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Thursday, April 07, 2005

Schwarzenegger loses pension privatization battle

Hours after the news broke of the new Schwarzenegger poll, the Governor has admitted defeat and given up his plan to privatize pensions. From The AP:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Under pressure from firefighters and police officers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday backed off, for now, his plan to privatize California's public employee pension system.

The Republican said "misconceptions" among firefighters and police officers that privatization would strip them of death and disability benefits had come to dominate the issue.

Over the past few weeks, Schwarzenegger has waged a campaign to put privatization on the ballot during a special election next fall. But on Thursday, he said he would wait until the June 2006 election if lawmakers did not craft a compromise measure in the coming months.

This is a major defeat for the embattled Governor. Having this on the spring ballot prevents Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign from coordinating with the initiative money. Schwarzenegger has already dropped 10 pts. this year and now that it is clear he can be beaten everyone will pile on. This week has been a major turning point in California's 2006 gubernatorial campaign. Schwarzenegger is unpopular, on the run, and things are only going to get worse. It is so bad the Governator can't even visit San Francisco without huge protests.

The Democrats are now favored in the 2006 race for governor.

Posted at 04:56 PM in 2006 Elections - State, California | Technorati

Comments

This news is making my day. I worked with the California Nurses Association to build the San Francisco protest; they had disrupted 38 Arnold events before this one, since he labeled nurses a special interest and offered to 'kick their butt." Whose butt is getting kicked now?

Loved your live blog of the event on April 5-- which I read afterward. Being on the security detail, I spent my evening on the walkie-talkie yelling such useful things as "get more people to the Pine Street side -- there is a limo coming!" /smile

Posted by: janinsanfran at April 7, 2005 06:01 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment