Echo Times

Issue date: 11/28/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Brody Sloan Dee Fraites held a political rally to inform voters about the special election propositions. Pictured here with "Arnold' cut-out, Greg Brockbank, COM board member.

It was a landslide loss for Governor Schwarzenegger's ballot measures. The governor fought hard to see that each of the eight propositions made it onto the ballot of the November 8 special election. California voters shot down all eight, leaving the governor scrambling, trying to do whatever possible to regain his popularity, which has already been creeping south with the populace.
The loss cost Schwarzenegger more than support from California residents. The governor forked over "more than $7 million of his own money into his losing effort," according to a Nov. 9 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, "…and the election became the costliest in state history." Californians were assaulted with advertising as opponents tried to sway residents right up until the day of the election. Did this method backfire?
Union leaders, and large organizations such as the California Nurses Association and the California Teachers Association banded together to form an anti-Schwarzenegger coalition. These entities also spent serious cash in this political battle. "The anti-Schwarzenegger coalition raised and spent more than $100 million against him," according to the Chronicle. "You don't win many fights with nurses," noted Jack Pintey a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College.
The anti-Schwarzenegger coalition maneuvered the advertising blitz in January, but some supporters say the governor responded too late. Opponents bombarded voters with television commercials, mailers and phone calls. By fall the public was saturated with the political firestorm.
The Field Poll conducted on two different surveys during Oct. 24 and Oct. 30, concluded that when there was high voter awareness on most initiatives, people were more predisposed towards marking NO than YES on each initiative.
The other factor in election results could have been the high absentee turnout. In 2002, California voters began to register as permanent absentee voters so their ballots came to them automatically according to the Sacramento Bee. " As many as four out of every 10 voters likely made their judgments before the special election by casting their votes with absentee ballots," according to the Field Poll released Nov 7. The Field Poll estimated that 40.5 percent of voters would send in absentee ballots. Statewide, county election officials reported that by Monday afternoon voters had sent in more than 2 million of those ballots."
"Of absentee voters, those casting ballots in the special election will be older, wealthier, and more likely to be white than in a presidential or gubernatorial election," said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo.
According to the field poll's predicted turnout, less than half of registered voters would actually go to the polls, and of those voters, only 11 percent would be between 18 and 29 years of age.
"A third of the expected absentee voters will be age 65 or older, and 76 percent will be white compared with 68 percent of those casting their ballots at the polling place," according to the Field Poll.
"Absentee voting is growing in favor because it gives voters more time to study complex issues," said DiCamillo. "It also gives busy Californians more time to cast their votes because they receive their ballots two to three weeks before election day."
Maybe that was the governor's problem. Californians had too much time to think about it.

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