The state’s budgetary crisis doomed Davis but provided an opportunity for aspiring office-seekers. According to state law a recall election could be held when signatures had been gathered from 12 percent of the number of voters participating in the preceding gubernato-
Rial balloting. On July 23, 2003, the secretary of state announced that the requisite number of signatures had been acquired and that the state’s first recall election would go forward. On October 7 California voters cast ballots on two matters, the first asking whether Gray Davis should be recalled, and the second offering a slate of candidates from which to choose a replacement.
One hundred and thirty-five hopefuls ran but Issa was not among them. He had tearfully withdrawn his name shortly after Arnold Schwarzenegger entered the contest. The Austrian-born former world champion bodybuilder and Hollywood action-movie star put $10 million of his own money into campaigning. In television ads, Schwarzenegger denounced his rivals for taking money from “special interests,” such as Indian gaming casinos. “Special interests are going to go crazy because they know I’m going to kick some serious butt.” Posteriors may have figured into his campaign in another way as well: more than a dozen women publicly claimed that during Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilding and movie careers he had groped them. At first Schwarzenegger acknowledged and apologized for “behaving badly” around women in his earlier days; later he emphatically denied the allegations as “absolutely untrue.” With his telegenic then-wife, Maria Shriver, at his side and attesting to his good qualities as a husband and father, Schwarzenegger won handily. About 55 percent of the vote, which included more than 30 percent of the Hispanic electorate as well as many Democrats and Independents, called for Davis’s removal. Schwarzenegger became the “Governator,” a media reference to him playing on the title of his movie The Terminator and coupling the film’s portrayal of an action-hero with his new position as Golden State governor.
In his Inaugural Address, Governor Schwarzenegger, ever the builder of high expectations, declared: “This election was not about replacing one man. It was not about replacing one party. It was about changing the entire political climate of this state.” Lacking experience in governmental leadership, such an aim was implausible. Near the close of his speech he echoed the vision of several former American presidents and other luminaries throughout history when he said, “I see California as the golden dream by the sea.” This idea, evocative of California being a Pacific Eldorado of beauty and bounty, resonated with the press.
An avowed fiscal conservative and social moderate, the newly installed chief executive set about dealing with the issues facing a distressed state. Overall, the media-magnetic governor lost as many policy battles as he won, tacking pragmatically to the political right and left to satisfy his conservative base and yet ensure broader support as needed. Budgetary problems plagued his governorship: to liberals revenues were insufficient; to conservatives spending was excessive. Trying to satisfy both groups, which were becoming increasingly polarized nationwide, proved impossible. His good initial working relationship with the Democratic-controlled legislature grew harder to maintain, especially after he began referring to his opponents as “girlie men.” Starting with an impressive 65 percent approval rating in 2003, two years later the figure dropped to 34 percent, as even support from his base eroded.
Shortly after his inaugural speech the new governor moved into action. He signed an executive order repealing the restoration of the full vehicle license fee and later borrowed money from an education fund to operate the government. While the governor’s anti-tax
Supporters cheered, the repeal cost the state $4 billion in revenue that could have gone toward deficit reduction. Unwilling to raise taxes, Schwarzenegger acquired funds to run the government by negotiating an agreement with educators to borrow for a short and specified time $2 billion otherwise dedicated to the schools and community colleges. As he had promised in the recall campaign, the new governor achieved repeal of the law permitting undocumented residents to obtain drivers’ licenses.
To get the state’s finances in order, Schwarzenegger proposed a $15 billion deficit-bond measure along with a balanced budget initiative. Both measures passed easily. He secured approval of a law aimed at reining in workers’ compensation payouts. His attempt to privatize public employee retirement systems stirred such a storm of protest from civil service workers that he abandoned the effort. Similarly, a plan he supported to change the way teachers were compensated, from length of service and educational level to merit pay based vaguely on what students had learned in the classroom, failed. He had not been clear about how student learning would be measured. According to the San Francisco Chronicle “the governor was short on details.” After antagonizing teachers with this idea, the governor sought to impede a law Davis had signed stipulating a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio in hospitals. When nurses protested, Schwarzenegger denounced the health-care givers as “special interests,” threatening to “kick their butt.”
As his poll numbers declined even among Republicans, the governor moved to the political right. Assailing illegal immigration seemed a sure way to rally supporters. “Close the borders in California and all across Mexico and in the United States,” Schwarzenegger urged publicly in April 2005. Hispanic voters grew increasingly uneasy about the governor some of them had helped elect.
Unable to get political mileage from what some said was his mishandling of the illegal immigration issue, Schwarzenegger campaigned hard to secure passage of several initiatives which, if passed in a special November 2005 election, might rescue his public standing. For example, one would have allowed him the discretion to make budget cuts. Others would have extended the time required for teachers to gain permanent job status, and undercut the power of unions, many of which contributed to the Democratic Party.
When none of these measures passed, the governor appointed a new chief of staff, a paintball-playing, cigar-smoking Democratic woman, Susan Kennedy. To whatever extent Schwarzenegger was able to rekindle public support, she was a major reason for it. His tough public talk became more tempered; he promised to increase per-pupil spending; and he voiced concern about human-generated climate change, going so far as endorsing California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), drafted by Democrat Fabian Nunez. The press proclaimed that a “New Arnold” had emerged.
In 2006 the “New Arnold” ran for reelection against Democratic nominee Phil Angelides, former state treasurer. In contrast to the incumbent, Angelides was politically experienced, Harvard-trained, and highly knowledgeable about public policy. Much of the challenger’s thunder, however, was stolen when Schwarzenegger campaigned on a plan to invest more than $200 billion in the state’s aging infrastructure of ports, highways, levees, schools, bridges, and prisons. The money would be raised through bond sales. As with Davis earlier, even in hard times Angelides’ proven competency could not trump Schwarzenegger’s celebrity power, especially when combined with his new, more progressive style. Even
Though Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 8 percentage points (42.5 to 34.3 percent, respectively) in voter registration, Schwarzenegger easily won reelection, his bipartisan appeal having been restored. Otherwise, the election resulted in a Democratic near-sweep in California, with Diane Feinstein being reelected to the U. S. Senate. Of six executive branch offices, only one went to a Republican.
The reelected governor tacked more to the political center during his second term, antagonizing his conservative base. He became more vocal about the importance of AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, as a means of combating climate change. The measure passed and received the governor’s signature in 2006. Accordingly, California would reduce the fossil fuel emissions causing global warming to 1990 levels by the year 2020. His fellow Republicans, many of whom warned that this measure would hurt business, were angered. Any support of President George W. Bush’s policies became more muted. The governor’s vetoing of the 2006 California Dream Act, which would have enabled undocumented college students to apply for institutional aid and Cal Grants, doubtlessly played well with what was left of his Republican base, but disappointed many others. When voters passed Proposition 1A in 2008, authorizing the building of a 220 miles-per-hour high-speed rail system connecting San Diego to San Francisco, Schwarzenegger traveled to China looking for investors. Work was to begin in 2012. Many budget-conscious conservatives opposed the then $9 billion project. The governor’s public support for same sex-marriages marked another clear departure from his conservative political base. In a bitterly fought battle in 2008, Proposition 8 narrowly passed, amending the state constitution to declare that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Afterward, Schwarzenegger told backers of gay marriage that “they should never give up.” Opponents of Proposition 8 have since brought suit in the courts, which will determine the constitutionality of the controversial measure. Schwarzenegger’s commutation of the sentence meted out to former Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s son, who had pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the killing of a 22-year-old victim, caused an outcry. This was especially the case as the exiting governor, when accused of cronyism, responded: “Well, hello! I mean, of course you help a friend.” Conservative hardliners, especially with respect to crime, were not pleased. It’s still too early to offer any more than a preliminary assessment of Schwarzenegger’s governorship. In 2011 veteran California commentator Dan Walters noted that when Schwarzenegger’s second term ended, he left office with a budget deficit “just as bad, and perhaps even worse, than the one he inherited from predecessor Gray Davis. And regardless of what else he may have accomplished, that will leave an indelible stain on his gubernatorial record.” As for “changing the entire political climate of this state,” as he said he aimed to do when entering office, that would have required major constitutional changes that have yet to be made.
World History
