Calif. Primed For Special Election

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic and labor forces that oppose him switched into full campaign mode after the governor made official what he has threatened for months — a special election to change the way state government does business.

Schwarzenegger announced Monday that he had signed a proclamation calling a special election for Nov. 8, only the fifth special election in California since 1910. He wants voters to consider measures that would cap state spending, strip lawmakers of their power to draw legislative boundaries and increase the amount of time it takes public school teachers to get tenure.

He also is likely to endorse a measure curbing public employee unions' ability to raise political contributions from member dues. That move will almost certainly produce fierce opposition from national unions who view the measure as a blow to organized labor. Democrats oppose it because they draw substantial campaign funding from unions.

The summer months in a non-election year typically offer a lull in the political campaign cycle, but the prospect of a special election this fall promises a costly face-off between the governor's political team and deep-pocketed Democratic interest groups.

"The summer is thought of as kind of a quiet time, but we don't intend to be quiet," said Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teachers Association.

To illustrate that point, the teachers union voted over the weekend to assess a one-time $60 increase on member dues to raise as much as $50 million to fight the governor's initiatives.

"We're going to do what it takes, and money is part of it," Kerr said. "We can't do $100,000 chicken dinners like he can." 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."