California Nurses Plan to Turn Tide Against Schwarzenegger

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Here in California, progressives have not abandoned the Angelides campaign---as “abandoning” would imply a joining of the effort in the first place. This is not the article to address “what went wrong,” but as I have written previously, few progressives fear Arnold’s re-election and are more motivated to put their time and money into defeating Republican Congressmembers and Senators.

In 1994, California progressives ignored the Kathleen Brown challenge to incumbent Governor Pete Wilson, but thousands worked day and night for the single-payer health care initiative, Prop 186. But this election cycle California progressives do not appear much involved in any statewide campaign

Although activists would seem to be attracted by Prop 87’s increased taxation of oil companies, there is little evidence of bumper stickers, buttons, signs, or other evidence of a grassroots campaign. Funding for Prop 87 has largely come from Silicon Valley interests that support alternative fuels, and the pro-87 effort seems to be relying entirely on television and mail.

Prop 89 has come closest to generating statewide progressive interest, with the California Nurses Association putting its energy into this public financing of elections measure. But this initiative will not drive voter turnout among low-income people, nor is it galvanizing activism in African-American and Latino communities.

Given progressives success in California, the failure to mount a statewide initiative drive around a powerful economic justice issue is both surprising and disappointing. The Burton health care initiative lost by only 1% in 2004, but its proponents have not gone back to the ballot with a broader campaign that could potentially win. Regulation of “big box” stores is a big issue across the state, but did not become part of a progressive statewide ballot measure. The proposed minimum wage ballot initiative was shelled after the Governor made it clear earlier this year that he would agree to a $1.00 increase (which became $1.25).

Organized labor is the heart of California’s statewide progressive movement, and its leadership in the defeat of the Schwarzenegger initiatives in November 2005 shifted the state—and the Governor---to the left. So perhaps California progressives won their statewide victories a year early, freeing time and money on contests in other states to wrest control of Congress from the Republicans.

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