Free Republic

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed Wednesday to pursue some of the "good ideas" rejected by voters in last year's special election but promised that he will not revive controversial efforts to control union dues or change the state's voter-approved education funding formula. In a wide-ranging interview with The Chronicle's editorial board Wednesday, Schwarzenegger also said he did not regret stumping for President Bush in 2004, and he denied assertions that he has been inconsistent as governor and veered from a conservative agenda in 2005 to a Democratic one this year. When asked how he would describe himself, he said he was...

Rekindling a political power struggle between unions and business interests, proposed legislation would require corporations to ask shareholders whether they approve of contributions made to California candidates or ballot measures. The legislation--backed by the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO--orders corporations to provide shareholders with a list of contributions made in California. Shareholders could then reject individual contributions and receive back their pro rata share. (snip) The chamber and other business interests backed Proposition 75 in November, which would have prevented public employee unions from making campaign contributions without approval of their members. In retribution, the California Teachers Association, Service Employees International...

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - California labor leaders announced a campaign on Monday to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election bid, calling the former film star anti-worker and beholden to big business. The announcement touches off what could be a fierce re-election fight for Schwarzenegger, who took office after toppling Gray Davis, a Democratic governor with close ties to union leaders. Unions played an important role in the defeat of a series of initiatives last year that Schwarzenegger cast as reforms and workers groups saw as attempts to gut their power. "We will find a suitable candidate and mobilize our people to...

Small business beware, your larger cousin, big-business has dropped their arrows, washed off their war paint and even shot their horses (presumably for food since there will be a long cold winter ahead). Recent media reports suggest that business and industry in California are no longer going to put up a fight against union demands that hurt our overall economy and end up costing jobs. Bill Dombrowski is the President and CEO of the California Retailers Association. He recently told the Orange County Register that the governor's proposal to increase the minimum wage in the state by $1 an hour...

The so-called paycheck protection initiative galvanized public employee unions into an all-out war against the governor and his reforms. Unions used it as a smoking gun for their claims that the governor's real agenda was a partisan power play aimed at weakening his adversaries. Nevertheless, Prop. 75 did come the closest of any proposition to passing in the special election, losing by seven points. Now, the nurturer of Prop. 75, longtime anti-tax activist Lewis Uhler, is planning to create another version of the monster for the November 2006 ballot. Unlike Prop. 75, which would have required public employee unions to...

Dear Governor: November 9, 2005 06:19 AM EST There is no such thing as a fusion candidate, no such thing as a bipartisan campaign or a non-partisan issue, and come election night, there are just two parties, one at the GOP HQ and one at the Dem HQ. There's a winners' party and a losers' party. Last night you were speaking to the losers' party. I didn't go. Why bother? The polls had shown for a few days that only Prop 75 had a chance (the measure to stop public employee unions from deducting political dues from their members' paychecks...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Buoyed by a come-from-behind victory over a ballot initiative that threatened labor's powerful role in state politics, union leaders said Wednesday their next move is to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election bid. "In the coming days and weeks, working families are going to begin our efforts to ensure that in California we elect a Legislature and a governor that will fight for the interest of working families," said Martin Ludlow, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Proposition 75, which would have required public employee unions to get permission from members annually before...

TODAY, Californians are heading to the polls to vote on several major propositions that shall dramatically affect both the political and economic future of our state. We are following the activity and will report the results. California Propositions 2.8% of precincts reporting as of Nov 08 08:13 PM PST Results: http://www.sfgate.com/election/

CA Propositions 75, 76, 77 Defeated; Propositions 73, 74 Could Go Either Way: On the Eve of a Special Election, California voters defeat Propositions 75, 76 and 77, but divide on Propositions 73 and 74, according to a final SurveyUSA tracking poll. Support for Propositions 73, 74, 75, and 77 continues to erode. (Proposition 76 is addressed separately in the next box.) Proposition 73, on parental notification for abortions on minors, led by 11 points 1 week ago, and leads today by 4 points. It may hang-on and win, but if so, by the narrowest of margins. Extending the trend...

"On Church and State", by Lores Rizkalla, Freeper 'JustaWoman' Billy Graham said that "bad politicians are elected by good people who don't vote." I think the same is true of "bad propositions" passing because good people decide to stay home on election day. This Tuesday, California (among many other states) has a special election. Statistics say that an average of 5% of registered voters get out to vote in an off-year election. What's worse is the truth so beautifully, yet sadly, written by William Butler Yeats': "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Where...

SACRAMENTO - The state employees' union can collect extra money to fight two ballot measures from workers who had objected to having their dues used for political purposes, a federal judge ruled Friday. Eight state employees had sued to stop the Service Employees International Union from collecting an additional two-tenths of 1 percent of their salaries - and from the salaries of all 28,000 nonunion workers - to fight two initiatives pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England Jr. issued a temporary restraining order that prevented the state controller from turning over the...

The John Ziegler Show on KFI has revealed the identify of the questioners of last night's state-wide broadcast forum on NBC and Telemundo. The forum included Arnold, Barbar Kerr (teacher's union) and Fabian Nunez (Dem legislator). Two of the questioners for Arnold are members Democrat central committees and one is a Democrat Congressional candidate! This forum allegedly included an independently selected balanced audience.

Badly outspent seven years ago when they tried to curtail union money in state politics, supporters of "paycheck protection" are getting thrashed once more when it comes to the fundraising and spending wars. The public employee union-driven No on 75 campaign had banked $42.6 million and spent $41.2 million by Oct. 22, according to the most recent reports. The Yes on 75 side, meanwhile, raised only $2.3 million and spent $1.6 million. Proposition 75, however, has received a significant boost from Gov. Arnold Schwar-zenegger's California Recovery Team. According to its reports filed with the secretary of state's office, the governor's...

NO side leads YES side on all four of the propositions backed by Governor Schwarzenegger.

The second wave of the Stanford University/Hoover Institution/Knowledge Networks (S/H/KN) internet poll conducted during the final week of October shows two of the four propositions supported by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with comfortable leads, one narrowly ahead, and one trailing badly. The latest poll results show Proposition 74 (teacher tenure) slightly ahead, 53-47, but with a margin that is within the sampling error of the poll. The two most controversial propositions appear to be heading in opposite directions. Proposition 75 (public employee union dues) has a comfortable lead, 64-36, but Proposition 76 (state budget process) trails by double digits, 45-55. Finally,...

SACRAMENTO - As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger struggles to make his case for reform measures on the Nov. 8 special-election ballot, he and his opponents have stepped up their battle for the state's Latino voters. The governor taped a town-hall forum on Spanish-language Univision that aired statewide over the weekend, even as opponents launched their first Spanish-language TV ads featuring Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attacking the governor's proposals. The high-profile events are just the latest campaign efforts aimed at courting the 2 million Latinos registered to vote in California, accounting for 14 percent of the statewide electorate. "We've been on the air...

A Public Policy Institute of California polls shows none of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's initiatives on the Nov. 8 special election ballot with majority support. The poll also found voters also dissatisfied with the job performance of the governor, the state Legislature and President Bush. All results are from the sampling of likely voters. _ Proposition 73, the parental notification initiative, had support of 42 percent of likely voters but was opposed by 48 percent. _ Proposition 74, the teacher tenure initiative, was supported by 46 percent of likely voters and opposed by 48 percent. _ Proposition 75, the union dues...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent both his allies and his enemies into a frenzy Tuesday, a day after he vowed to support a union-backed effort that could take corporate money out of California politics. "If that's the governor's position, we respectfully disagree," said Sara Lee of the California Chamber of Commerce, which has spent more than $1.4 million to support the package of Schwarzenegger-backed initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot. "We predict this will be his next broken promise," said Charles Idelson of the California Nurses Association, a leader in the fight against the governor's initiative efforts. The dispute swirls around...

We have a saying at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association: "We can't lead where our members don't want to go." This is an acknowledgement that support for our work comes from member dues and that affiliation with this taxpayer organization is voluntary. If dues-paying members are not convinced that HJTA is working to advance their interests as taxpayers, they won't be dues paying members for long and the organization will wither. Needless to say, we are motivated to pay close attention to their concerns. Let's contrast this approach with that of the leadership of our state's public employee unions. First,...

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (AP) - Defending his special election before an audience of voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday said his "year of reform" ballot initiatives are crucial to continue the changes he started after taking office two years ago. He cast the Nov. 8 election as the next step of the 2003 recall election that propelled him to office. Voters, he said, sent him to Sacramento to rebuild the state's economy and fix a moribund political system. After 400,000 new jobs and billions in new revenue, it was time for him to enter Act II, he said. "Now is...