Calif. Primed For Special Election

Gov. Schwarzenegger Calls For Fall Vote On Labor, Spending Issues

(AP)  The governor has scheduled campaign events in Southern California on Tuesday and Wednesday on behalf of his proposed spending cap. He also was expected to continue making the argument framed in his latest round of campaign commercials: that a spending cap is necessary to keep Democrats from proposing further tax increases.

"Our door will be open 24 hours a day to any Democrat who is serious about negotiating," Schwarzenegger campaign strategist Todd Harris said. "But they haven't been serious before, and we can't wait forever."

The governor and his allies already have raised and spent about $15 million to qualify his initiatives for the ballot. He is set to raise about $30 million more before the November election.

Democrats, meanwhile, have called the ballot initiatives a Republican power grab with potentially devastating consequences for public health and education. A coalition of interest groups, including nurses, teachers and public employee unions, plans to continue protesting Schwarzenegger at his public appearances and running ads on television and radio.

The California Nurses Association, which has fought Schwarzenegger over his efforts to block lower nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, said it intends to mount a national campaign suggesting Schwarzenegger is using California as a staging ground for social policies supported by the Bush administration.

The group also is in discussion with consumer groups to organize a boycott of products sold by Schwarzenegger's corporate donors, especially drug companies.

Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the nurses union, declined to disclose her organization's budget but said the money would be used primarily for grass roots organizing.

Gale Kaufman, a Democratic consultant who is organizing the labor coalition's campaign efforts, said the group would continue to attack Schwarzenegger's decision to hold the special election before developing separate campaigns against each initiative.

"In any campaign, you build momentum and you focus activity when people start to pay attention," Kaufman said. "We'll be watching what he does, and we won't leave anything to chance."