Tuesday, November 8, 2005 was a big loss for the the Governor of the State of California. Not one of the state initiatives that Governor Schwarzenegger campaigned for, passed. None of them passed for the following reasons:Proposition 73 was never an issue that the even Governor cared about. He didn’t campaign for it. He didn’t put much money behind it. Nor did he select a chairman to manage a “yes” campaign for it. This issue was in perfect harmony with the platform of the Republican Party and was the one issue that the Governor should have campaigned for. Social conservatives realized that since Governor Schwarzenegger didn’t care about this proposition, then they are not interested in his non-Republican Platform initiatives.
Proposition 74 was never an issue in the Republican Party. It doesn’t matter that the teachers have to wait 2 years or 5 years for tenure, we Republicans have a problem with teachers who have been in these schools for more than 10 years and are the most problematic for California Schools.
Proposition 75 is an issue for only for Republicans who are government employees. The overwhelming populous of Republican voters work in private industry. The governor could have been more successful at removing the financial teeth from the unions if he advocated the current law to redirect union dues to a charity of the union member’s choice.
Proposition 76 could have been a great issue for Republicans. However, The Governor spent the last year adding billions of dollars of long term debt and deferred payments to the state, then offers this proposition as if he is doing everything necessary to reduce the taxes and long term debt to the State.
Proposition 77 was not an important issue for conservatives. We conservatives are exhausted with timid Republicans who have safe Republican seats and still refuse to aggressively engage Democrats. Furthermore, (as a political insider recently told me) the Governor’s appointment of Steve Poizner, a liberal Republican and a current candidate for Insurance Commissioner, to lead the “yes vote” on this proposition was the nuclear missile that obliterated any conservative support for this proposition.
We conservatives are still angered that the Governor simply ignored the problem of the thousands of felonies committed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome and the San Francisco city/county government last year when they performed same sex marriages and submitted those fraudulent documents to the state government for processing. Not one criminal investigation proceeded. No one has has been prosecuted to goto jail or even pay a fine. the governor made just a few remarks about the subject when he showed up to a following state Republican convention - nothing more.
We conservatives are extremely dismayed when the Governor advanced the Democratic Party Platform when it came to hybrid cars and the environment and simply ignored the Republican Platform on the same issue. We conservatives like what the Republican Party Platform says about environmental issues much better than the what the Democratic Party Platform says. We expect our Republican Governor to advance the Republican Party Platform on environmental policy instead.
We conservatives are frustrated Governor Schwarzenegger has populated his administration with those who quickly became his bitter rivals - Democrats. This sloppy governance tactic gave his political opposition inside information on where the Governor’s weaknesses were. These weaknesses were used artfully to defeat him yesterday’s election. Subsequently, the Governor took on impossible responsibility of getting those Democrats in his administration to abandon their political philosophy with their Party in favor of his reforms. They disappointed him by not forgetting who they were - Democrats! To date there is no comparative access by conservatives to the Governor.
The lesson in this loss should be for the Republican Leadership - including the Governor - to never abandon the base and stick to the Republican platform in order to advance policy. The Governor and the Republican leadership must also realize that we grassroots Republicans are just as important to the Republican Party and the Goverrnors agenda as they perceive of the importance of the “moderates and independents”. Governor Schwarzenegger has spent an over abundance of time trying not to offend Democrats and liberals while simply ignoring the conservative Republican base. Unfortunately it showed this past Tuesday.
In hindsight, Governor Schwarzenegger made the mistake of supplanting the Recall process that got him elected for the usual process of staying involved with the grassroots of the Party to advance policy. Governor Schwarzenegger must do more to involve himself with the grassroots conservative Republicans. If the Republican Party leadership impresses on us to spend thousands of our dollars and dedicate our well deserved weekends to be at conventions, then he should be there as well with his sleeves rolled up to help develop a message that he, the leadership, AND the grassroots will wholeheartedly embrace and sell aggressively.Governor Schwarzenegger, his supporters, and the current Republican leadership will not see that they blew the electoral opportunity to be victorious. They will do what moderates always do - attack anyone to their right for not abandoning its conservative principles while coddling any person to their left despite their lack of principles. They will not have any strategy sessions on what to do in order to keep the support of conservatives - only utterances that will continue to alienate us and subject the Party to a complete morph into the Democratic Party. There will be no increased access to the Governor’s office, just more ominous signs of annoyance of, and segregation from conservatives.
Republican leadership seems to view the Democratic Party as the quintessential fair maiden that must be courted despite her violent rejections of Republican existence in government. This view must change. Democrats hate Republicans. This was expressed specifically through their national party chairman. “Moderate” Republicans must be sobered by the fact the they must be as willing to work with conservative Republicans in the same manner that they desire that we conservatives work with them.
We conservatives are always presented with the scenario that we should be willing to support liberal Republicans who agree with us 80% of the time than to have to deal with a Democrat who agrees with us on nothing. Our resistance to that scenario is that what is most important to us is that 20% and the California Republican Leadership at present is trying to distance itself from any support for the advancement of that 20%. So if the Governor wants 100% of what he wants he must learn to do what he is requiring of us - support the advancement our 20% in order to get to our 100% as well. If we cannot expect that kind of cooperation, then we cannot be expected to be supportive of him at the polls.
