Mathier and Ross are star-struck. But they are also reporting on Sxhwarzenegger's most successful activity as governor: raising money from business groups who want a favor: Schwarzenegger flexes his fund-raising muscles San Francisco Chronicle 03/07/04.
Since his election in October, rookie Schwarzenegger has raked in $14 million in campaign contributions -- more than twice as much as his predecessor, the ever-prolific fund-raiser Gray Davis, scooped up in his first months in office. ...
While Arnold's good-government pitch and star power draw well, behind the scenes there lurks a healthy bit of good old-fashioned "lay your bets'' politics. ...
Indeed, Team Arnold insiders make no bones that much of the money that came in for the "recovery" campaign [Propositions 57 and 58] was from businesses whose real interest is workers' comp reform -- an issue that may be headed for the November ballot. ...
All in all, Arnold's business-friendly gestures appear to be keeping the money rolling in from all market sectors -- insurance companies, banks, health care providers and real estate.
But Schwarzenegger has been keeping his distance from Bush. He didn't appear in public with the President during his recent trip to California. In part, that's because Bush is so intensely unpopular in California right now and Schwarzenegger doesn't want to tarnish his image of immense popularity and political clout. (It's an image that's largely the spin of the candidate's handlers facilitated by a ditzy, superficial press corps, but that's another story.)
But part of the problem is that Bush is so far leaving Schwarzenegger in the lurch as far as coughing up dough to help him balance the state budget without discomforting the comfortable. At least you can say that, since California is a net contributor to federal revenues (we give more than we receive), that demand doesn't have quite the negative implication for public policy as Schwarzenegger's frantic fund-raising from business interests.
No comments:
Post a Comment