Angelides, Bush, and Schwarzenegger

For months, State Treasurer Phil Angelides (and Democratic gubernatorial aspirant) has been trying to link up President Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A call for a statement from Angelides--either from the campaign or from his state office--seems to always come back with some link between the two Republicans. In today's Bee Angelides has a commentary on the subject. He starts: Last week Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote in The Bee that the special election is his attempt to "finish what he started." It's true - from Day One, Schwarzenegger started bringing the Bush agenda to California, and his wasteful and costly special election is his attempt to finish what he started. "Day One" might be a bit of a stretch, even for Angelides. At the start of the Schwarzenegger administration, he was joined by numerous Democrats--including Controller Steve Westly, Angelides' primary opponent--to push for what were billed as bipartisan changes. Schwarzenegger passed Prop 57 and 58 with bipartisan support. He worked closely with then Senate President Pro Tem John Burton. And they hammered out a deal over workers' compensation. But the budget fight last summer seemed to drive a wedge between the adminstration and Democrats. In any case, here are a couple of specific Bush/Schwarzenegger comparisons Angelides makes: ust as Bush borrowed trillions and now says we have to live within our means and gut critical investments, Schwarzenegger burdened our kids with billions in new debt and now is sponsoring Proposition 76, the Live Within Our Means Act. Proposition 76 would reduce school funding by about $4 billion and forever constrain the investments in education and infrastructure that California needs to succeed in the 21st century global economy. Bush promised to leave no child behind, and then promptly left behind his promise to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act. Like Bush, Schwarzenegger pledged to protect education, vowing to suspend the voter-approved Proposition 98 minimum funding for schools "over my dead body." Despite his promise, Schwarzenegger suspended the guarantee and shortchanged schools by $3 billion. Perhaps the strongest element of Angelides' strategy is to link Schwarzenegger's administration to the visceral negative reaction many Californians have had to the Bush administration. And that is the precisely the audience he needs to get out the vote to win a Democratic primary next June.