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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he "absolutely" loves the idea of holding a constitutional convention to overhaul state government. California hasn't had such a confab in 131 years. ... The Republican governor would like the convention to consider, among other things, eliminating some statewide offices -- like treasurer, controller, superintendent of public instruction and, especially, lieutenant governor, all currently held by Democrats. "It makes no sense that the governor is surrounded by constitutional officers who are trying to derail him," Schwarzenegger says. "Look at the way the nation runs: The president appoints those Cabinet positions." ... Meanwhile, two blocks from the...

Every political campaign, be it a contest between two candidates for office or a duel over a ballot measure, is an exercise in definition. Every campaign begins with an assumption that a candidate or cause has an automatic base of friendly voters, and winning hinges on appealing to those who are not automatically committed to one side or the other by defining the terms of the contest. It's Politics 1-A, but Arnold Schwarzenegger flunked in what must be regarded as his single-biggest political blunder. As the governor launched the mother of all California political battles a year ago, he wanted...

With California's "year of reform" skidding off the runway because of pilot error, the cynical view of the Golden State may be the only one that makes sense: The state is dysfunctional, ungovernable and worse, the public doesn't really seem to care. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has admitted that he bungled last month's special election. His political low standing has emboldened special interests and left legislative Democrats feeling secure that they can duck the state's toughest problems. The year of reform will be followed by the 2006 election when almost every state office will be on the ballot. Politicians running for...

Nearing the end of his first year in office shortly after the November 2004 elections, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gathered a large group of his political and policy advisers in a conference room at the Sheraton Hotel a few blocks from the state Capitol. Over the course of an afternoon, the governor and his team dissected the pros and cons of an emerging strategy: a plan to confront the powers that be in Sacramento with an ambitious agenda for change and to threaten to call a special election if the Legislature refused to go along. In the end, it was an...

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in 2003, Republicans were hopeful he would restore the credibility of their party. Since Pete Wilson's reelection in 1994, the party had been in steady decline for nearly a decade-losing every single statewide office, and mired hopelessly in the minority in both legislative houses. Schwarzenegger built early momentum during his first year in office. But after the November 2004 election, Schwarzenegger and his advisors hatched an ambitious agenda, which would be laid out in the State of the State address in January 2005. The agenda would amount to a declaration of political war on many...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Despite voters' rejection of Proposition 77, the Legislature's top leaders are promising to try to get a new plan on the ballot as early as next June that would strip lawmakers of the powerful job of drawing legislative and congressional districts. "I'm more than open to a redistricting effort which takes the power to draw boundaries from the Legislature and gives it to a truly independent group," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said Wednesday. He wouldn't discuss details but said a fresh proposal would be unveiled shortly. Proposition 77, one of four initiatives on Tuesday's...

Thank you. [Cheers] Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you....welcome. Thank you, it's great to see you all here. Thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it. You know, there are so many people that I want to thank here tonight. So many people. First of all, I want to thank all of the people of California. I want to thank them... I want to thank those who voted for our propositions, and also I want to thank those who did not vote for our propositions. I want to thank them for being part of the...

California's reformer-in-chief looked a lot better in the previews For an action-hero politician who likes to taunt "girlie-men," Arnold Schwarzenegger sure turned out to be a wuss. Two years after sweeping into office with promises to "blow up boxes," perform "the Miracle of Sacramento," and "not rest until our fiscal house is in order," California's Milton Friedman–quoting governor is wasting our time with a special election that does little more than tweak his unionized political tormentors and tinker at the margins of mis-governance, while the state's fiscal house maintains its disorder of $6 billion budget deficits. The governor is tramping...

The multimillion-dollar special election campaign that is grinding to an end has demonstrated a couple of things about the current condition of California's political system. The most obvious is there can't be a serious discussion of important policy issues in an election campaign because political consultants would rather appeal to voters' emotions than to their intellect. That may be a good strategy if the only goal is to win an election, but it does little to improve the quality of state government. (snip) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been calling this the "year of reform," but you wouldn't know much about...

Tony Quinn is co-editor of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan analysis of state legislative and congressional elections. Lost in the aftermath of September 11 was the enactment of new district lines for California’s 120 legislative districts and 53 House seats. The once-a-decade redistricting had been expected to generate political heat and partisan fireworks, but this year’s exercise passed with almost no one noticing. That’s because both political parties early on agreed that this year the reapportionment process would be a status quo redistricting in which each party kept the existing number of seats. It was, in effect, a bipartisan...

I've been getting calls about the various ballot propositions for the Special Election. Here's how I see them: Proposition 73: Parental Notification for Abortion. If parental consent is required for a child to use a tanning booth or get her ears pierced, shouldn’t parents at least be notified if she’s getting an abortion? YES. Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, this should be the all-time no-brainer. Proposition 74: Teacher Tenure. Do parents have a right to expect a higher level of competence before a teacher is granted life-time tenure? YES. This modest measure simply increases the teacher probation period from two...

Former Gov. Pete Wilson's one-time finance director has filmed a television advertisement blasting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget initiative - prompting a response Tuesday by Wilson that his former appointee has developed a case of "amnesia." In the ad that began airing last week, the state's former budget chief, Craig Brown, said that Proposition 76, scheduled for the Nov. 8 special election ballot, "doesn't fix the budget or stop new taxes." Moreover, Brown said the governor's budget measure "destroys our system of checks and balances." "This isn't reform," Brown said in the ad. On Tuesday, Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team fired back,...

'Curtain up! Light the lights! You got nothing to hit but the heights!" Arnold Schwarzenegger might not sound like Ethel Merman, but he's belting out her song as the curtain rises on the November special election. He's gambling as Merman puts it in the 1960's Broadway hit "Gypsy," that his "lucky star is due." And soon we'll know whether "everything's coming up roses" for Arnold and the GOP. With a month to go until the Nov. 8 vote, the oddest thing about this election is that it is not really about the four initiatives he's endorsed, nor the four others...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - To help promote his "year of reform" ballot initiatives, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has turned to one of the best known political reformers on the national stage - Arizona Sen. John McCain. The Republicans will campaign together Monday for the measures Schwarzenegger is promoting on the Nov. 8 ballot, Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Todd Harris said. McCain has endorsed the four initiatives favored by the governor, which would curb the power of the Democrat-controlled Legislature and their allied public employee unions. "John McCain is known for two things - one is being a reformer, and the other is...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Common Cause and two other political reform groups on Wednesday endorsed Proposition 77, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to take the power to draw legislative and congressional districts away from the Legislature. "The current system, where self-interested politicians are responsible for drawing political boundaries, is rotten to the core," said Chellie Pingree, national president of Washington, D.C.-based Common Cause. "It's time to get the fox out of the henhouse and to put an end to California's rigged system of elections." Proposition 77, one of eight measures on California's Nov. 8 special election ballot, would give the power to...

Listening to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speak last week, in an early evening interview session at his celebrated courtyard cigar tent, he sounded at times like the fellow who ran for governor two years ago: Lots of optimism, big dreams, a sense of possibility. He talked of a vision to "create this huge boon and have cranes everywhere." He said he is growing impatient with the slow pace of government, relating with mock astonishment a recent conversation with House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Schwarzenegger had asked Hastert how long it had taken to pass a recent bill that got through Congress. "He...

Revving up his campaign to reclaim the political initiative in California, Governor Schwarzenegger addressed a bipartisan crowd of 1,000 people at the Orange County Forum on September 26. In his prepared remarks, he urged the crowd to support his four reform measures on the November 8 special election, Propositions 74 through 77. He then detailed why Prop. 76, the Budget Reform initiative, was deserving of support, specifically countering the false claims made by the union-sponsored attack ads. He asserted that two-thirds of the governors in America have similar powers to reduce spending in line with revenue if the legislature refuses...

A hotly disputed study of Proposition 77's likely effects concluded Monday that California's redistricting initiative would produce an additional 11 competitive seats in the Legislature and 10 in Congress. The Rose Institute study, likely to become a centerpiece of debate over Proposition 77, was immediately touted by supporters of the initiative as a boost to their campaign and by opponents as one-sided propaganda. The 36-page study, using computer modeling, predicted that passage of Proposition 77 in the Nov. 8 election would boost the number of competitive seats in California politics to: * Ten in the U.S. House of Representatives, compared...

Former Silicon Valley Rep. Tom Campbell brought the fight over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives to San Jose on Wednesday, warning members of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce that new taxes are "highly likely" if a proposal to curb government spending is not passed by voters in the Nov. 8 special election. Last week Campbell announced he was taking an unpaid two-month leave from his job as the state finance director to campaign for Proposition 76, a proposed state spending cap. "This is the most important thing I can do for our state," Campbell said at a round-table discussion...

Has California's biggest political pitchman lost his punch? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's folks say "no," but Democrats and unions are betting big money -- and votes -- that the onetime Hollywood he-man has turned into just another Sacramento girlie man. The issue: his ability in the next several weeks to sell voters on his "reform" package. The stakes: everything from extending teacher tenure and giving the governor increased budget clout to redrawing the state's spaghetti-like political lines. The question: Do voters still believe Arnold? According to polling by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, it's a serious issue. Surveys show...

The California Supreme Court ruled Friday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to change the way legislative districts are drawn should be placed back on November's special election ballot. The 4-2 decision overturns a state appellate court ruling that removed the measure because of a wording dispute. In its ruling, the court said it was unconvinced there were different meanings in the versions of the measure that were submitted to the attorney general for review and shown to registered voters for their signature to place it on the ballot. "We conclude that it would not be appropriate to deny the electorate...

In California, "Principal Faye Banton can walk through the classrooms of Edison Middle School in south Los Angeles and quickly identify her weakest teachers. But Banton knows she can't dismiss them without a drawn-out fight," the Los Angeles Times reported this week. "It takes much too long to get rid of them," she said. Under California law, school districts can dismiss teachers during their first two years on the job without providing any reason. But after two years in the classroom, teachers earn the more protective "permanent status." Before dismissing a permanent-status teacher, district officials must meticulously document poor performance...

SACRAMENTO -- Amid the first signs of possible trouble in raising money for his special election campaign, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is sending top administration officials out looking for free media -- beginning with a stop in Bakersfield next Tuesday. Tom Campbell, the governor's finance director, and Margaret Fortune, a senior education adviser, will hold "an informal discussion" with Bakersfield business and community leaders about the issues in the election, said Todd Harris, spokesman for the governor's campaign organization. Details on the time and place of the event had not been worked out Thursday, Harris said, but the media will be...

SACRAMENTO -- A year after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised the most radical overhaul of state government in decades, only a fraction of 1,200 suggested reforms in a sweeping plan have been launched and many have been abandoned, critics say. Commissioned last year as part of Schwarzenegger's campaign vow to root out waste, the California Performance Review task force issued the 2,200-page plan Aug. 4, 2004. It proposed consolidating agencies, eliminating dozens of boards and commissions and shifting more power to the Governor's Office in a move they said would save $32 billion over five years. "This has been an utter...

The fissure in the nation's largest labor organization could jolt union-backed efforts to combat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the November special election. The Teamsters Union and the Service Employees International Union decided Monday to bolt from the AFL-CIO over differences in the direction of the labor movement. That schism could not have come at a worse time for labor leaders in California, some observers say. "It's an unmitigated disaster," said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association. "It's going to be extremely disruptive in the campaign. It's completely destabilizing to our election efforts." Another union leader concedes...

The cap on state spending that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants voters to pass in November is emerging as a centerpiece of a nationwide strategy by influential conservatives to slash government spending in state capitals across the country. Although the authors of the California proposal say they were not influenced by out-of-state groups, a loose affiliation of ideologically conservative organizations are hoping that the proposed California "Live Within Our Means Act" will help fuel a national taxpayer revolt they are working to coordinate in more than two dozen other states. "This is the next big thing at the state level," said...

SACRAMENTO – California Recovery Team Spokesman Todd Harris today released the following statement regarding Judge Gail Ohanesian’s ruling on Proposition 77: “Proposition 77 rightfully earned its place on the November Special Election ballot. Nearly one million Californians signed petitions to put it on the ballot and they should be given the right to vote on this important reform. One judge should not stop the will of a million Californians to have a fair vote on vital political reform. “We urge Ted Costa, the proponent of Proposition 77, to seek review of the trial court’s decision in the district court of...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A Superior Court judge on Thursday kicked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's redistricting measure off the special election ballot, ruling that supporters violated California's constitution by using two versions of the initiative in the qualifying process. "The differences are not simply typographical errors," Judge Gail Ohanesian said. "They're not merely about the format of the measure. They are not simply technical. Instead they go to the substantive terms of the measure." The proposal, Proposition 77, is one of three initiatives that the Republican governor is supporting in the Nov. 8 special election. It would take the power to draw...

SACRAMENTO – In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a "bold new era of reform" that he said would make government more accountable, improve education and control state spending. He later endorsed a series of five ballot measures for the Nov. 8 special election intended to turn his rhetoric into reality. But mistakes have shrunk Schwarzenegger's once broad agenda. Two of the measures were written so poorly that the governor decided to jettison them. A third, which deals with how political districts are drawn, faces a legal challenge today over a flaw that could cause it to be dropped from the...

(snip) The most sensational Capitol scandal of recent decades surfaced in the late 1980s with a series of FBI raids on offices of politicians and lobbyists, and it soon became apparent that federal investigators had been operating a sophisticated "sting" that had ensnared upwards of a dozen prominent figures. As politicians, Capitol staffers and lobbyists faced indictments and trials, Californians heard the usual demands for the usual post-scandal reforms from the usual sources. (snip) Term limits are back on the agenda because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to reform redistricting and is strongly hinting that he'd back some modification, perhaps allowing...

SACRAMENTO - Labor groups opposing a special election measure that would restrict the use of union dues are asking a state watchdog agency to order the release of a list of donors supporting the measure. Opponents of Proposition 75 said the identities of individual donors have been illegally hidden behind a business-oriented political action committee that provided more than half the money used to qualify the measure for the ballot. Unions filed a complaint earlier this year with the state Fair Political Practices Commission and said they need to see the list of donors to the Small Business Action Committee...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the 2005-06 budget yesterday amid an orgy of self-congratulation among California's leaders, who were proud to miss the constitutional deadline of June 15 by a few weeks instead of the usual few months. Unfortunately, while the relatively quick agreement on the budget is welcome, the $117.5 billion spending plan is anything but. If the stakes weren't so high, the Sacramento types' celebration of their new comity would seem like, well, comedy. Consider the points raised by Sen. Tom McClintock, as ever the skunk at the Capitol picnic: The 2004-05 budget had a gap of only $2...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The Legislature's Democratic leaders are seeking to join a lawsuit aimed at removing the redistricting initiative from the special election ballot, a direct challenge to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The measure is one of three the governor placed on the Nov. 8 ballot as part of his "year of reform" package and seeks to change how boundaries are drawn for members of the state Legislature, Congress and the state Board of Equalization. Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a lawsuit last week claiming supporters of Proposition 77 violated the state Constitution by significantly changing the wording of the initiative...

UNIQUE AMONG education reformers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has zeroed in on underperforming teachers as a principal reason why millions of California students are doing so poorly in our schools. The initiative he is pushing to make it more difficult for teachers to get "tenure" is a classic case of a solution in search of problem. Let's put aside for the moment the fact that teachers don't actually get tenure. They get "permanent status," which still means under state law they can be fired for all kinds of reasons, including inadequate performance. But they are entitled to a hearing and other...

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has asked the attorney general's office to examine the wording of a ballot initiative that would redraw legislative districts, a cornerstone of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election. At issue are discrepancies between the wording of the measure that was circulated for signatures earlier this year, and the wording submitted to the attorney general's office for title and summary. Under state law, the attorney general must draft an impartial title and summary. The title is designed to explain the result of a "yes" vote if the measure is passed and the result of a "no" vote...

LA TIMES set to report that the Redistricting Initiative Backed by the Gov will be disqualified from appearing on the ballot because of discrepancies between what people signed for petitions and what was submitted to Sec of State . . . Leaving Redistricting in the hands of a "Compromise" with the Dems . . . http://politicalvanguard.com/

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be down but he's not out, say an array of political experts, who predict the former action-movie hero will be able to overcome sagging poll numbers and regain his popularity. Despite talk that Schwarzenegger and lawmakers will reach a compromise on his government-reform proposals, voters will go to the polls Nov. 8 to decide the issues, experts say, and the former movie hero will portray the results -- whatever they are -- as a Hollywood ending to his battle for the common man. "If I was the governor, I'd say that passage of even one measure...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants a key provision in his spending-limit initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot to be part of an agreement on a new state budget, deepening a deadlock as the new fiscal year begins tomorrow. The governor is pushing for the power to make midyear cuts when the budget falls out of balance if the Legislature does not act to close the gap. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said that a new budget proposed by Democratic legislators, which Republicans are expected to block in votes in the Senate and Assembly today, will result in wider budget gaps....

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders in the California Legislature are trying to reach compromise on issues that revolve around how the state spends money. - Budget reform: Schwarzenegger's (wants) ....greater authority (to cut budget). Democrats (want legislative authorized) ....midyear corrections. - Redistricting reform: Schwarzenegger wants ...a panel of retired judges (to redraw by 2006). Democrats say they would be willing (to cooperate) ... as long as the new maps are not drawn until after the next census in 2010. - Pension reform: Schwarzenegger (wants) ... to shift the state's multibillion dollar public pension program into 401(k) style accounts ......

SACRAMENTO — A bipartisan citizens' panel Thursday recommended that the Legislature reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to create a state Department of Energy, dealing a blow to his plan to reorganize the state's tangled energy bureaucracy. Members of the Little Hoover Commission, which analyzes all state government reorganization plans, said they favored the idea behind the governor's proposal to centralize California's energy policy under a cabinet-level energy czar. The committee, however, voted 7 to 1 against the plan after lawyers from both the Legislature and the attorney general's office questioned the constitutionality of provisions that would transfer some rate-making functions...

(snip) Schwarzenegger has said he remains open to negotiating a compromise on all of his proposed initiatives, even though they're heading for the ballot. If so, he should start with the tenure proposal. It's an odd issue to go to war over anyway, considering the multitude of education initiatives he could be staking his political career on. Written by Bonnie Garcia, a Republican assemblywoman from El Centro, it was plucked from obscurity without much analysis. After a merit pay proposal for teachers fell by the wayside, tenure became the No. 1 issue by default. The initiative would make two changes...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger held out hope Friday that a compromise still could be found with Democrats to head off a bruising campaign over his reform proposals on the Nov. 8 special-election ballot. In a wide-ranging discussion with Daily News editors and reporters, Schwarzenegger blamed unions and other "special-interest forces" for fostering the legislative disputes that led to the impasse over his reform proposals and the need for the special election. The governor said he is meeting with Democratic leaders in the hopes of developing compromises to his initiatives that would impose caps on state spending and revise the funding formula...

SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled his "Year of Reform" special election from his populist playbook, predicting that California voters will support his agenda because they want change in the way state government operates. Yet several of the measures on the Nov. 8 ballot, including two of Schwarzenegger's, have that "been there, done that" feeling. The election lineup includes at least three initiatives that are similar to ones California voters have rejected in the past, suggesting the governor could have a difficult selling job in the months ahead. In elections dating to the 1970s, voters have rejected variations of...

After months of name-calling, members of the governor's staff and leading Democrats say the two sides have stepped up discussions in recent days about a possible compromise package of ballot initiatives for the November special election. In a series of recent meetings, some held away from the Capitol so reporters wouldn't find out about them, officials in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office have met with senior legislative staff and others on redistricting, pension reform, spending controls, education reform, term limits and a measure that would make it harder for unions to raise cash for Democrats. "I think a deal on the...

Schwarzenegger blasts Democrats and labor unions. Garden Grove, Orange County -- Taxes are the real issue in November's special election, even if the question of a tax hike is nowhere to be seen on the ballot, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday. For the second day in a row, the governor virtually ignored the nuts-and- bolts details of his three proposed initiatives and focused instead on taxes, which he warned that Democratic legislators will boost every time they get a chance. Those legislators "want to raise taxes and punish all of you," he told about three dozen small business owners and...

Referendum on Arnold Another embattled governor staggers toward an election he doesn’t really want Like two wounded and vulnerable antagonists, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrats have taken their intermittent knife fight to a new and more intense level with the scheduling of yet another California special election, the second in three years, this one for November 8. The stage is now set for a massive statewide clash of interests, largely business versus labor, fed by more than $100 million of campaign spending. “You the people will be heard,” declared Schwarzenegger in calling a special election that polls show most Californians...

Arnold Schwarzenegger is California's most famous personality and counts on that to persuade voters to enact three measures that would shift the balance of power in the Capitol - but as he called a special election Monday, he was at least partially upstaged by the acquittal of another famous Californian, Michael Jackson, on child molestation charges. Many television stations elevated the Jackson verdict over Schwarzenegger's three-minute speech in which he declared that "our broken state government will be modernized and revitalized" either through his initiatives or compromises with the Democrat-controlled Legislature, the latter being, however, an infinitesimal possibility. Schwarzenegger aides...

Some estimates say balloting could cost the state as much as $80 million. Critics call it a power grab by Schwarzenegger. SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today called a statewide special election for November – a high-risk gamble that he can leverage his popular appeal to pass proposals that the Legislature has failed to address. The Nov. 8 election would be just the fifth of its kind in California history. “With the people’s help, there will be reform,” he announced on live television. “Our broken state government will be modernized and revitalized.”The measures Schwarzenegger backed that have qualified for the...

Schwarzenegger asks for voter help to push measures in special electionBy Kate FolmarKNIGHT RIDDER SACRAMENTO BUREAU SACRAMENTO - Trying to rekindle the spirit of the 2003 recall election, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went on television statewide Monday to call a rare special election Nov. 8 and ask voters to once again help him at the ballot box. In a 3 1/2-minute address from his stately Capitol office, adorned with busts of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, Republican Schwarzenegger said it's imperative to address the state's chronic over-spending now through a special election. He's also proposing education changes and the creation of...

Update from the Governor's OfficeJune 13, 2005Governor Schwarzenegger Calls a Special Election to Reform California “Our broken state government will be modernized and revitalized and the people will be heard.” ~ Governor Schwarzenegger Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today, in a live address to Californians from the Ronald Reagan Cabinet Room in the State Capitol, called a statewide special election on November 8, 2005 to bring needed reform to California. “When I was elected governor I said I would put California’s financial house in order and reform a government that no longer listened to the people,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “Without reform,...