You hear the complaint all the time from voters:
”
There really is no difference between the political parties.
These guys are all the same.
”
You hear the complaint all the time from voters: “There really is no difference between the political parties. These guys are all the same.”
And some politicians deliberately try to obfuscate the differences that do exist. One example: Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has very cleverly adopted a largely Democratic agenda for the last eight months after plumping for a conservative Republican agenda for the previous two years.
This leaves it up to his Democratic re-election rival Phil Angelides to make it clear there really are major differences, big reasons for voters to pick either him or Schwarzenegger.
Angelides has been trying to do exactly that since the June 6 primary election, traveling up and down the state with the message that he is the “anti-Arnold” and has been since the former muscleman actor took office. So, to a degree, has Schwarzenegger, whose latest TV commercials imply Angelides would impose new taxes on all Californians, while he really advocates taxing the extremely wealthy and closing corporate tax loopholes.
Angelides is trying to highlight not only major policy differences with Schwarzenegger, but also what he maintains are personality differences.
“This guy is incapable of keeping his word,” says Angelides, now finishing his second term as state treasurer. “He says one thing one day, then does the exact opposite. He’s not a guy you can count on.”
Among the broken promises Angelides mentions are Schwarzenegger’s pledge never to take money from special interests, then accepting more than $150 million in campaign donations from corporations and other interests that either do business with the state or fall under state regulations.
Another promise Angelides mentions was the Schwarzenegger pledge to “tear up” the state’s “credit card” and do no more borrowing if voters passed two 2004 initiatives designed to help balance that year’s budget. Soon after those measures passed, Schwarzenegger began plumping for $68 billion in new construction and repair bonds.
“There’s a difference between borrowing to balance the budget and borrowing to build the state up,” says Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Julie Soderlund.
To Angelides, though, borrowing is borrowing.
“The list of broken promises is long, both in both personal and policy areas,” he said in an interview. “With me, what I say is what I’ll do.”
And what he’d do is very different from what Schwarzenegger has either done or wants to do.
“If I’m elected, within one month I’ll sign a minimum wage increase with an annual inflation factor,” Angelides pledges. Schwarzenegger twice vetoed bills passed by the Legislature that would have created just such an increase. But he tried to obfuscate this by asking the previously moribund state Industrial Welfare Commission – which had not met in two years – to order a $1 an hour minimum wage increase with no indexing for inflation.
Angelides also pledges to make good on a promise implied in many of his campaign commercials, which complained that loopholes allow corporations and the wealthy (annual family income over $500,000) to escape about $10 billion in taxes “they ought to pay.”
“I’m going to ask them to pay their share because fair’s fair,” Angelides said. “If I win on this platform, I believe I’ll have a mandate for it, and I will collar legislators and get them to close those loopholes. Arnold never will do that. I’m not afraid of asking corporations and the rich to step up. He’s afraid of asking this from even one corporation or multi-millionaire. He’ll continue to defend big corporate tax breaks.”
With the money he might raise, Angelides says he will “roll back state college and University of California tuition and fees raised by Arnold.” And he pledges to “fully fund” public schools. What about the fact that Schwarzenegger’s current budget brings school funding back up to what’s legally required?
“When I say fully funded, I don’t mean just what’s legally required,” Angelides said. “If we just keep limping along, our economy will never really be strong in the long term. We need to make our universities financially accessible to more of our young people. But if Arnold wins, tuition will go up. I won’t do that. I’m not running for governor by running up the flag of surrender.”
Then there’s liquefied natural gas, where Schwarzenegger supports building large terminals to import foreign energy supplies, a tactic that would lock in current high prices for decades to come, no matter what happens on world markets.
“When the Legislature considered a bill to require full hearings on environmental and economic aspects of LNG, I was the only statewide official to back it,” he said. “I’ll insist on that if I’m elected.”
All of which means there are contrasts in this election that go beyond the obvious difference between Schwarzenegger’s flamboyance and the Angelides policy wonk personality. Despite some surface appearances and the lapdog demeanor of top legislative Democrats whenever they’re around Arnold, there are real choices here, real reasons to vote one way or the other this fall.
