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California voters reject key measures for arnold { October 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/afx/2005/11/09/afx2326103.htmlhttp://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/afx/2005/11/09/afx2326103.html
AFX News Limited
California voters reject Schwarzenegger measures in key referendum
11.09.2005, 05:49 AM
LOS ANGELES (AFX) - California's movie star Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger suffered the biggest flop of his political career when voters rejected a slate of referendum measures on which he had staked his reputation.
Figures from the state's top electoral official early today indicated that with 90 pct of votes counted, all four of the referendum propositions endorsed by Schwarzenegger had failed, two of them by wide margins.
The drubbing in yesterday's election that amounted to a referendum on his rule represents a stinging defeat for the populist who swept to power in a landslide election two years ago and who is vying for re-election in just 12 months.
With his popularity plunging, voters landed a knockout punch to the brawny former body-builder, refusing to endorse any of his four measures and hurting his chances of winning a second term as leader of the most populous US state.
'I think the results will deal a serious blow to the governor's standing,' said Walter Zelman, director of the University of Southern California's California Policy Institute.
'It will reduce his capacity to threaten the Democratic legislature with 'going to the people.' It will make him appear vulnerable in the 2006 election,' he told Agence France-Presse.
The Republican actor-turned-politician called what turned out to be a highly unpopular special election in a bid to bypass the state's Democrat-led legislature and ram through what he termed as critical government reforms.
The stakes were high: victory would have seen him reign over the state's legislature by threatening them with more direct democracy. But the price of failure is that he is likely to find himself vulnerable and battling to govern.
The most important of the measures Schwarzenegger backed was Proposition 76 that would have capped the amount of money the debt-ridden state can spend annually and allowed mid-year budget cuts. It failed by a massive 38.6 pct of votes to 61.4, with 90 pct of votes tallied.
His Proposition 77, which would have taken away the state legislature's power to draw political boundaries and handed it to an appointed panel of retired judges, failed to pass by 41.3 pct of votes to 58.7, the California secretary of state's website showed.
His Proposition 75, which would have forced public service unions to obtain members' permission each year to use dues for political campaigns, a move that would hurt the Democratic Party that depends on union support, failed by 47.5 pct of votes to 52.5.
The last measure backed by Schwarzenegger, Proposition 74, would have lengthened the time teachers needed to win permanent tenure, a move that infuriated teacher unions, failed to pass by 45.6 pct of votes to 54.4.
'What will be interesting is to see how the Governor responds to the defeat,' Zelman told AFP.
'Will he dig in and hunker down and hope that a victory in the election next year gives him a new mandate, or will he accept the public verdict and try harder to work to achieve bipartisan compromise?'
But while the defeat will likely be damaging to Schwarzenegger, it will not spell his political demise nor signal defeat in the 2006 gubernatorial poll, Zelman and several other experts stressed.
'He would have a year to recover and would be facing off against an individual opponent in the next gubernatorial elections, which is a lot easier than living up to voter ideals,' Claremont McKenna College political science professor Jack Pitney said.
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