ABRAMOFF SCANDAL: CALIFORNIA IMPACT?
You need only pick up any newspaper in America today to see that the lead political story is the guilty-pleas yesterday of embattled DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Supposedly Abramoff has cut a deal with federal prosecutors where he will now assist them in going after some higher-profile DC types (read: Senators, Congressmen, staffers) in return for leniency on his sentencing. What does this have to do specifically with California politics? Well, there are several implications (just ask Joe Justin). In a direct sense, Abramoff has close relationships with many Californians, of which the most reported-about has been his close ties with Republican Congressman John Doolittle. I don’t think that Doolittle did anything wrong, but he will now have the challenges that come with having been a close associate with an admitted criminal. This matter will also have an overriding impact on the politics of the Congressional delegation in their dealings with the state legislature, and in their dealings at home. Scandals of the magnitude of the Abramoff matter, and that of admitted-criminal (soon to be jailed), former Congressman Duke Cunningham (R-San Diego) definitely will make things more challenging for the GOP leadership, who already were being emasculated by House moderates before yesterday’s guilty pleas. Of course, the most immediate political impacts may play out in the special election in the 50th District of California, down in San Diego, where where voters will choose their replacement for Cunningham.
You need only pick up any newspaper in America today to see that the lead political story is the guilty-pleas yesterday of embattled DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Supposedly Abramoff has cut a deal with federal prosecutors where he will now assist them in going after some higher-profile DC types (read: Senators, Congressmen, staffers) in return for leniency on his sentencing. What does this have to do specifically with California politics? Well, there are several implications (just ask Joe Justin). In a direct sense, Abramoff has close relationships with many Californians, of which the most reported-about has been his close ties with Republican Congressman John Doolittle. I don’t think that Doolittle did anything wrong, but he will now have the challenges that come with having been a close associate with an admitted criminal. This matter will also have an overriding impact on the politics of the Congressional delegation in their dealings with the state legislature, and in their dealings at home. Scandals of the magnitude of the Abramoff matter, and that of admitted-criminal (soon to be jailed), former Congressman Duke Cunningham (R-San Diego) definitely will make things more challenging for the GOP leadership, who already were being emasculated by House moderates before yesterday’s guilty pleas. Of course, the most immediate political impacts may play out in the special election in the 50th District of California, down in San Diego, where where voters will choose their replacement for Cunningham.
NEW CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR THE GOVERNOR?
Ace San Francisco Chronicle political reporter Carla Marinucci is reporting today that Steve Schmidt, California political-operative gone Beltway, will be returning to the Golden State in February to take the reigns of Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaigns. I first met Steve when he was working on the campaign of Matt Fong. It’s undoubtedly no coincidence that Schmidt worked closely in that campaign with new Schwarzenegger Communications Director Adam Mendelsohn. Well delve more into this story in the coming weeks, as we watch the Governor’s campaign come together. Schmidt’s most immediate challenges may come from the policy announcements out of the Governor’s office. Steve knows the importance of maintaining support from your base. Well, apparently the base is a moving target right now, as the Governor is seemingly prepared to literally shift his entire philosophical positioning…
THE CAMPAIGN REQUIRES A MESSAGE, THE CANDIDATE…A BASE
All campaigns, of course, require a message and reason for voters to choose your candidate. As we go into 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger is making some key decisions about how is going to present himself to California voters. As a conservative who supported Schwarzenegger in the recall, I felt that the Governor was right on track in last year’s special election, pushing for real fiscal reforms for California, which truly is in the clutches of special interest groups who benefit from a fatter and bigger state government. I think that the lesson-learned from that election was that the special interests can raise so much money that they can win the ‘spin’ game in the paid media environment. Especially, as FR contributor Mike Der Manouel likes to point out, when their spokespeople are nurses, cops, firemen and such.
Apparently, the Governor’s response to his election defeat last November was a decision that his policy goals were wrong. The idea of "Living within our means" seems to be one of the past. Every day, I am reading the leaked-out policy ‘pre-announcements’ for tomorrow’s big State of the State Address and the speech is starting to sound like it will resemble one given by FDR, not Ronald Reagan Or if it sounds Reaganesque on the surface, it would be to soft-cell a policy agenda that has been thus-far filled with ideas that embrace bigger government and centralized control of the economy.
Apparently 2006 is to be the year of debt creation. We are apparently about to embark upon some great-society program where billions of borrowed funds will put Californians to work, building needed infrastructure improvements. I am not saying that California doesn’t have infrastructure needs, but the stark contrast of our need for austerity just a few months ago now completely flipping to a need to borrow billions just leaves one gaping. As I have said before, I was on the speaking circuit in support of the ’70’s package of reforms, and billions in bonded indebtedness wasn’t on that little diagram we would draw of the state needed to operate its budget like a family would have to run its own finances. Now, a proposal to fund needed infrastructure improvements by reallocating state dollars from existing programs…THAT would be the kind of program I would expect from the Arnold Schwarzenegger I voted for in the recall election.
Wages, apparently too low, will be generously raised by your government, hurling a wage-increase mandate on employers. Our public school system, in desperate need of reform, will instead receive a generous infusion of cash into the current, sub-standard bureaucracy. While the educrats want more money than the Governor will be offering up, they seem to have no interest in revamping the state’s education system. Of course, why would they? Their political arm, the California Teachers Association (which is a union pushing for employee benefits, not an organization dedicated to helping the education of children), won the big political battle last year. Well, I could go on…
Let’s wait to hear the speech — but I am getting disheartened already. I am now wondering what the Governor could possibly plug into his speech that would excite me, as a conservative, in light of everything I just mentioned above. Somehow a reminder that the Governor will oppose any tax increase measures rings hallow in the face of massive bonded indebtedness. Because, of course, it is a SPENDING problem we have in Sacramento.
I guess I will hold out hopes that there are proposals coming tomorrow for some significant cuts in state spending…but given the Governor’s goal of working with the Democrats in the legislature (who have a voracious appetite for spending, spending, spending)…
I don’t mean to come across unduly harsh, as I have been a supporter of this Governor. But given his liberal positions on many other issues about which I care deeply, my ‘connection’ with Arnold Schwarzenegger has been his passion as an economic conservative. If he retreats from this, and as it appears, is prepared to tack away from these positions…. Sigh.
Well, let me be proven wrong. Remember, it is the size and scope of government in this state that is the problem, not who is running it. We didn’t elect a Republican Governor to preside over a vast bureaucracy, we elected him to tame the beast, and to reform the out-of-control, dysfunctional state government. At least that’s why I voted for Arnold.
Well, on a closing note, let me encourage you to read an editorial in today’s San Diego Union Tribune, entitled Arnold’s Dilemma.
Have a great day!
Have a great day!
Jon