California Conservative

“I have recently been very critical of Governor Schwarzenegger’s veer to the left, most specifically his deals with Democrats on hiking the minimum wage, putting price controls on pharmaceuticals and punishing California businesses in the name of reducing ‘greenhouse’ gases. These are all awful policies which in both the short and long run hurt California’s economy, its businesses and its citizens. The Governor was just flat out wrong to embrace any of them, and got terrible guidance from his staff on these matters.”

This is crunch time — 45 days to the election. The GOP nominee for Governor, is playing with the Democrats to get re-elected. No one, maybe not even Arnold, knows how he will govern over the next four years. We do know that Angelides is a MoveOn.org radical, having no redeeming values to the families and businesses of California. It is not enough for Arnold to win, we need real Republicans as Lt. Governor, Controller, Secretary of State, Attorney General and Insurance Commissioner. We need to pick up at least two Assembly and one State Senate seat. This can happen, with an Arnold landslide. We already know there will be a low voter turnout. Our folks need to turn out. The unions are spending $25 million for TV ads and turn out–we need to match them.

An Arnold victory north of 10 points will bring in a couple of our nominees–20 points like Davis over Lungren in 1998, will bring in the whole group. If we want to rebuild the California Republican Party, we need Chuck, Tom, Tony, Steve and Bruce…they will be the base of a new GOP. Bill Saracino and I have been friends for more than 40 years, I trust him. This piece is one of his most penetrating and inspiring.

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Steve Frank is the publisher of California Political News and Views and a Senior Contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org. He is also a consultant currently working on gambling issues and advising other consultants on policy and coalition building.

Read more of his work here or at his blog.

Full article by Saracino follows
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Conservative Reality Check Time
by William E. Saracino
California Public Policy Foundation
California Policy Review

I have recently been very critical of Governor Schwarzenegger’s veer to the left, most specifically his deals with Democrats on hiking the minimum wage, putting price controls on pharmaceuticals and punishing California businesses in the name of reducing “greenhouse” gases. These are all awful policies which in both the short and long run hurt California’s economy, its businesses and its citizens. The Governor was just flat out wrong to embrace any of them, and got terrible guidance from his staff on these matters.

Because I haven’t been shy about expressing these opinions, many folks have concluded that I wish the Governor ill in his re-election bid. Not so, and conservatives who think through the implications of possible election scenarios will see it is in their distinct best interest that he be re-elected — by a lot.

The health of the conservative movement in California rests largely on the electoral prospects of Tom McClintock, Chuck Poochigian, and Tony Strickland. Their political health, in turn, rests largely on the governor winning re-election by a substantial margin.

No realistic November story line has Arnold Schwarzenegger losing while McClintock, Poochigian, and Strickland win. I think it possible, though not likely, that McClintock’s “straight talk express” campaign might enable him to out poll the governor by a small margin (as he did in the primary). But unless the governor’s race is a real cliff-hanger, that would not affect ultimate victory or defeat for McClintock.

A sizable (6 to 8 points or more) Schwarzenegger victory however, could well bring home victories for McClintock, Poochigian, and Strickland — and the rest of the GOP statewide ticket, Bruce McPherson and Steve Poizner. So my conservative brethren who belong to the “trash the governor daily and publicly” caucus should think through the electoral implications for the conservative standard bearers of an imploding Scwharzenegger campaign.

Now there is certainly nothing wrong — in fact, a lot is right — with taking the governor to task when he makes foolish, even destructive moves. That’s what I tried to do in talking about the minimum wage, pharmaceutical price controls, and greenhouse gas abominations Schwarzenegger proudly participated in.

But conservative reality is that a McClintock-Poochigian-Strickland November victory enormously resuscitates our movement. Conversely, defeat for all three alongside victory for the governor, and, say, incumbent McPherson or self-financing millionaire Poizner — distinctly possible if the governor’s race is close — would only boost the argument that a conservative cannot now win statewide in California.

The ideological differences in the GOP ticket can be turned around and seen as strengths, not weaknesses. As I’ve written before, the current Republican line-up — Schwarzenegger, McPherson, and Poizner on the center-left with McClintock, Poochigian, and Strickland on the center-right — could be the most powerful and appealing statewide ticket since the first Reagan slate in 1966. It is certainly “balanced” philosophically, something the media always whines about but never acknowledges when the object of their kvetching actually appears.

The Republican ticket has something for just about everybody in the state except die- hard Democrats. The Democrat ticket runs the gamut from liberal to very liberal to ultra liberal.

I have quoted before Barry Goldwater’s speech withdrawing his name for consideration at the 1960 GOP national convention. Barry’s operative phrase then was “Conservatives, grow up.” That is still excellent advice now.

The conservative movement could take a giant step forward this November with the election of three of its champions. Whether or not it does depends significantly on how far it has “grown up” to realize that, like it our not, its fate is inextricably wound up with the governor’s. For conservatives to win, he must win. And though it probably belongs in the Ultimate Irony Hall of Fame, it is a fact nonetheless.

Whether or not conservatives understand and deal with this situation in an intelligent political manner will determine the movement’s future in California for years to come. Somewhere Goldwater is still saying: conservatives … grow up!

William E. Saracino is a member of California Political Review’s editorial board

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at 12:49 am and is filed under Arnold, Author: Steve Frank, California, Elections, Sacramento. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.