Stand Firm, Governor!

OC Register

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger needs to be more emphatic in assuring voters that he won't play games with the special election he called for November - that the election will go ahead as planned.

On Monday, the state legislative counsel issued a conclusion that "the governor may rescind the proclamation [for the election]until the date of the election."

A spokesman in the governor's office told us yesterday that the counsel's opinion "doesn't matter" and that the governor will "move forward with the election in November." But the Aug. 3 Sacramento Bee reported that "some legislative Democrats stand ready to help him if he changes his mind."

And on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that the governor said he was still working "to come up with a bipartisan compromise" on the issues addressed in the special election.

The areas of potential compromise would be on Proposition 76, which limits state spending, and Proposition 77, redistricting reform, which has been knocked off the ballot on a technicality pending review by the state Supreme Court.

There's some controversy whether the governor could cancel the election at any time right up until the polls actually open on Nov. 8. Election lawyer Scott Rafferty, however, points out that the election actually begins Sept. 9, when ballots are sent to voters overseas.

If the November election were canceled, other initiatives that were placed on the ballot by groups independent of the governor - such as Proposition 75, the Paycheck Protection Act - would be placed on next June's ballot.

Democrats and the unions are hoping that might happen, figuring they'd have a better chance of defeating the initiative at a general election. That alone argues for allowing the November special election to go forward.

Perhaps more important, compromise with the Democrats, followed by canceling the election, would stink of politics-as-usual, deals done behind the flaps of the governor's infamous cigar smoke-filled tent.

Is that any way to run a state, or an election?

The governor needs to take action to assure voters the election process he started in motion won't be so compromised. He was elected in the recall of 2003, when voters were fed up with the insider-run system headed by Gov. Gray Davis. Gov. Schwarzenegger was elected to clean up the mess in state government, not perpetuate it.