Great News from California – voters there said no to the tax and spend initiatives on the ballot.
Funny, the New York Times doesn’t quite see this as good news, judging by the headline Calif. Voters Reject Measures to Keep State Solvent. Funnier, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sat this one out.
While the governor was a strong supporter of all the measures, he was not the public face of the effort, as he was in 2005 when he took on the budget issues, and well as the state’s unions, in another failed effort at the ballot box. This time the Republican governor let teachers and firefighters do his talking for him in advertisements, and indeed was not even in the state the day of the vote.
Instead, he was a guest of President Barack Obama at the White House, where the president was announcing tough new federal standards on automobile emissions that emulate California’s environmental standards. He updated his Twitter account through out the day (“Just landed in DC. Look forward to updating you tomorrow, hopefully with pictures or video”) but made nary a mention of the propositions there.
I hope the GOP is paying attention. California is the bluest of blue states and the citizens sent a clear message. They’re getting sick and tired of out of control spending.
