcing the notion that the Golden State is a rotten place to do business, experts say. Corporate leaders and Wall Street investors, watching the daily festival of seeming incompetence, political partisanship and governmental dysfunction, could be persuaded to limit or eliminate their investments here. ... The budget crisis threatens to further weaken the state's job market, which lost 63,700 more...

Americans should look carefully at the anti-politician, anti-government mood exhibited in California this week. Just as Proposition 13 and the anti-tax movement of 1978 were the forerunners of the Reagan presidential victory, so the results of Tuesday's vote are a harbinger of things to come. The repudiation of the California establishment in the series of initiative defeats could hardly have been more decisive. Five taxing and spending measures were rejected by 62.6 to 66.4 percent of the voters. That is a consistent majority of enormous potential. An even larger majority, 73.9 percent, approved the proposition limiting elected officials' salaries when...

SACRAMENTO - Not that Gov. Schwarzenegger and state legislators needed any more bad news, but the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office Thursday said the state's budget deficit looks to be more than $24 billion. The governor's Department of Finance just last week had pegged the shortfall at $21.3 billion if a package of budget-related ballot measures went down in Tuesday's election, which they did. The analyst said it calculations indicate the number may be $3 billion higher. In unusually frank language, the analyst also sounded an alarm over a major element of the governor's plan to rebalance the state's budget. A...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that he and lawmakers will try to quickly solve the state's $21.3 billion deficit without taxes, gimmicks or much borrowing. The Republican governor told reporters after a prayer breakfast in the capital that voters sent state leaders a clear message during Tuesday's special election: Live within your means. Schwarzenegger said he took that as a sign voters want more cuts to state programs. He also has proposed selling state assets such as San Quentin State Prison, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and CalExpo, the state fairgrounds in Sacramento. "All of us have to do the...

Tuesday night was tough for Sacramento: State lawmakers were handed a decisive defeat as voters rejected a series of ballot initiatives that would have allowed lawmakers to raise taxes and raid designated state funds to close a massive hole in the budget. Now the state legislature must work with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to craft a budget that reduces spending to levels that neither wants to accept. Their only alternative is to beg President Obama for a bailout on top of the stimulus funds Congress has already approved. Proposition 1A offered the carrot of a spending cap in exchange for the...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California's struggle to fund its budget deficit faced fresh problems on Thursday, after U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner refused to use bank bailout money to help state finances, and the state's fiscal watchdog objected to a plan to sell warrants to raise cash. California faces thousands of job cuts and deep spending cuts to state health, education and other services as the nationwide economic slump has reduced tax revenues. On Wednesday, voters soundly defeated ballot measures to bolster the state's finances, leaving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers facing a budget gap of more than $21 billion. Early...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner expressed skepticism Thursday that he could help California out of its budget crisis without congressional action, raising the prospects of a battle on Capitol Hill, where even the states own delegation is split. Just days after California voters rejected a series of state-budget ballot measures, debate erupted in Washington over whether the federal government should provide a loan guarantee that Golden State officials say they need to avert a cash crisis. Geithner was barely in his seat at a congressional hearing on an unrelated subject when Texas Congressman John A. Culberson, a Republican, asked: "Mr. Secretary,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was slammed within Republican ranks for supporting a tax increase to pass a state budget in February, said he will not support hitting voters' pocketbooks again. "There's one thing for sure," he said. "There will be no revenue increases. This means cuts, cuts, cuts, and living within our means. That was the message of the people." The Republican governor said he may reconsider the notion of short-term borrowing of $7.5 billion from the investment market and local government to help ease the shortfall.

California, the sunny incubator of America's future, has relished its role as a leading indicator of political trends. On Tuesday, it became what it thinks it should be, the center of attention, but not in the way it wants to be. Its voters, at last sensible, rejected, by an average of 65 percent, five of six ballot propositions. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "post-partisan" Republican, and the partisan Democrats who control the Legislature promoted the propositions as efficient for and essential to eliminating the state's budget deficit, which will now be $21 billion. So California may become the next target for...

In the end, the only question about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's package of budget-reform measures was: How badly will they lose? For weeks before Tuesday's special election, polls inside and outside of the campaigns had shown that California voters were mad at politicians and eager to express that anger on election day. Voters crushed Propositions 1A through 1E, which Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders said were desperately needed to avoid a new budget meltdown. At the same time, voters overwhelmingly approved Prop. 1F, which stuck a virtual thumb in the eye of Sacramento politicians by banning any raises when the state faces...

California voters Tuesday put the truth to the lie that the tax rebellion has come to an end. Almost two-thirds of the electorate (65.4 percent) cast ballots against Proposition 1A, a measure which would have increased taxes in the cash-strapped "Golden State" by $16 billion. Voters in the state that, in 1978, gave birth to the modern tax revolt proved once again that the political pundits who the Republicans need to give up their anti-tax stance in favor of a platform that acknowledges the need for expanded government services that appeal to constituencies like those that shop at "big box"...

The subject of Arnold Schwarzenegger bores me. I wrote ceaseless columns on this site warning Republicans and conservatives that he would govern as a liberal and operate as a Trojan Horse for the Dems. During an appearance on the now-defunct CNN show Inside Politics, I said that he could become "the Jim Jeffords of the West Coast." For my troubles, I was dismissed as an out-of-touch, maniacal, abortion-obsessed pinhead. Now to hear the same country-club Republican jackasses who sabotaged Tom McClintock and parachuted Arnie into office whine about his liberal legacy is just boring. You made this slipshod bed; lie...

Californians said "no" loud and clear; "no" to new taxes, "no" to the Terminator, and "no" to Gen. Colin Powell, who said that Americans simply lust after paying new taxes to finance their pet government programs. "The hell we do," the majority of tax-weary Californians replied at the ballot box. Last night, Californians who voted blue last November voted red. The referendum gave Californians a chance to let lawmakers know what they thought of their performance and to decide a course of action for the state that would have prevailed far into the future. They told them in no uncertain...

(CNSNews.com) – Californians have been paying increased taxes since February, but Tuesday they spoke out clearly they don’t want those temporary tax hikes to last longer than planned. Voters in the Golden State overwhelmingly rejected five of six ballot measures in a special election Tuesday – saying no to tax increases, increased state borrowing and earmarks for education. “No” votes exceeded 65 percent in all but one measure, which passed. It prevents lawmakers and public officials from receiving pay raises in years when the state is running a deficit.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday criticized his own constituents who this week overwhelmingly rejected tax increases to meet a massive $21.3 billion budget gap, highlighting the tightrope officials nationwide are walking in dealing with both hard economic times and the growing anger of the electorate. Sixteen states already have raised taxes to shrink mounting deficits, and 17 others are proposing increases for next year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank that tracks fiscal issues. The increases come as the federal government is considering new taxes on items ranging from health care benefits...

Here are some partial quotes: "Voters were very confused on what we were asking them to do" "Voters were saying: "It was quite complex" "This is too complicated" "We don't want to vote on it" "We are fatigued with the number of elections we have had, especially Special Elections" "We realize that there are going to be cuts but whatever needs to be done, you do it, and we don not want to participate in it." What an arrogant condescending twit. And she still doesn't get it. I sent her a "nice" message. http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/Speaker/

Citing pay decreases and layoffs being imposed on rank-and-file state workers, the California Citizens Compensation Commission approved the reduction, which also applies to the state attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, controller, insurance commissioner, treasurer, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and members of the Board of Equalization. "I think they should share in the sacrifices that everyone else has had to encounter," Commissioner Kathy Sands, a former Auburn mayor, said after the panel's 5-1 vote at a meeting in Burbank. The commission had wanted to decrease current officials' pay, but the panel's attorney said California law does not allow that....

Feeling bruised and abused this morning? Well, you can't say you didn't see it coming. The polls have been saying for weeks that voters were going to do just what they did on Tuesday: Conclusively reject your slate on the ballot, Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E.

The Coming California Bailout By George F. Will Thursday, May 21, 2009 California, the sunny incubator of America's future, has relished its role as a leading indicator of political trends. Tuesday it became what it thinks it should be, the center of attention, but not in the way it wants to be. Its voters, at last sensible, rejected, by an average of 65 percent, five of six propositions. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "post-partisan" Republican, and the partisan Democrats who control the legislature, promoted the propositions as efficient for and essential to eliminating the state's budget deficit, which will now be...

MapsAll Ballot Measures Statewide/County Ballot Measures Proposition 1A Proposition 1D Proposition 1B Proposition 1E Proposition 1C Proposition 1F 65.9% NO on 1A 62.6% No on 1B

An election eve e-mail from a reader in Oxnard perfectly captured the tone of Tuesday's voting, to wit:"Schwarzenegger, Bass, Cogdill, Villines, Steinberg and the rest of those stinking, lying Sacramento bastards can go straight to hell. They're going to be whacked hard upside their heads tomorrow." Whacked they were, . . .Schwarzenegger's 11th hour prediction of fiscal calamity failed to sway voters and an odd-bedfellows alliance of right- and left-wing opponents, ... Schwarzenegger even spent election day in Washington, kibitzing with new buddy Barack Obama. . .So, those in and around the Capitol wonder, what happens now? Whatever happens, it...

Of the six propositions offered, only one passed — the one to freeze pay raises for legislators when the state’s running a deficit — despite Arnold and his allies having outspent critics 10 to 1 in pushing the initiatives. To paraphrase a hip-hop classic, California knows how to tea-party: ------------------------------------------------- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was dealt a crushing defeat as voters rejected a series of ballot initiatives designed to help plug the state’s spiraling budget deficit… Schwarzenegger had warned that failure of the proposals would leave California grappling with a budget shortfall of around 21.3 billion dollars. But weary voters...

WASHINGTON -- Saying California voters delivered a message to "go all out" in cutting government spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today promised to make severe state budget reductions in education, health care and law enforcement. "We tried to not make those kind of cuts, but now we have to," the Republican governor told reporters in Washington. "There's no other choice. I think the message was clear from the people: Go all out and make those cuts and live within your means." Schwarzenegger thanked Californians for voting in Tuesday's special election. They rejected ballot measures endorsed by the governor that would have...

On the other hand, I don't really see another way out of it. If Uncle Sugar bails out California, California will not fix its problems. Perhaps you want Obama to make it fix the problems, using the same competence, power, and can-do spirit with which he has repaired all the holes in the banking and auto manufacturing sectors. But Obma is not in a good position to do this. California Democrats are a huge part of his governing coalition. All Obama can do is shovel money into the bottomless pit of California's political system.

He promised to make it work by cutting 'waste, fraud and abuse.' It was never that easy. The real solutions are obvious, though. One: Eliminate, or at least loosen substantially, the two-thirds legislative requirement to pass a budget or raise taxes. This rule has allowed a tiny Republican minority to hold up all budget progress. Two: Remove legislative term limits. Three is the Big One: Revise Proposition 13. Prop. 13 is often described as a tax-cutting measure, but that scarcely does justice to the damage it has caused.

On the matter of Propositions 1A-1F, the people have spoken. Wisely or not is yet to be seen. But if knowledge is power, those so disposed might want to dive into a couple of recent state documents to get a glimpse of what's before them. The Department of Finance's 2009-10 May Revision General Fund Proposals (links.sfgate.com/ZHDO), for example, has line-by-line descriptions of budget cuts on the table. They include: -- Approximately $1 billion proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger but not contained in the Budget Act passed in February (Pages 6-7) and $5.3 billion more worked up in the face of...

California voters overwhelmingly rejected five of six budget referendums yesterday which would have approved higher taxes as a means to patch budget woes in the Golden State. Had the measures passed, the state would still have faced a $15.4 billion deficit. With the failure of the measures, the state now grapples with $21.3 billion in red ink. Out of control spending and high taxes driving business out of state are at the core of California’s budget problems. Now voters in a tax revolt have overwhelmingly rejected more of the same from California lawmakers, choosing instead a path that could force...