California Drops The Ball
We started something here in California, when we overcame the union bosses and hack pols and booted Gray Davis out of office. We ended it yesterday, giving the state back to the bosses and hacks.
Besides marking, for all intents and purposes, the return of Schwarzenegger to the silver screen, the vote may mark the end of the intitiative process for political reform.
The unions spent $150 million to degrade Schwarzenegger and promote their greedy opposition to the initiative. And they took advantage of the movie star governor's naive vanity. He thought his charm could move the population; they proved that hard, nasty politics beats big egos and small experience.
Schwarzenegger blew it by declaring a special election for the measures. Had he waited until 2006, he would have diluted the impact of union voters more, but self-interested state employees and teachers simply overwhelmed the rest of us at this election without candidates.
The results were pretty stunning. A rough averaging shows the gov's package fell by about 43% to 57% -- in other words, a landslide.
Californians will probably still foolishly pass bond measures that burden us with billions of dollars in debt in order to buy open space or protect streams, but the viciousness of this vote would make most wary of spending the $100 million or so it takes to quality and promote an initiative.
Besides marking, for all intents and purposes, the return of Schwarzenegger to the silver screen, the vote may mark the end of the intitiative process for political reform.
The unions spent $150 million to degrade Schwarzenegger and promote their greedy opposition to the initiative. And they took advantage of the movie star governor's naive vanity. He thought his charm could move the population; they proved that hard, nasty politics beats big egos and small experience.
Schwarzenegger blew it by declaring a special election for the measures. Had he waited until 2006, he would have diluted the impact of union voters more, but self-interested state employees and teachers simply overwhelmed the rest of us at this election without candidates.
The results were pretty stunning. A rough averaging shows the gov's package fell by about 43% to 57% -- in other words, a landslide.
Californians will probably still foolishly pass bond measures that burden us with billions of dollars in debt in order to buy open space or protect streams, but the viciousness of this vote would make most wary of spending the $100 million or so it takes to quality and promote an initiative.
posted by Laer at 6:09 AM
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