| Business Manager’s Report The Teflon is Leaking!By Brian D’Arcy, Business Manager, Local 18 Maybe it was inevitable, or maybe he has brought it upon himself; in any event, it is about time. But it certainly appears that the teflon coating around our “governator” is springing leaks, and even that fabled he-man hero of the silver screen may well not be able to stop the hemorrhaging. And, when you think about it, maybe it is exactly that distinction between filmdom and real life that is helping to do in the governor. After all, what is a film? It is a series of scripted and completely predictable and controlled lines of dialogue and scenes (along with, of course, in his films, a lot of whiz-bang effects). But, unfortunately for him—and more and more for the great majority of Californians—real life, governing life in Sacramento, simply isn’t about cues and re-takes if something goes wrong. It is about immense, real problems, affecting millions of ordinary, hard-working people. It is about getting things right, and doing right, for the greater good of all of California. In Sacramento, in governing the world’s sixth-largest economy, you simply cannot alter the lines and/or change the plot (reality) to best fit the current, or new, situation. The governor’s office is not a set, it is the real world. Statistical Free Fall Like many ambitious, opportunistic people and politicians, Herr “governator” was lucky right from the start. He had celebrity, a huge asset in star-struck California. He had oceans of money; his own and other people’s. He had unheard-of name i.d. Best of all, he had timing, that indispensable political blessing. Seeing blood in the political waters—unpopular and uninspiring incumbent Gray Davis bleeding uncontrollably—he jumped into the recall race, offering himself as either a “non”-politician or, perhaps, a “new” kind of political leader. “I will blow up the boxes,” he assured us, and make California a better place for everyone. How could he lose? He couldn’t, and didn’t. At first, it all seemed incredibly exciting. It was like an endless hit-movie premiere. The governor could do no wrong and the people loved him. His astounding name i.d. translated into unprecedented positive support numbers. His approval rating started out around 70%;apple pie doesn’t get that kind of number. His events—all carefully staged, of course—became happenings. His proclamations and promises became people’s convictions. People cheered his promise to “overhaul” how California is governed. As they say in Hollywood, “it looked good in the rushes.” Not any more. Somewhere between late 2003 and sainthood, and today (or the Presidency in 2008), the emperor’s new clothing has begun to show what it truly consists of—nothing. From approval ratings that politicians would kill for, the governor has slipped to below 50% in April, 2005. His disapproval rating has climbed from single digits to nearly 40%. Among adults—that is, eliminating many teenagers who remain star-struck by memories of the “Terminator”—the governator hovers at 43%-43%, dead even, in approval-disapproval, down from more than a 2-1 approval majority in just a few months. In fact, a very recent statewide poll notes that just 29% of the respondents would vote for the governor if he ran for re-election in 2006! Did Anyone See The Truck That Hit Me? Herr “governator” certainly has been broadsided. And if not the truck itself, its driver has been organized labor. Shortly after taking office, the governor, much to the delight of his big-business, anti-union, anti-families cronies, declared war on working men and women. He declared war on our values and our agenda—on the basic things we need and expect from state government. Among his primary targets were (and still remain):
The governor wanted to convert the state pension system—the safety net for an enormous number of retirees and families—from fixed, assured contributions to riskier 401(k)-style private accounts similar to those being pushed at the federal level by that other “great friend” of working people, President Bush. Huge, on-going, public protests, spearheaded by public-employee unions, have, for now, stopped the governor. Just recently, he had to backtrack from this goal, abandon his “pension reform” this year, and withdraw what he himself admitted was a “flawed” plan. The governor wanted to increase nurses’ caseloads and deprive public-safety personnel’s widows and families of disability/death benefits. Organized nurses, along with unions representing peace officers and firefighters, dogged the governor everywhere he promoted his radical ideas. They hammered him with facts and case studies, finally forcing him to halt—for now—this part of his “pension reform.” The governor lied to teachers, students and public schools by reneging on his publicpromise to restore money he had snatched away from their budget shortly after taking office. He claims, as an “education governor,” that his new budget provides nearly $3 billion for public education—while overlooking the $2 billion raid he made on school funding that he has never made good! Organized teachers and librarians statewide rallied en masse, ridiculing the governor’s commitment to education, blasting his fiscal shell game, and loudly protesting his intention to strip away seniority and wage-scale rights. Maybe it is all right to lie, deceive and backtrack on your promises in Hollywood. But it is not right to do that as governor—especially when you claim to be a “straight-shooting, new kind of politician.” Herr “governator” is rapidly—and possibly irrevocably—destroying public trust in his word, his most valuable political capital. He needs a “script doctor” to help him re-write his words and re-think his goals. Recently, the governor’s wife remarked that she would like him “to come home to his family.” It is often wise to listen to one’s spouse. In unity, |
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