Votes of No Confidence for the Special Election
Re “As Popularity Ebbs, Governor Reaches Out,” June 22: Well, I see now Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to compromise. After he commits us to spending up to $80 million to bypass the Legislature and open a Pandora’s box of poorly written initiatives, he opens the door to negotiate with the Legislature.
I guess he forgot that real-life politics is not like the movies. There everyone has the same script. In politics, people have different scripts. It only took him 18 months to match the ratings of Gov. Gray Davis. Fast work!
Lou Wiener
Santa Clarita
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It seems to me if the governor is so intent on having his special election this year, and after seeing his approval rating drop to 31%, it’s time to have a new recall election. Where do I sign?
Robert Tarallo
La Crescenta
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Re “Gov.’s Donor Under Fire From State,” June 20: The governor promised to fight the special interests that pollute our political system. Maybe next time we’ll think before we vote.
Jon Hartmann
Los Angeles
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We take issue with the June 14 editorial, “State of Perpetual Campaigning,” that the organizations representing teachers, firefighters and nurses have a financial interest in permanent campaigning. This leads to the impression that public service unions are supportive of the special election. As we have said from Day 1, we oppose the idea of a special election. A special election is bad government, it represents a failure in leadership and is not good for California.
The blame for the special election falls squarely at the feet of Schwarzenegger, who proposed the idea in January before the legislative session even began and long before he made any effort to try to reach a solution with the Legislature.
Schwarzenegger has raised millions of dollars from the special interests for the last six months, breaking his promise to keep special interests out of politics and corrupting the ballot initiative process. He has resorted to calling nurses, firefighters and teachers names.
Schwarzenegger is a bully, plain and simple. And like any schoolyard bully, we are going to have to stand up to him.
Art Pulaski
Exec. Secretary-Treasurer
California Labor Federation
Oakland
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