Polls Indicate Schwarzenegger Going Down In Special Election

Polls published today in the L.A. Times and other media indicate that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces defeat next Tuesday in the special election he and his corporate contributors foisted on the electorate.

Nothing would be better news, although foes of the governor and his craven pandering to special interests must rally themselves to go to the polls and be sure the defeat takes place. Schwarzenegger called the election in hopes of a skewed voter turnout, and now is advertising in such a way as to encourage Republicans to vote and Democrats not to vote.

Most important to defeat is Proposition 75, the Schwarzenegger trick to disarm the public employee unions while leaving his business friends free to pour their money into his campaign coffers. This thoroughly corrupt proposition was trailing this morning in the Times poll by 51 to 40%.

But it's important too to defeat the anti-teacher and spending limit propositions, other tricks the governor is playing on the electorate.

In the Recall Election, Schwarzenegger won on his celebrity background and a BIG lie -- namely that he would fight the special interests. Ever since achieving office, however, he has sought big contributions and done favors for a whole host of business interests.

Most notably, Schwarzenegger entered into an $8 million contract with a fitness magazine to do its bidding. He then vetoed legislation to control dangerous diet supplements. This alone amounts to accepting a bribe. The governor belongs in jail, not the state capitol in Sacramento. Even his own wife has stopped speaking in his behalf.

The unions and the teachers have been fighting effectively against the propositions in this Special. Now, the hope is that if Schwarzenegger is indeed defeated badly enough, he may decide not to run next year for reelection. He will have been disgraced badly.

Let's pray, work and vote for that result. Schwarzenegger has been a terrible disappointment. Now, California must put itself back on track after two unsuccessful, not to say unsavory, governors, Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Particularly commendable this morning in the L.A. Times is the column by Steve Lopez on Page 1 in the California section.

Lopez observed of the Special, "This is where we are two years after a special election in which we elected a governor who promised he'd terminate special-interest fundraising, partisan monkey business and big borrowing, three categories in which he now reigns as undisputed heavyweight champ."

Lopez also warns that should Schwarzenegger prevail, California could become another banana republic.

God willing, he won't.

The saddest thing so far is that Andres Martinez and the L.A. Times editorial page have endorsed Proposition 75, showing the desire of the paper's Chicago Tribune owners to go back to the days of the unionbusters, Herbert Hoover, Warren Harding and William Howard Taft, the Presidents who led us into the Depression.

Also, it's noticeable that the so-called political expert, Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, has been supporting Proposition 75. Jeffe, whose political expertise is very limited, seems to be currying favor with the Times Editorial Page staff. She ought to be dropped as an anti-union shill for the same interests that disgraced California in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. She, like Schwarzenegger, is baggage California ought to toss aside onto the trash bin of California history.