California after Arnold is about the future of California after Arnold Schwarzenegger steps down as governor. It analyzes his place in California politics, his impact on the political landscape, and the political, demographic and economic forces since 1911 as well as the current global economic crises affecting California in the 2010 election and beyond. The book provides a treasury of electoral data essential for political activists, academics, journalists and political junkies of all sorts.
Written by two veteran California political analysts, California after Arnold offers an clear-eyed analysis of Arnold's wins and losses. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, given his outsized career as a bodybuilder and movie star, Schwarzenegger has produced a very mixed record as Governor: while he utterly failed to terminate what he called 'crazy deficit spending,' he has achieved far-reaching reforms in the areas of legislative redistricting, the environment and labor laws.
As Schwarzenegger begins to end his internationally famous and historic governorship, the intense jockeying to replace him has started. National figures like Dianne Feinstein, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsome and Antonio Villaraigosa are among the contenders. The book offers profiles of each major candidate and illustrates how Democrats and Republicans have won, the different strategies they have used and why; and it looks at the long-term prospects of both parties and various ethnic and interest groups.ÂÂ
California politics continues to influence events well beyond its borders. For example, the electoral votes of the Golden State elected two presidents in the 20th century: Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and Richard Nixon in 1968. California governors invariably find themselves on prospective presidential candidates lists.
Much has been written, and will surely be written, on California politics, but no other work contains such a treasury of demographic and politics data, based on actual election returns, Census data and exit polls. Over 100 charts unwind a tangle of electoral details and line them up by region, ethnicity, income, party affiliation, and voter turnout over time, including results on initiatives regarding everything from water rights to hand guns.
Excerpt from Introduction: California's politics is as remarkable as California's personality. The combination of Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, and its unique politics came together in its gaudiest form with the 2003 recall election of Governor Gray Davis. With 135 of the most bizarre candidates ever to run for major public office, the result was an election that installed as governor an ex-bodybuilder who made his early success in Hollywood running around nearly naked in various films and who was a Republican who married into the Kennedy family. In one evening in October 2003, Arnold was transformed into Governor Schwarzenegger of California.
The Arnold Show has been going on for six years now and has another year and a half to run. It has been quite a ride from the highs of 2004, to the crash of the special election of 2005, to re-election in 2006, to the current battle over the California budget and the ongoing battle with the global financial crisis that is pounding the state and is guaranteed to make the governor s remaining term in office a difficult one. Likewise, the upcoming 2010 election to select Schwarzenegger's successor as governor is clouded by the state s fiscal mess, and the fact that previous governors faced economic crises with the specter of Hiram Johnson's recall provision hanging over them like a guillotine or the Sword of Damocles. The question one has to ask, then, is what happens to California after Arnold?
Written by two veteran California political analysts, California after Arnold offers an clear-eyed analysis of Arnold's wins and losses. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, given his outsized career as a bodybuilder and movie star, Schwarzenegger has produced a very mixed record as Governor: while he utterly failed to terminate what he called 'crazy deficit spending,' he has achieved far-reaching reforms in the areas of legislative redistricting, the environment and labor laws.
As Schwarzenegger begins to end his internationally famous and historic governorship, the intense jockeying to replace him has started. National figures like Dianne Feinstein, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsome and Antonio Villaraigosa are among the contenders. The book offers profiles of each major candidate and illustrates how Democrats and Republicans have won, the different strategies they have used and why; and it looks at the long-term prospects of both parties and various ethnic and interest groups.ÂÂ
California politics continues to influence events well beyond its borders. For example, the electoral votes of the Golden State elected two presidents in the 20th century: Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and Richard Nixon in 1968. California governors invariably find themselves on prospective presidential candidates lists.
Much has been written, and will surely be written, on California politics, but no other work contains such a treasury of demographic and politics data, based on actual election returns, Census data and exit polls. Over 100 charts unwind a tangle of electoral details and line them up by region, ethnicity, income, party affiliation, and voter turnout over time, including results on initiatives regarding everything from water rights to hand guns.
Excerpt from Introduction: California's politics is as remarkable as California's personality. The combination of Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, and its unique politics came together in its gaudiest form with the 2003 recall election of Governor Gray Davis. With 135 of the most bizarre candidates ever to run for major public office, the result was an election that installed as governor an ex-bodybuilder who made his early success in Hollywood running around nearly naked in various films and who was a Republican who married into the Kennedy family. In one evening in October 2003, Arnold was transformed into Governor Schwarzenegger of California.
The Arnold Show has been going on for six years now and has another year and a half to run. It has been quite a ride from the highs of 2004, to the crash of the special election of 2005, to re-election in 2006, to the current battle over the California budget and the ongoing battle with the global financial crisis that is pounding the state and is guaranteed to make the governor s remaining term in office a difficult one. Likewise, the upcoming 2010 election to select Schwarzenegger's successor as governor is clouded by the state s fiscal mess, and the fact that previous governors faced economic crises with the specter of Hiram Johnson's recall provision hanging over them like a guillotine or the Sword of Damocles. The question one has to ask, then, is what happens to California after Arnold?
