nathan ballard at earned media alerts us to the flunk arnold campaign, in which cal state u. students are encouraged to make a video explaining why the gropinator should get a failing grade for his job leading california. the asspress tells us:

the california faculty association, a union that represents about 22,000 professors and other csu employees, launched a “flunk arnold” contest on wednesday asking students to design a 30-second television commercial criticizing schwarzenegger.

more after the jump:

its goal is threefold: raise public awareness about fee increases at california colleges over the last few years; help defeat schwarzenegger in the november governor’s race; and get students involved in politics.

faculty association president john travis said he hopes students will use the skills and knowledge they’ve acquired on social networking sites such as myspace, friendster and youtube, where anyone can post video clips on just about any topic.

“this is a technology that’s going to become more important. it’s the mechanism by which they’re kind of defining themselves,” said travis, a political science professor at humboldt state university in arcata. “they spend time there, a lot of it very creatively. we wanted to tap into it.”

the contest is open only to students of california state university, the nation’s largest higher education system.

the winning spot will air statewide during the daily show in october. its creator also will win a year’s worth of fees at their school. one year of annual fees also will be paid for the student who designs the best “flunk arnold” web site.

you can see some of the entries so far on youtube.

personally, we’d just give him an ‘incomplete,’ and make him repeat the 2005 special election.

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Cross-posted at Daily Kos

California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg isn’t the only Sacramento powerhouse seeking to protect power by opposing reform.

The Chevron Corporation — formerly known as Standard Oil of California — wrote a $250,000 check to a special interest group opposing Proposition 89, the California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act.

Chevron has extensively funded the negative attack ads against Proposition 87, the Clean Energy initiative also on the November ballot.

A chronological view of Chevron’s $19 million in contributions contains seven checks written over a nine month period.

The company has a storied history of buying results. In 1984, Chevron’s merger with Gulf Oil was the largest merger that had ever occured. Chevron also gobbled up Texaco, Unocal, and Sacramento politics.

On September 2, 2004, Tom Chorneau reported for the AP:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ambitious plan to reorganize almost every aspect of state government was influenced significantly by oil and gas giant ChevronTexaco Corp., which managed to shape such key recommendations as the removal of restrictions on oil refineries.

Many corporations and interest groups participated in the governor’s reform plan — known as the California Performance Review — but state records and interviews with the participants show Chevron enjoyed immense success in influencing the report through its array of lobbyists, attorneys and trade organizations.

And few corporations have spent so much political cash on the governor, either. Since Schwarzenegger’s election last October, the San Ramon company has contributed more than $200,000 to his committees and $500,000 to the California Republican Party.

Chevron, whose officials acknowledge they lobbied hard to get their ideas in the report, is one of about 20 companies that paid to send the governor and his staff to this week’s Republican National Convention in New York. On Wednesday, Schwarzenegger attended a closed-door meeting in New York with representatives of those companies, including Chevron. And just three weeks after the Governor’s Office released the 2,700-page reorganization report, the company gave $100,000 to a Schwarzenegger-controlled political fund.

At the time that was a lot of money. Richard Holober, Executive Director Consumer Federation of California, explained what has happened since then:

Since 2004, Chevron gave $3 million in political contributions in California. For a company that made a record $14 billion in profits last year, it was money well spent. Despite public indignation, big oil crushed a proposed state tax on windfall oil profits.

Chevron has proven successful in the current system. The company has spend millions and ensured they make record billions.

Under Proposition 89, Chevron would be able to contribute $10,000 against each initiative, removing almost twenty-million dollars in negative ads. Chevron employees would be able to contribute, but Proposition 89 would create a system where political issues aren’t decided like an auction.

Clean Money — public financing of campaigns — has proven successful in Maine and Arizona. Included in Proposition 89 are the best practices from those systems, adapted for California. The initiative also includes are review process that will allow regular refinement.