ShareThisFriday, November 10, 2006
We sympathize with anyone awakening from a three-year coma and suddenly reading the headlines.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger re-elected governor."
Whaaaaaat?
Yes, its true, this Hollywood icon has again won the governor's race. This news doesn't shock anyone who has been awake in recent months, but to the uninitiated, it may sound like an April Fools' Day prank.
We sympathize with them now, as they sit in their hospital beds, incredulous at the headlines, wondering: How did this happen? How did Schwarzenegger become governor?
Many Wednesday-morning quarterbacks will point to Schwarzenegger's superior star power, the power of incumbency and a weak campaign run by his opponent, Treasurer Phil Angelides. They don't give Schwarzenegger enough credit.
Name recognition didn't help the governor when he sponsored a silly special election and was down deep in the polls last year. He turned things around and won this year because he set priorities, worked with the Legislature and was able to frame himself as a bipartisan governor who could get things done. He accomplished enough to back up his message, which resonated with an electorate fed up with years of wedge-issue politics and inaction, both in Sacramento and Washington.
Indeed, the surprise of this resurgent year for Democrats is not that a Republican governor got re-elected in California, but that more politicians aren't following Schwarzenegger's model for success. Voters want competing politicians to offer distinct choices, but they don't want ideology to trump all avenues for cooperation. Schwarzenegger and the Legislature cooperated on four public works bonds, and at least three were headed toward passage Tuesday night. The likely approval of these bonds suggest that California's political system, despite the encumbrances of term limits and ballot-box budgeting, can actually function with the right leadership.
Now we await the real mystery of the election season: How Schwarzenegger will operate in a second term. He says he wants to focus on health care, but he will face continuing budget deficits with no stated plan for closing them. If he is willing to engage in these issues and learn the lessons of this last triumphant year, he could have more ahead of him.
