Buoyed by a new poll that has him leading all recall candidates less than a week before the election, Arnold Schwarzenegger outlined what the first 100 days of a Schwarzenegger administration would look like.
"We are ready to take office," he told a crowd of about 400 supporters on Wednesday. "We are ready to take action. We are ready to return California to the people."
The Austrian-born actor repeated a number of pledges made earlier in his campaign. On his first day in office, he said, he would repeal the tripling of the state car tax, then move to have the state budget audited and call a special session of the legislature to deal with spending cuts.
PHOTO: AP
He also intends to seek a percentage of Indian casino revenue and renegotiate state employee union contracts, even though the new state budget signed by Governor Gray Davis already calls for US$1.1 billion in savings from renegotiated labor contracts or layoffs.
Davis campaign spokesman Peter Ragone said it was a mistake for Schwarzenegger to "start measuring the drapes in the offices of the Capitol."
"It's profoundly disrespectful to the people who haven't yet expressed themselves and haven't yet had their voices heard in this election to start naming their transition team or whatever they're up to," he said.
Schwarzenegger's address came as Davis appeared Wednesday with retired General Wesley Clark, a presidential candidate and the latest high-profile Democrat to visit California in support of the governor. He later appeared with his newest convert, independent Arianna Huffington, who dropped out of the race on Tuesday but promised to work with Davis to defeat the recall and keep Schwarzenegger out of office.
At the event with Clark outside a firehouse museum, Davis used his most direct language yet to cast the recall as a choice between himself and Schwarzenegger.
"We have to speak to independents and Democrats in blunt terms. They have one choice. Unite to defeat this recall and stop Mr. Schwarzenegger or face the prospect that Mr. Schwarzenegger will be governor," he said.
On Tuesday, a new Los Angeles Times poll showed Schwarzenegger had support from 40 percent of likely voters. Democrat Lieutenant Governor Bustamante had 32 percent, and Republican state Senator Tom McClintock 15 percent.
The poll also showed the effort to oust Davis succeeding, 56 percent to 42 percent.
That marked a shift from a Sept. 12 Times poll that had support for the recall stalling, with 50 percent of voters supporting it and 47 percent opposed.
The earlier poll also had Bustamante leading with 30 percent to Schwarzenegger's 25 percent. McClintock had 18 percent.
Schwarzenegger's surge came after an aggressive performance at last week's debate and the withdrawal of former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, another moderate Republican. Schwarzenegger also has aired millions of dollars of ads over the past several weeks.
GLORY FACADE: Residents are fighting the church’s plan to build a large flight of steps and a square that would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago. Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower. A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster. The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
Two sitting Philippine senators have been identified as “coperpetrators” in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), documents released by prosecutors showed. Philippine senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named in a document dated Feb. 13 and posted to the court’s Web site. ICC prosecutors have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” “Duterte and his coperpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines
Venezuelan Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado yesterday said that armed men “kidnapped” a close ally shortly after his release by authorities, following former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s capture. The country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed later yesterday that former National Assembly vice president Juan Pablo Guanipa, 61, was again taken into custody and was to be put under house arrest, arguing that he violated the conditions of his release. Guanipa would be placed under house arrest “in order to safeguard the criminal process,” the office said in a statement. The conditions of Guanipa’s release have yet to be made public. Machado claimed that
RSS