Stop Arnold Weblog

Schwarzenegger's Legacy: Backlash Against Corporations?

Politics in this country will never be more receptive to people's needs until we get corporate bribes out of the system.  Schwarzenegger's legacy--after sickening voters by watching him gorge on campaign cash--may do just that.  A group of unions and activists is working to qualify an initiative that would be a reasonable first step by allowing  shareholders vote on corporate political spending.  Michael Finnegan in the LA Times explains it:

The corporation would have to produce annual reports for shareholders listing all political donations and spending from the previous year. Its political budget for the following year would require majority shareholder approval.

The budget, however, would be cut to reflect the percentage of the vote. A $1-million political budget, for example, would be sliced to $600,000 if holders of 60% of the shares voted to approve it.

Sac Bee, AP Report Arnold in Full Campaign Mode

Schwarzenegger's raking in donations, mostly from corporation and corporate management, to the tune of about $2 million in the last 2 weeks, reports Gary Dehlson in the Sacramento Bee, who also reports that:

Next month, Schwarzenegger plans an East Coast fundraising swing that will take him to New York, Washington and New Jersey, Wilson said.

The trip is certain to generate criticism from political foes who say Schwarzenegger is spending too much time raising money and not enough time governing. Protesters showed up at both his fundraisers Thursday in Redding and Yuba City.

Tom Chorneau in the Associated Press sums it up thus:

Despite Schwarzenegger's recent drop in the polls and the controversy surrounding a multimillion-dollar consulting contract, his fundraising has continued at a brisk pace.

Local Press Follow the Money

Schwarzenegger travelled to Redding and Yuba City yesterday to hold fundraisers with his corporate donors and to Chico to hold a PR event with PG&E, a major backer.

One of the reasons for his fall from grace is the nasty little media conundrum he can't get out of:  he travels around the state for fundraisers; press are barred so they interview the protestors outside of his events; the news covers how much money he's raising and its corrupting influence on his administration.  In other words, every corporate check he rakes in comes at a cost to his image.  This is how it should be for every politician in America, but Schwarzenegger's a good start.

There's a cornucopia of examples from the North State.

Tim Heardon in the Redding Record Searchlight writes:

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrated his birthday privately with donors Thursday, protesters outside the occasion had a party.

Chants, colorful signs and raucous cheers marked an energetic gathering as more than 150 demonstrators — mostly union members — voiced objections to the governor’s policies.

Brea Jones & Roger Aylworth in the Chico Enterprise-Record write it like this:

While invited guests waited inside Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. for the arrival of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Thursday, protesters blew whistles, chanted and held signs along the sidewalk.

David Eldridge of Forest Ranch waved a "Recall Arnold" sign to honks of support on East 20th Street.

"If we recalled (former Gov.) Gray Davis because of low approval ratings, maybe it's time to recall Schwarzenegger," Eldridge said.

While Eve Hightower in the Marysville-Yuba City Appeal-Democrat covered it like this:

Nurses, teachers and others outside Paradiso Restaurant in Yuba City protested Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed reforms Thursday, while supporters welcomed him inside.

Schwarzenegger spent the day raising money and pushing proposals slated for the November special election ballot.

There are more examples--but one question.  Can the Governor turn this press problem around?

Can You Be a Lame Duck in Your First Term?

KCRA, a Sacramento television station, is wondering if Schwarzenegger will run again.  It seems like he'll lose, but it also seems like he's bull-headed enough to try it.  Who knows?

Here's the story.

Schwarzenegger Stonewalling, Patients Suffer

Is it news when it's the same old story?  The Department of Justice has found that California is understaffing its mental hospitals and putting patients at danger and that Gov. Schwarzenegger is trying to block investigations into the matter.

What can we conclude from this?  1. Mental patients aren't big donors to Schwarzenegger...and 2. That's probably all.  Does the bodybuilder-Governor even know that the state runs institutions like the Napa Mental Hospital.  Maybe, maybe not.  But his team sure does and they know that his priorities lie in satisfying his donors.

Jim Doyle in the SF Chron reports:

"In the letter, dated June 27 and made public this week, acting Assistant Attorney General Bradley Schlozman said his investigators had uncovered evidence at Napa of "excessive patient-on-patient assaults, patient suicides and trafficking in contraband, including illegal street drugs."

(It's On!) Initiative Back On Ballot

Slow news day.  The Governor is up in the North State doing some photo ops and raising money from his corporate friends.  Who celebrates their birthday by fundraising?  Moreover, who pretends that a day two days before their birthday is their actual birthday so they can have an excuse for fundraising?  Clearly not me.  But Schwarzenegger, yes.

Free CNA hat to the first person who went to one of these events and can tell me if the atmosphere was depressed or in denial.

The only thing the papers covered much is that the on-again, off-again Prop. 80  on the special election ballot is...on-again, for now.  Apparently, it's probably illegal but the California Supreme Court says let's figure that out afterwards.   

Did you think this election would stop looking like a circus?  Well you were wrong. 

Marc Lifsher in the LA Times writes the story:

"If passed, it would remove one of the few remaining features of California's 1996 electricity deregulation law. Its most important provision would ban large consumers such as businesses and institutions that aren't already doing so from buying their electricity from independent power marketers rather than from utilities. "

The other story in the papers is that the Governor's budget initiative has had its title lightly re-written to focus less on its devestating impact on school budget.  Gary Delsohn wrote that story for the Sacramento Bee.

You Are What You Eat

Am I the only one who thinks it's ironic that Schwarzenegger takes $100k from Dreyer's Ice Cream the same day that he's holds press conferences declaring his intentions to reduce childhood obesity?

Either way, Schwarzenegger has been raising millions more from corporate interests in the last couple weeks.  Take a look, thanks to Election Track.

The Best Thing About Schwarzenegger: He Got His Clock Cleaned By Women

Is the future of the labor movement female?  In These Times it just might be--and the best evidence?--the damage that the California Nurses Association has done to Arnold Schwarzenegger after he claimed he was 'kicking their butts.'

Great story by Kari Lydersen in In These Times:

"While the aggressive, vociferous CNA campaign defies stereotypes of women as passive and accommodating, the nurses take pride in their perhaps “traditional” role as caretakers of patients and their community. They emphasize that their commitment to providing quality care for patients is at the heart of the staffing ratios debate, and they see their main battle as being for decent working conditions, affordable housing, healthcare and other basic rights for everyone.

“We spend an enormous amount of time in political education, vis-a-vis the relationship of nurses to the public,” says DeMoro. “You can’t be a patient advocate without being a social advocate, because medicine takes place in a social context. The things that affect your life, your family and your community are jobs, adequate health insurance, pensions, standards of living. It comes down to those issues.”

The Only Way for Non-Donors to Meet with Schwarzenegger?

If you want to speak wth Arnold Schwarzenegger there are two ways: go to one of his almost-daily fundraisers and give him thousands of dollars--or--walk 400 miles and shame him in the media.

A Ventura County teacher chose the latter path and now he can talk to Schwarzenegger about his anti-teacher, anti-student policies.  The teacher told the Los Angeles Daily News:

"I felt very good about the meeting," Fraser said. "I was able to say what I wanted to say. I was able to share the issues that I thought were important. Most of all I told the governor the teachers want to know they're appreciated, just like the nurses and the police and the firemen."

California Labor Unions Have An Independent Streak

As we've seen in the campaign against Schwarzenegger, California labor unions have a long history of independent and effective action.  Rachel Osterman in the Sacramento Bee writes about the California Nurses Association and their reaction to the national debates:

"The California Nurses Association followed a different path.

It split off from the more conservative American Nurses Association 10 years ago, and has since roughly tripled its statewide membership to 60,000. One of its most significant legislative coups was a first-in-the-nation law that dictated how many patients each nurse could treat.

Being independent from the AFL-CIO gave the union room to organize registered nurses. Nevertheless, at its fall convention, Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro said the nurses union will consider joining the AFL-CIO.

"A union by itself is a union. But a union by itself isn't a movement," she said."