Arnold Schwarzenegger is a popular actor who was first elected as Governor of California in the 2003 recall election and won re-election in 2006. It is the first elected office he has held, but was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, in which he served from 1990 to 1993 and was Chairman of California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under Governor Pete Wilson.
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Schwarzenegger is a registered Republican. He describes himself as fiscally conservative and socially moderate (e.g., he is pro-choice and supports taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research). Schwarzenegger backed Republican President Ronald Reagan while Reagan was in office, and campaigned for George H.W. Bush in 1988. However, he chastised fellow Republicans during the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998. Sensing an opportunity to affect the outcome of the 2004 Presidential race, Schwarzenegger campaigned in Ohio for Republican George W. Bush in the closing days of the campaign. Schwarzenegger offered praise for the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, John McCain. He called McCain a "great senator" and "very good friend" who shared his views on critical issues. He officially endorsed McCain for the Republican presidential nomination on January 31, 2008[1]
Schwarzenegger's first political appointment has been to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, on which he served from 1990 to 1993. He was nominated by George H. W. Bush, who called him "Conan the Republican."
In an interview on October 29, 2002, with MSNBC's Chris Matthews at Chapman University, Schwarzenegger explained why he is a Republican:
Schwarzenegger continues:
Regarding a run for public office, in 1999, he told Talk magazine that "I think about it many times." He also said, "The possibility is there because I feel it inside. I feel there are a lot of people standing still and not doing enough. And there's a vacuum."
Schwarzenegger was appointed Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in the administration of George H. W. Bush from 1990 to 1993. During that time, Schwarzenegger traveled across the U.S. promoting physical fitness to kids and lobbying all 50 governors in support of school fitness programs. "He would hit sometimes two or three governors in a day in his own airplane, at his own expense, somewhere around $4,000 an hour," said George Otott, his chief of staff at the time. "When he walked in, it wasn't about the governor, it was about Arnold," said Otott, a retired Marine. "He has what we in the military call a command presence. He becomes the number one attention-getter."
He later served as Chairman for the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under Governor Pete Wilson. Schwarzenegger scored his first real political success on November 5, 2002, when Californians approved his personally crafted and sponsored Proposition 49, the "After School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002," an initiative to make state grants available for after-school programs.
For years, Schwarzenegger had discussed with friends, potential donors, advisors and political allies a possible run for high political office. On April 10, 2003 at the Los Angeles Peninsula Hotel, for example, he met with Republican political operative Karl Rove to discuss a future campaign. Seized emails from Enron show that Schwarzenegger also met with Ken Lay on May 17, 2001 at the Peninsula Hotel where Lay lobbied business leaders and future gubernatorial candidates such as Richard Riordan and Bill Simon to support a solution to the California energy crisis that included an end to "countless investigations into allegations that suppliers manipulated power prices."[3][4]
In March 2001, Schwarzenegger was asked to run for governor by the California Republican Party.[5] In the months leading to the recall election, Schwarzenegger was widely rumored to be considering a run at becoming Governor of California. In the July 2003 issue of Esquire Magazine, he said, "Yes, I would love to be governor of California ... If the state needs me, and if there's no one I think is better, then I will run." When a petition to recall Democratic governor Gray Davis qualified for the ballot on July 24, Schwarzenegger left many wondering whether he would jump into the contest. Schwarzenegger was just wrapping up a promotional tour for Terminator 3 and said he would announce his decision on whether to run on August 6 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
In the days and even hours leading up to the show's taping, political experts and insiders concluded that Schwarzenegger was leaning against running in California's October 7 recall election. Even his closest advisors said he was probably not going to run. Rumors leading up to the announcement said that his wife, Maria Shriver, a Kennedy family Democrat, was against his running, and he wanted her approval in order to run.
When announcing his candidacy on the Tonight Show, he joked, "It's the most difficult [decision] I've made in my entire life, except the one I made in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax". Ultimately, Shriver said she would support Schwarzenegger no matter what he chose, so he decided to run. Schwarzenegger told Leno, "The politicians are fiddling, fumbling and failing. The man that is failing the people more than anyone is Gray Davis. He is failing them terribly, and this is why he needs to be recalled and this is why I am going to run for governor of the state of California."
As a candidate in the recall election, Schwarzenegger had the most name recognition in a crowded field of candidates, but he had never held public office and his political views were unknown to most Californians. His candidacy was immediate national and international news, with media outlets dubbing him the "Governator" (referring to The Terminator movies, see above) and "The Running Man", and calling the recall election "Total Recall" (both names of his movies) and "Terminator 4: Rise of the Candidate" (referring to his movie Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines).
Schwarzenegger was quick to make use of his well-known one-liners, promising to "pump up Sacramento, California" (the state capital) and tell Gray Davis hasta la vista. With his humor, it was refreshing to see a politician accept the value of humor in a seemingly humorless field. At the end of his first press conference, he told the audience "I'll be back." Schwarzenegger looked to follow in the footsteps of former California governor and one-time movie star Ronald Reagan and also made references to following in the footsteps of progressive California governor Hiram Johnson.
However, due to his status as a naturalized citizen, he would not be eligible to seek the Presidency unless the Constitution were to be amended (as proposed in 2000 by Congressman Barney Frank (Democratic, Massachusetts), and in July 2003 (the Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment) by Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah) ). Amongst his campaign team were actor Rob Lowe (a Hollywood Democrat, but a moderate), billionaire moderate Democrat Warren Buffett, and moderate Republican George Shultz, a former Nixon and Reagan aide.
| Year | Office | Election | Subject | Party | Votes | % | Opponents | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Governor of California | General | Arnold Schwarzenegger | Republican | 4,206,284 | 48.6 | Cruz Bustamante | Democrat | 2,724,874 | 31.5 |
| Tom McClintock | Republican | 1,161,287 | 13.5 | |||||||
| Peter Miguel Camejo | Green | 242,247 | 2.8 |
| “ | Gray Davis has terminated hope. He has terminated opportunity. He has terminated education and he has terminated jobs. Now it's time to terminate him. | ” |
On October 7, 2003, the recall election resulted in Governor Gray Davis being removed from office with 55.4% of the Yes vote in favor of a recall. Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California under the second question on the ballot with 48.6% of the vote to choose a successor to Davis. Schwarzenegger defeated Democrat Cruz Bustamante, fellow Republican Tom McClintock, and others. In total, Schwarzenegger won the election by about 1.3 million votes. Under the regulations of the California Constitution, no runoff election was required.
Schwarzenegger was sworn into office on November 17, 2003. Schwarzenegger's inauguration was opened by Vanessa L. Williams, his co-star from Eraser, singing the National Anthem. Hollywood attendees included Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Dennis Miller, Tom Arnold, his wife Shelby, and Rob Lowe (only Miller was a Republican).
The Schwarzenegger children joined others in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, then Maria Shriver spoke and held the Bible while Schwarzenegger was sworn into the office of Governor. He spoke briefly: "Today is a new day in California. I did not seek this office to do things the way they've always been done. What I care about is restoring your confidence in your government... This election was not about replacing one man. It was not replacing one party. It was about changing the entire political climate of our state."
Despite expectations that Schwarzenegger would be vulnerable to opposition critics once taking office, his early governorship showed some successes. He has dealt successfully with California politicians as diverse as John Burton on the left to Tom McClintock on the right. At the end of May 2004, the Field poll put his popularity at 65%, the highest for a California governor in 45 years, including 41% of Democrats. By comparison, former United States President Ronald Reagan, known as "the Great Communicator," never hit 60% approval while serving as California governor.[6] Due to his role in the Terminator movies, people referred to him as the "Governator."
In his first few hours in office Schwarzenegger fulfilled his campaign promise to repeal an unpopular 200% increase in vehicle license fees undertaken to fund the state's budget. The increase was a restoration to 1998 levels. On his first full day in office, Schwarzenegger proposed a three-point plan to address the budget woes. First, Schwarzenegger proposed floating US$15 billion in bonds.
Second, he urged voters to pass a constitutional amendment to limit state spending. Third, he sought an overhaul of workers' compensation. Schwarzenegger also called the state legislature into a special session and said that spending cuts would also be necessary. He initiated the cuts by agreeing to serve as governor with no salary, a saving of $175,000 (USD) per year.
To fulfill the first two points, he urged California voters to pass Proposition 57 and Proposition 58 in the March 2, 2004, election, which authorized the sale of $15 billion in bonds and mandated balanced budgets, respectively. Despite initially tepid support from the public, the combination of heavy campaigning by Schwarzenegger, endorsements from a number of leading Democrats, and warnings about the dire consequences should the propositions fail to pass, led to majority votes in favor of the two propositions. Prop. 57 passed with 63.3% of the votes in favor and Prop. 58 passed with 71.0% in favor. He accomplished the third point when he signed a workers' compensation reform bill on April 19, 2004.
Schwarzenegger convinced the Democratic-controlled state legislature to approve the package by threatening to take the issue directly to state voters in a November ballot initiative if the legislature did not act. The economic moves had the effect of up-grading the International Bond Market's projections for the California market at least three points. After Governor Schwarzenegger addressed the finances, the bond-rating went up three points and saved the State of California over $20 billion in bond-rated interest over ten years.
Schwarzenegger was later criticized for reneging on his campaign pledges not to take money from special interests and for failing to answer directly the sexual harassment allegations raised by the Los Angeles Times immediately preceding the recall election. However, Schwarzenegger made a point shortly after becoming governor of voluntarily attending a training course conducted by the state Attorney General's office on preventing sexual harassment (along with several members of his senior staff). Schwarzenegger continues to collect campaign contributions from private interests[7] at a greater rate than any politician in California history, including Gray Davis, whom he criticized on that very issue.[8]
In February 2004 when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered a change in the certificate application documents to allow for same-sex marriages, Governor Schwarzenegger opposed the move as being beyond the powers of the mayor but also said that he supports gay rights and has expressed support for a law to grant civil unions to gay couples.
In 2005 when he vetoed a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriages, he defended his actions by saying that California voters had passed an initiative banning such recognition and that he supports that state's domestic partnership law that gives same-sex couples many of the same rights as a heterosexual married couple. He declared that he would respect a decision by the legislative branch to recognize same-sex marriage. He supported California's legalization of same sex marriage when it was still in effect.
Still, critics have observed that there is no federal requirement that other states recognize a state-granted domestic partnership, as is the case with marriages under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution.
In February 2004, he chose not to pardon convicted murderer Kevin Cooper who had asked him for clemency in his death penalty sentence. Cooper's planned execution was stayed by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pending a revisiting of evidence. The first execution under his administration was that of Donald Beardslee.
An Austrian Green Party spokesman, Peter Pilz, later called for Schwarzenegger to be stripped of his Austrian citizenship. Pilz said that "Capital punishment is unacceptable in Austria and in Europe, and no Austrian citizen may take part in it or arrange it."[9]
The governor has granted clemency to a number of convicted felons – more than Democratic predecessor Gray Davis, who presided over numerous executions. The power of clemency is often controversial. After a longer period of consideration than is usual, on December 12, 2005, Schwarzenegger denied clemency to quadruple murderer Stanley Tookie Williams, who was executed the following day.
In a statement Schwarzenegger argued not on the grounds that Williams' actions were beyond atonement: instead he appeared to acknowledge that atonement was possible, but Williams had not done so, Schwarzenegger stating that "the one thing (apologizing for the four murders he committed) that would be the clearest indication of complete remorse and full redemption is the one thing Williams will not do."[10]
In March 2004, libertarian policy research foundation, The Cato Institute, rated him 1st in their 2004 fiscal policy report card of the tax and spending policies of the nation's governors.[11] In July 2004, however, Schwarzenegger and the state legislature deadlocked, failing to approve the state budget on time. Trying to rouse public support for his position, he compared lawmakers to kindergarteners who need a "timeout," and in a rally of supporters called his budget opponents "girlie men" (a reference to a long-running Saturday Night Live skit parodying Schwarzenegger).
He said about the legislators: "They are part of a bureaucracy that is out of shape, that is out of date, that is out of touch and that is definitely out of control in Sacramento. They cannot have the guts to come out there in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you. I want to represent those special interests: the unions, the trial lawyers.' ...if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie-men. They should get back to the table and they should finish the budget".
The remark became national news and was not received well by his opponents, including gay advocacy, feminist groups, and effeminate men in general, labeling it homophobic and sexist, in spite of his earlier support for gay rights (see the Gavin Newsom incident above), not to mention the legislators themselves. Others however, were quick to claim that the critics were expressing a sentiment of latent homophobia themselves because they automatically connected the phrase "girlie-men" with homosexuals, though the term was first used on Saturday Night Live to parody his political career. The term "girlie-man" was arguably the Governor taking a bit of a pot-shot at himself, as the phrase is derived from the popular Saturday Night Live sketch "Pumping Up With Hans and Franz" where two Austrian bodybuilders chastise those not sufficiently bulked up as "girlie men."
His supporters made "girly men" T-shirts and the Governor continued to use the term, including when he addressed the Republican National Convention in NYC, calling critics of the current U.S. economic situation "economic girlie men".
Despite what some viewed as political snags during the summer, the Field polls released in August and October 2004 showed that Schwarzenegger's approval rating remained at 65%. Additionally, in October, for the first time in four years a plurality of Californians felt the state was "on the right track".
However, when asked if they would support Schwarzenegger if he could run for president, 50% said they would oppose, while only 26% said they would support the governor in a presidential bid.[12]
In the spring of 2005, polls began showing Schwarzenegger's approval ratings had dropped to between 40 and 49%.[13]
On June 13, 2005, Schwarzenegger called a statewide special election for November 8, 2005, to vote on a series of reform measures he initially proposed in his 2005 State of the State address. A non-partisan Field Poll poll released a week later showed his support had dropped to 37%, one of the lowest approval ratings for any California governor and barely above the support of recalled former Governor, Gray Davis.[14]
Schwarzenegger's spokesman responded that Schwarzenegger had not yet had enough time to explain his proposals to voters. The Legislature also shared low approval ratings, with just 24% of voters saying they approve of the job lawmakers have been doing. That represents a drop of 10% since February. The governor has responded that the poll sends a "very clear message to us. They are saying they want us to work together." He has also responded "I know popularity goes up and down... as soon as you start making decisions and strong decisions, sometimes they're not popular decisions".[15]
Republicans have claimed that the drop in popularity was due to a multi-million dollar ad campaign by various groups such as unions for nurses, police and firefighters, who opposed his plans for the state pension and his administration's lawsuit to delay implementation of a nurse-to-patient staffing ratio plan. In late June 2005, another non-partisan Field Poll had similar numbers as the earlier one, finding that 57% of California voters are not inclined to elect Schwarzenegger to a second term as Governor in 2006.[16]
When asked about the lessons of the poll, Schwarzenegger has responded "People make mistakes sometimes, and I think that we learn. [...] These are very clear messages that we must work together, and so I am looking forward to that."
To some degree, Governor Schwarzenegger's unpopularity has had to do with his confrontations with three popular labor groups: nurses, teachers, and firefighters. Some unions and activists reacted with anger.[17]
While governor, Schwarzenegger continued to hold a position of executive editor of two American Media magazines. He announced in March 2004 that his $250,000 a year salary would be donated to charity. Schwarzenegger has an extensive history with the magazines and was frequently their star in his bodybuilding days. As executive editor, he produces monthly columns based on his bodybuilding history.
Schwarzenegger drew fire when a second contract, a consulting position, was subsequently discovered in SEC filings, by the L.A. Times. This second contract would net him an estimated $8,000,000 (USD) over the next five years.[18] His consulting duties are not clear, except that the job allegedly "takes up little time".
The New York Times further reported (on July 15) that under the five-year November 2003 contract, signed two days before his inauguration as Governor, Oak Productions, Mr. Schwarzenegger's company, is to receive 1% of the net print advertising revenues of Weider Publications. But the payment must be at least $1,000,000 (USD) per year. Mr. Schwarzenegger has also been granted phantom equity, a way of sharing in the growth of the value of the company. The equity could become worth 1% of the company's value, which was stated at the time of the contract as $520,000,000 (USD)".[19]
This contract was seen as a conflict of interest by critics, who note that the magazines receive much of their revenue from advertisements for dietary supplements, a government-regulated industry affected by Schwarzenegger's veto (September 2004) of a bill that would ban schools from accepting sponsorships from firms that make performance-enhancing dietary supplements. In Schwarzenegger's reason for his veto, he drew a distinction between performance-enhancing dietary supplements and steroid usage, which he says is what needs to be prevented in high school students.[20]
Supporters point out that he did not sign into law a bill that prohibited companies from selling the supplements to minors. Following the accusation, Schwarzenegger responded he would end the contracts with the magazines.
In August 2005, the Washington Post reported that American Media had paid former TV actress Gigi Goyette, $20,000 (USD) to not discuss a relationship between her and Schwarzenegger. According to interviews, Goyette claimed the two had a brief fling in 1975, when Goyette was a teenager, and reconnected in the late 1980s and carried on a once-a-year affair.[21]
Also in August, the Los Angeles Times reported that five non-profit organizations had collected $3,000,000 (USD), chiefly from large businesses, in order to help defray Schwarzenegger's personal and political expenses, including the rent on the $6,000-a-month hotel suite that Schwarzenegger uses when in Sacramento.[22]
The governor's spokesman subsequently reported that Schwarzenegger had directed the disclosure of the contributors to the "residence fund".[23]
On September 29, 2005, Schwarzenegger vetoed the California gay marriage bill after it had passed both houses of the legislature.[24]
He stated that he vetoed the bill because he felt that it was in opposition to the will of the voters as expressed by Proposition 22, which had passed in 2000 with 61.4% of the vote. Proposition 22 stated that only marriages between a man and a woman would be recognized in the state of California.
On September 16, 2005, Schwarzenegger announced that he would seek a second term as governor. Despite his initially high approval ratings, a Field Poll conducted the week before indicated that only 36% of California voters were inclined to reelect him.
Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 469 (Bowen) on October 7, 2005. It would have required people circulating petitions to say whether the signature gatherers are volunteers or are being paid to collect signatures.
Running up to the November special election, Schwarzenegger campaigned heavily throughout the state for his slate of propositions. Through an organization called "Join Arnold," tens of millions of dollars were funneled into the state, mostly from corporate interests, to fund the campaign. Schwarzenegger even reportedly spent 7,000,000 (USD) of his own money. Schwarzenegger characterized the four propositions as being key to his reform agenda.
State unions and other groups opposed to the measures spent large sums of money opposing Schwarzenegger. Total spending by both sides leading up to the election was estimated at $300,000,000 (USD).
In the November 8, 2005 special election, California voters dealt a devastating blow to Schwarzenegger by soundly rejecting all four ballot initiatives that Schwarzenegger had proposed to reform the state government. All propositions were defeated by a margin of at least 7 percentage points. The two propositions most key to Schwarzenegger's agenda, propositions 76 and 77, were defeated by 24 and 19 points respectively.
The defeat left Schwarzenegger significantly weakened politically, depriving him of the one source of leverage he had against the Democratic legislature. Some opponents took to calling him "the One-terminator," a play on his popular role as "the Terminator" in films, implying that his chances of winning re-election had been diminished.
In the aftermath of the election, Schwarzenegger has moved back to the center. He has hired a former aide of Gray Davis as his chief of staff, and is working with California State Senate Majority Leader, Don Perata, for development of a bond, estimated in the billions of dollars, to accelerate construction of infrastructure such as freeways and waterworks.
However, Governor Schwarzenegger's attempts to redeem his political career via the bond measures fell apart in March 2006, largely due to his inability to gain Republican support for the negotiated bond plan. Democratic legislators had pressed Schwarzenegger to emphasize in the bond offering those areas that broadly benefitted the population of the state, while the Republican minority in the legislature pushed for the interests of business and agriculture. The Governor found himself in an impossible situation, as he needed the support of both the Republicans and Democrats to achieve the two-thirds vote to establish the June bond measure.
He chose to endorse the Democratic initiatives in the bond measure, but lost the support of the Republicans in the Legislature. Despite a week of tense, last-minute attempts to compromise, the Republican and Democratic legislators held fast, leading to gridlock.
Both the Governor and Legislature have stated their desire to put some bond measure on the November 2006 ballot, and those bond measures are Propositions 1A through 1E on the ballot.
On May 2, 2006, Schwarzenegger continued his quest to bring two National Football League franchises to the Los Angeles area.[25]
On July 19, 2006, Schwarzenegger proposed forming the Climate Action Board, a new, centralized authority under his direct control that would be responsible for implementing one of the nation's most far-reaching initiatives to curb global warming.[26]
On July 21, 2006, Schwarzenegger allocated a further $150 million to stem cell research in the wake of President Bush's veto on a bill that would allow for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.[27]
In August 2006, Schwarzenegger and legislators agreed to an increase of California's minimum wage from $6.75 per hour to $8.50 per hour in two years. This angered many conservatives.
On August 30, 2006, Democratic legislators and Schwarzenegger agreed on a bill to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by twenty five percent over the next twenty years, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
On September 7, he made some controversial comments about Latina Republican Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, reportedly calling her "very hot". He went on to say "I mean, they [Cubans and Puerto Ricans] are all very hot... they have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them and together that makes it."[28] It should be noted that Garcia found the comments harmless, and even flattering to an extent. On her official site, she responded, "If the Governor's comments were meant in a discriminatory or disrespectful way, I would have been the first to stand up and fight against them. However, this was not the case. Not only were the brief remarks taken completely out of context from a much longer conversation, but they center around me and a former friend and competitor of the Governor's, Sergio Oliva." [29]
His campaign has also accused opponent Phil Angelides' campaign of breaching security protocols in obtaining the file and illegally accessing the Governor's internal computer network, then leaking it to the Los Angeles Times. Katie Levinson, a spokeswoman for the Schwarzenegger campaign wanted Angelides to "denounce the unethical actions taken on his behalf," and claimed that he was trying to personally smear Schwarzenegger. Angelides' campaign claimed that the allegations were "politically motivated" and stated that the website was publicly accessible. An investigation by the California Highway Patrol exonerated the Angelides camp of any wrongdoing.
On September 12, 2006, Schwarzenegger wrote a Los Angeles Times editorial piece where he called on Mexican immigrants to learn English and obey U.S. laws. He also advocated for increased security on the U.S.–Mexico border.[30]
Real estate tax law was affected in California by Assembly Bill AB 2962, which was approved and signed into law by Schwarzenegger on September 22, 2006. In past law, sales of secondary residence under California law may pay up to 3⅓% estimated tax of the gross sales price. The tax is collected through escrow and it can be up to 14 months before filing tax returns to get the over-payment back. The law allows taxpayers to choose a withholding amount. This amount will be based on the maximum income tax rate for individuals (9.3%) or corporations (8.84%) applicable to the actual capital gain on the sale of their real property. Taxpayers will also be required to complete a certification under penalty of perjury to the buyer to elect this withholding method.[31]
On September 27, 2006, Schwarzenegger signed into law the most far-reaching state legislation yet enacted to reduce harmful pollutant emissions that cause global warming. At the bill signing ceremony, Schwarzenegger declared, "We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late... The science is clear. The global warming debate is over."[32]
Improvement of relations with the State Legislature has enabled the production of a budget within the constitutional time limits (a rare event in California) and the Governor has stated that the failure of his 2006 initiatives was received by himself as a clear message that the electorate expects that the Legislature and Governor are to cooperate and to do their jobs in making law and "... not come running to the people...."[33]
| Year | Office | Election | Subject | Party | Votes | % | Opponents | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Governor of California | Primary | Arnold Schwarzenegger | Republican | 1,724,281 | 90.0 | Robert C. Newman II | Republican | 68,660 | 3.6 |
| Bill Chambers | Republican | 65,487 | 3.4 | |||||||
| Jeffrey R. Burns | Republican | 57,652 | 3.0 |
In 2007, Schwarzenegger experienced an increase in his approval rating,[35] but in 2008 the ratings growth began to decelerate and has been statistically flat but stable above 50% through June.[36]
The state government of California started 2009 with a debt of $42 billion, making it difficult for Schwarzenegger to work with law makers and to maintain his party obligations at the same time. After a drawn out process, the governor signed a budget on February 20, 2009.
In an attempt to replenish the California general fund, residents will see an increase in their taxes and a one percent increase in sales tax (from 7.76–8.76). In a controversial move, the Governor also declared two Fridays per month as furloughs day for state workers, meaning that they will not come into work and will not be paid.[37]
On April 13, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger and Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin held a press conference to announce the Allied Health Initiative, a $32 million public-private partnership aimed at adding thousands of critically needed allied health professionals.[38]
On April 15, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger was served with a notice of intent to recall by a group calling themselves "Taxpayers United to Recall Governor Schwarzenegger".
The Governor sponsored several initiatives on a May 19 ballot. The main proposition, prop 1A sought to raise taxes to raise a total of $16 billion. A summary of prop 1A is as follows:
Changes the budget process. Could limit future deficits and spending by increasing the size of the state "rainy day" fund and requiring above-average revenues to be deposited into it, for use during economic downturns and other purposes. Fiscal Impact: Higher state tax revenues of roughly $16 billion from 2010–11 through 2012–13. Over time, increased amounts of money in state rainy day reserve and potentially less ups and downs in state spending.[39]
On May 5, two weeks before the special election, the Governor warned the public that he does not like scare tactics, but "he warned of dire consequences if voters don't pass the six special election measures". With polls indicating that California voters are going to vote NO on props 1A-E, and in fact the voters subsequently did vote against the proposed tax increases by almost 2:1, the Governor is worried that the budget will have to be sent back to be hashed out between the two houses.[40]
