This is probably not a surprise to anyone, but Senate President Don Perata, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (pictured to the right on the campaign trail with Phil Angelides), and the rest of the Democratic legislators who hold majorities in both houses of the legislature do not want a Republican Governor — specifically, they would like to see Arnold Schwarzenegger lose in November, and fail dismally in his leadership of California between now and then. Why? Because as partisan Democrats, they would like to see one of their own party members occupy the highest public office in the state.
This becomes important because in this election year, there is simply no way to avoid the reality that the partisan elections that are underway have already and will continue to ensure that the legislative Democrats will do anything and everything to see Governor Schwarzenegger embarrassed and do poorly — after all, you need only look at the endorsements lists on the websites of Phil Angelides and Steve Westly to see where their loyalties are…they want to dump Arnold.
Because of this stark reality, it is folly to gear up an election campaign that is themed around the idea that these partisan Democrats are going to give legislative victories to the Governor — unless, as we just saw with the bond debate, the Governor is willing to completely abandon his own strong fiscally conservative leanings and jump so far through the Perata/Nunez hoops that he leaves his own base, and GOP legislators behind. In the end, you can count on legislative Democrats sticking it to the Governor every chance they get.
**There is more – click the link**
March 17th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I am really glad the Governor brought on Susan Kennedy to help him deal with the Legislature.
I don’t know where he would be right now without her. A Republican COS would never have been able to deliver results like these!
March 17th, 2006 at 12:00 am
LOL Dave! I thought she was going to bring some cache and have some pull dealing with the dems. I guess we now know how effective she is. I for one though am glad to see the whole bond deal collapse. It’s a bad deal for the taxpayers who are always the lowest interest group in the political food chain in Sacramento. It was just blind luck for taxpayers that a deal wasn’t able to happen.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:00 am
Susan Kennedy may be the only person who won’t need to change offices after November’s election; regardless of the outcome.