HispanicVista Columnists
It’s Done…or is it? A Moratorium of Election Day
Chismes de Mi Gallinero
By Julio C. Calderon
It’s the morning after in California. The Star-power went super-nova last night leaving a black hole on the state’s political landscape. The Democrats and the unions completed phase one brilliantly. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his handlers were struck with reality. You can’t win on star-power; a few million bucks; and assumptions.
The Democrats and the unions have spent more than $200-million to humble Schwarzenegger. One would think that, and I was one who did, the 2005 campaign against the governor was so expensive that next year, they will have trouble raising funds to defeat his re-election. The keyword is “thinking.”
Since all of the propositions lost, this means that unions will have no problem bleeding their members for the money they will need. The public servant unions raised monthly dues on their members to win on November 8. Since the unions did win, their members will keep on paying those higher emergency dues well into 2007 and beyond. The members have no safe-guards to control their leadership from taking what ever they believe they need from the member’s paychecks.
The Schwarzenegger team believed that with $50-million and the governor’s star power they could over-come months of anti-Schwarzenegger propaganda in the last month or so of the campaign. The negative ads against the governor went unanswered way too long to over-come their effects.
The Democrats finally took to heart what my friend Steven Ybarra JD. has been promoting for at least two decades…manage the absentee ballots, by heavily investing on votes cast prior to the election date. The campaign was over at least two weeks prior to the official election date.
I am curious now as to what the future looks like. While the governor has spoken about working with Democrats over the next year, the Democrats, at least some of them, have announced that this is only the beginning. The union leaders are already rattling sabers at the governor. Next year’s contract negotiations should be interesting.
It will also be interesting to see how the centrist Schwarzenegger will approach legislation. Does this mean that now, perhaps, undocumented aliens will have their California drivers license? What will this mean for taxpayers? Does this mean that the 2006-2007 California budget will be balanced with new taxes? Perhaps a return of the vehicle license tax that resulted in the ouster of Gov. Gray Davis?
Schwarzenegger was elected in a special election to come to Sacramento and sweep the place clean. In the meantime, since that election, the Democrats in the Legislature took his broom and hid it in a closet. At this special election, “the people,” the same one that elected him…set his broom on fire.
The irony in all this was the reaction of the voters to the change of the status quo in the way California is managed. Everyone riled against Davis because of high vehicle license taxes the Legislature passed and he signed. That was Davis’ and the Legislature’s answer to balancing the state’s budget. The Schwarzenegger proposals would have allowed a governor, not just him, to take the needed steps to curb spending, leaving new taxes as a last resort…not the first.
The voters are funny that way. They like lower taxes, but don’t mess with their services. They demand lower taxes and higher services, and that does not compute. The people want stricter sentencing laws against felons, but don’t want more money spent on prisons, while at the same time, convict advocates want inmates to have better housing…go figure.
Since reapportionment will stay in the hands of Legislators…by the way…Proposition 77 proved that Leftwing Democrats can work together with Rightwing Republicans…the only changes we will see in the Legislature next year will be among term-out Legislators, and the only election battles we will see will be during the primaries.
The Primary Elections battles will be over ideologies. The most liberal Democrats will go after their moderates, and the most conservative Republicans will do likewise to their moderates. It is a matter of whose agenda will raise the most funds for their chosen primary candidates. This was the case in 2002 and 2004 and will continue through the rest of the decade.
I don’t know what has been wrought by the fickle voters of this state. The full analysis of this vote and what it may bring has not been done by pundits that make a living making predictions. Certainly, this election’s results will embolden the most liberal elements of the political world. We will see the first signs of what is to come when the Legislators return in December.
We will see how Schwarzenegger will go about rebuilding the luster lost this year. Hopefully, he will chose his battles carefully, and start with developing a political persona, as opposed to that of a movie star playing Governor of this great state.
The gallinas in the gallinero are molting now…we may have to break down and buy eggs in a few weeks. The girls are going through their own renewal process in the coop. They go through this every year at this time, only to still be chickens and still lay eggs for a living…so goes government.
I have always held the belief that government’s natural tendency is to rule over the people. Left to its own devises…the ultimate goal is total dominance. As New Orleans proved…we are not that far away from anarchy.
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Julio C. Calderon is a freelance writer. He is a former television journalist, and a former State/National President of the Mexican American Political Association. Comments on this and other articles can be submitted to him at latsac2000@aol.com.
Julio C. Calderon is a former television journalist and is an information officer for the State of California. His “Chismes de mi Gallinero’ has contributed numerous essays to HispanicVista(www.hispanicvista.com). He can be reached at latsac2000@earthlink.com, and welcomes your comments. Reprint at will, just let him know you do.