California’s race for the Senate is easy for people all across the country to care about, but we’re also going to elect a new Governor next year. Term limited or not, Governor Schwarzenegger has burned his bridges with most of the party and likely will never seek elective office again.

So it’s an open seat, and an open field for both parties this time around. Let’s start with the Democrats. It’s less depressing that way.

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At our next Republican Convention here in California, the most important vote we take may be the vote to close our primary elections, ensuring that people are Republicans before they can choose who will represent our party on the ballot. Since 1999 when we opened our primaries to those who do not join a party, we have had no noteworthy statewide electoral success from primary-nominated Republicans (our dear Governor Schwarzenegger, remember, bypassed the primary process in the recall of Governor Gray Davis).

So the benefits of the open primary have been shown to be minimal. Yet a certain coalition of Republicans will be fighting hard to keep our primaries open. Notable in that coalition are the backers of Meg “I’m a huge fan of Van Jones” Whitman, candidate for Governor; Carly “The fundamental objective [of HP is] to be a good international citizen” Fiorina, candidate for Senate; and of course Governor Arnold “Right-wing crazies” Schwarzenegger. See a pattern?

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The SEIU is furious

.
according to Yvonne Walker, president of the SEIU Local 1000.

If that was all you heard about the budget deal struck by The Governator and legislative leaders yesterday, you’d already know that the people of California had won this round. As Krempasky wrote earlier today, Arnold drew what appear to be astounding concessions from legislative leaders in dealing with severe budget shortfalls.

The details as they come out in future days may blunt enthusiasm, but the shorthand is simple. If the SEIU hates it, and NPR hates it, it was good for California and good for conservatives everywhere.

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Special thanks to Kevin Hassett who inspired this cartoon from his article that can be seen here.

Yesterday California voted on a slate of budget measures put forth by tax-and-spend Democrats. Three of them were outright terrible for the state, two were playing pure budgetary shell games, and one was a meaningless propaganda exercise meant to bolster the rest.

Proposition 1F, the propaganda exercise that attempts to deny pay raises for state elected officials when the budget is in deficit, passed and did so overwhelmingly: 74% Yes, 26% No. The rest? Not so much. They all failed with the Nos getting anywhere from 63% to 66% of the vote!

Where do we go from here? I’ll quote from my piece yesterday discussing Chuck DeVore’s analysis of the issue:

Today he pointed out that we face about a 23 billion dollar deficit on an approximately 90 billion dollar general fund.

….Should 1A fail, DeVore thinks we’ll face one of two actions by the Democrats. One option would be to cut popular government programs like police, fire, medical, and schools, hoping to burn down the state and blame it on Republicans. The other would be to pass an illegal tax increase with only a simple majority instead of the Constitutionally-required two-thirds majority. Either option will devastate our already-lagging state economy. The Assemblyman thinks we’ll be the second-last state to recover from this economic slowdown (I assume the last being Michigan under its equally-horrible Democrat Governor Granholm).

So we won, but now the real fight begins. It’s a deathmatch for the California economy, and much may hinge on what side Governor Schwarzenegger chooses to join for it. Will he join the tax hikers or the spending cutters?

Time will tell.

The California Constitution requires that our state government’s budget be balanced every year. Having a RiNO* in the Governor’s chair and Democrats controlling the entire legislature make that a fantasy though. They spend, and spend, and when tax revenues fall, they cry about Republican failures to approve tax increases.

Thanks to the Governor and a few other turncoats, they got a sales tax increase this year, but even that’s not enough to balance the budget. So now the Democrats turn to the voters to approve of a massive shell game that will let them tax and spend without consequence. I ask Red State readers to join me in opposing the entire slate, forcing us to live within our means, and giving our Republicans in Sacramento support in fighting runaway spending.

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