I am struggling to try and praise Governor Schwarzenegger for his apparent decision to call a special election this summer to fill the vacant Senate Seat of Abel Maldonado, as opposed to consolidating that election with the general election in November (he has the latitude to due either). But I prepared to do just that, but let me start first by "setting the table" appropriately.
First and foremost, I really can’t think of anyone worse who is a registered Republican whom Governor Schwarzenegger could have tapped to be Lt. Governor. The Governor may not see it that way since a lot of the reasons why I have issues with Maldonado also apply to the Governor — most notably there is a special place reserved in you-know-where for Republicans who campaign and get elected (or re-elected) on solid GOP principles like limited government, opposition to higher taxes, and promotion of individual freedom and liberty — and proceed to then use their offices to do the opposite — expand government, raise taxes, and make policy decisions that erode individual freedom and liberty. That is what we got with Abel Maldonado — so a special "no thank you" to the Governor, who could have used this vacancy as an opportunity to put forward someone who actually talks the talk and walks the walk. Sure, the Democrats could have blocked the confirmation of a "real" Republican — but then that would be on them, not on us.
As if Maldonado sucking on the merits wasn’t enough, his "promotion" is a huge headache for the political aims of the Governor’s own party (you know, the one that he left in massive debt after his re-election, the one for whom he is raising no money this cycle, and the one that he is trying to decimate by ballot measure — yeah, that Republican Party). As everyone knows, a major political goal of the Democrats is to try and pick up just two more Senate seats and in doing so they would have a veto-proof 2/3rds majority in the upper house — greatly changing the Capitol political dynamic — and not to the advantage of taxpayers. Democrats have targeted the seat of Jeff Denham, who is termed-out and is running for Congress. It’s a seat that was drawn to be Democrat, but Denham won it in a special election and has held onto it for nearly a decade. But the second seat for them is much more of a stretch… or at least it was, until the Governor "gifted" Senate Republicans with an unexpected battle for a competitive seat…
Republicans will have the resources to fully "defend" the Denham and Maldonado seats — but it comes at the expense of funds that would otherwise be in play to actually try to put more Republicans in the State Senate (last year’s infamous tax increases showed that being this close to only a third of the Senate is not an adequate protection for taxpayers). This is shaping up to be an outstanding year for Republicans (thank you Mr. President, Mr. Reid, Ms. Pelosi) — and so Republicans may just yet make some gains this fall in the State Senate. But every penny that is put into keeping Maldonado’s seat in GOP hands comes at the expense of that effort.
Which now brings me to my opportunity to drop at least one word of praise on Schwarzenegger — which is that his decision to set the special election to fill the vacancy in the Maldonado seat sooner than later, from a political perspective, benefits Republicans (who tend to fair significantly better in lower-turnout special elections). This means that less resources will have to be diverted from Fall pick-up efforts, though it will still be quite pricey.
But in the big picture (and I should warn you that I am generally considered to be terrible at analogies), praising the Governor for the timing of this special election is like thanking the doctor who amputates your leg, but tells you that while I was in there he repaired a hernia you didn’t even know you had. Better that the Governor hadn’t tapped Maldonado in the first place, and this wouldn’t have been an issue.