The Governor showed up in Antelope Valley yesterday to raise money for his hugely unpopular special election campaign.  While he did get the wads of cash he wanted from his big money donors, he and his backers also probably got more than they bargained for:

Schwarzenegger raised at least $300,000 from local supporters, but he and everyone who attended had to pass through a gantlet of opposition at the Antelope Valley Fairground gate where several hundred protesters, many from public employee unions, turned out to catcall the governor.

Arnold just can’t hide from the hardworking Californians his that special interests election is targeting.  Teachers, nurses, firefighters, and public servants from all over the state have kept the Governor on his toes at events all over California.  Our “man on the scene” sent in this report . . .

At the rally today we had well over 350 volunteers chanting and sending the message that Arnold has the wrong agenda. Our volunteers held hundreds of picket signs with the message “No on prop 74, 75, and 76”.  Vehicles passing by could not help but honk their horns in support or our efforts.  At past events held throughout California, the governor tried to evade activists –  and at today’s event was no different.  He arrived approximately two hours before the event to avoid public employees.

Moreover, individuals driving into the Arnold fund raiser event could not look into the eyes of our volunteers who were chanting in unison “Shame on you”.

If you want to let Arnold know just how you feel about his special election, you can join Alliance Volunteers at a Chase Arnold event like those in Bakersfield tonight, or in Burlingame (San Mateo Co.) tomorrow.  We’re not going to take this lying down.

(posted by Drew on the BetterCA blog)

(crossposted on the BetterCa blog Arnold is preparing to announce on Friday that he is running for re-election…big surprise there. What is interesting is the timing of the announcement and the reasoning for the change in plans.

SignOnSanDiego.com:

The timing is seen as a move to generate excitement among Republican activists heading to the California Republican Party convention, which convenes Friday in Anaheim.

The politically coy governor has long signaled that he probably would not disclose his political future, or even give it much thought, until after the special election.

He was apparently persuaded to move up his timetable by business supporters who have given a lukewarm reception to Schwarzenegger’s special election, but desperately want a Republican governor to fend off what they regard as bills hostile to business passed by a heavily Democratic Legislature. [emphasis mine]

The governor has to resort to making an early announcement because even the buisness interests that his special election is designed to benefit aren’t jumping out of their seats to help.  

Given Schwarzenegger’s low poll numbers, this early announcement will have little effect on undecided voters. Rather, as the article mentions, it is intended to rally that 34% who somehow believe he’s doing a good job.  His announcement won’t be an offensive move, but rather a defensive attempt to shore up the tiny bit of popular support he still has left.

(cross posted at the BetterCa blog, My Left Wing and Booman)

Today, the Governor launched the campaign in support of his wildly unpopular special interests election. But instead of taking his message to directly to the people, he took a page from the president’s playbook and sequestered himself in a warehouse full of handpicked supporters, far away from the chanting crowds outside.  

PE.com:

Schwarzenegger touted his three ballot initiatives, Props. 74, 76 and 77, before an invited audience of politicians, businesspersons and employees of K&N Engineering, Inc., an air-filter company that hosted the event in a warehouse.

The article has a great shot of some protestors outside with “No on 75” signs.  I wonder if he managed to walk in on red carpet this time, instead of the warehouse equivalent of the playground?

(I think it’s abundantly clear that the California GOP does not like unions (and nurses, teachers, gays, etc….) – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Despite the assertions of it’s backers, Prop. 75 is designed only to weaken the political power of public employees and increase the political power of big business special interests.  Time, and time again the author of Prop. 75, Lew Uhler, has shown shocking frankness in discussing his intentions and made clear that they have nothing to do with protecting worker’s rights.

San Francisco Chronicle, 6/8/05:

“This time we’re focusing exclusively on public employee unions.”

San Francisco Chronicle, 1/12/05:

Uhler said the anti-union theme this year is in part a response to what he characterized as the increased political activity of unions such as the one representing state prison guards, which is annually one of the biggest givers to California politicians.

Sacramento Bee, 3/20/05

“To the extent that the political activities of unions might be diminished, then their demands for the kinds of working conditions, pensions, et cetera, that they are now getting will be mollified,” Uhler said. “And I think that will be a boon to our control over governmental activities in our state.” [emphasis mine]

Uhler belives that slicing off the private-sector unions turns the matter into a more purely focused taxpayer issue.

“After all, you and I pay their salaries, and you and I are accomplices in the withholding of funds for political purposes,” he said.

Proposition 75 is not about the rights of workers, it is not about protecting our cities, or healing our citizens. It is about consolidating power to futher a right-wing fiscal policy.  Uhler’s constiuents are not our firefighters and nurses but right-wing ideologues like Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, and Robert Bork.  Prop 75 is about curbing the power of advocate groups to prevent cuts to vital services, and enable more tax breaks for the wealthy.  If teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police are unfairly restricted by Prop. 75, and their voices are silenced, who will fight for the issues that matter to California?

In addition to pushing the deceptive Prop. 75, Uhler runs the National Tax Limitation Committee (NTLC), and organizattion whose primary agenda is the repeal of the federal estate tax.

Andy Furillo of the Sacramento Bee paints a vivid picture of his ideology:

He is an unapologetic McCarthyite and a former member of the John Birch Society whose hard-right ideology has taken him to the fringes of American conservatism.

[snip]

At Yale in the early 1950s, one of Uhler’s closest associates was author and journalist M. Stanton Evans. According to Uhler, Evans is now finishing up a book that “I think has confirmed that Joe McCarthy was on target” in exposing the alleged Communist infiltration of American government and society.

Not only does he think that McCarthy was a swell guy, but he also has a history of adulterating the truth as Reagan’s lackey.  In the late 70’s he was Reagan’s hatchet man in their “fight to shut down California Rural Legal Assistance, the program best known for helping farmworkers and other poor people seek legal redress.”

From the same article:

A panel of retired judges appointed by the Nixon administration investigated the charges and found that the Uhler report “in many instances … misrepresented the facts” and that the allegations against CRLA were “totally irresponsible.”
Cruz Reynoso, the former state Supreme Court justice and a law school classmate of Uhler’s at Boalt Hall, was in charge of CRLA at the time of the controversy.
“I used to tell people, if half of what they said in the report was true, we should all be in prison for the rest of our lives,” said Reynoso, who is now a law professor at the University of California, Davis. “So I have to conclude that these were folks, including Lew at that time, for whom the ends justified the means.”

25 years later Ulher is up to the same old tricks: trying to dismantle organizations that represent ordinary working Californians in order to silence their political voice.  This time, we know him. This time we have the power to stop him.