View New Ads on Schwarzenegger's Legacy of Distrust and Broken Promises and Read the Supporting Facts

“Integrity is something California’s firefighters don’t take lightly, and we have been profoundly disappointed in Governor Schwarzenegger,” said Brian Rice, a Sacramento firefighter also featured in the ad. “He wasted all of last year on a divisive Special Election on issues that attacked working people. He lost our trust. How can we trust him to not go back to being the Governor who attacked working men and women?”

Why is the Alliance continuing their efforts to protect working men and women? Because we don’t know who Arnold Schwarzenegger really is and we have no way of knowing what he really believes. Time and time again we’ve seen him try to reinvent himself to be able to gain advantage in polling numbers, fool the voters into thinking he’s not just another politician, and spend taxpayers’ money on wasteful big stunts.

“We’re currently on Arnold #4, by my calculations. So, the Alliance asks, which Governor would show up after re-election, after the votes are counted? Why would we want to wait to find out?” Kaufman concluded.

The Evidence

Arnold #1: Election Day 2003 – Promised a New Beginning

Before:

“I do not have to bow to any special interest,” Schwarzenegger said shortly after announcing his candidacy last week on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. “I have plenty of money. No one can buy me off. Trust me.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Boston Globe
August 10, 2003

After:

Schwarzenegger has taken more special interest money than any Governor in history, blowing all previous fundraising records out of the water.

Arnold #2: Blowing up the Boxes

Before:

“Every Governor proposes moving boxes around to reorganize government. I don’t want to move the boxes around; I want to blow them up.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger
State of the State
January 6, 2004

After:

No boxes were blown up at all. Schwarzenegger moved on.

Arnold #3: Assault on public employees:

Before:

Schwarzenegger needed someone to blame for all his inaction. He attacked Teachers, Firefighters, Nurses, Police and all other public employee workers in a disastrous Special Election that took aim at the very workers Californians trust most. That Special Election cost taxpayers $70 million. He sought to privatize pensions and blatantly catered to the hospital executives’ interests by opposing higher staffing ratios for nurses. His proposals would have cut death and disability payments to the families of fallen firefighters and law-enforcement officials, and changed teachers’ pay rates and delayed their tenure rights even as he broke his promise to “fully fund” education by withholding $2 billion owed to the public schools budget.

His 2005 campaign team outlined a strategy to create a “phenomenon of anger” among voters toward public employee unions. The process was described as “like peeling an onion,” a “multi-step plan for persuading voters that public-worker unions are ‘motivated by economic self-interest’ instead of ‘doing the best job for the state’.”

Los Angeles Times
June 5, 2005

“The Governor has used caustic language to describe union power, once calling it ‘evil’.”

Los Angeles Times
November 10, 2005


"When you think about what is derailing California, and what has been for years, it's the public employee unions."

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Stockton Record
October 14, 2005

After:

He was soundly defeated in the Special Election. While he said “I didn’t hear the majority of Californians when they were telling me they didn’t like the Special Election”, (Arnold Schwarzenegger, State of the State, January 5, 2006) he has never clarified his position relative to working men and women who belong to public employee unions.

Arnold #4: Re-election Governor:

Before:

GOVERNOR RAISES MINIMUM WAGE

Oakland Tribune
September 13, 2006


CALIFORNIANS TO GET DISCOUNTS ON DRUGS
Calif. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lawmakers Reach Deal on Prescription Drug Discount Plan

Associated Press
August 25, 2006


But In Reality:

Schwarzenegger has vetoed the Minimum Wage bill twice.

“Schwarzenegger remains philosophically opposed to a minimum-wage hike, although he generally does not take positions on specific legislation until it reaches his desk, an aide said.”

Sacramento Bee
January 3, 2005

Schwarzenegger has vetoed 10 prescription drug bills between 2004 and 2005.

“For all his criticisms of his predecessor's acceptance of special-interest money, Schwarzenegger has not turned off the spigot. He received a reported $337,000 from pharmaceutical companies before vetoing industry-opposed legislation to bring cheaper Canadian prescription drugs into California.”

San Francisco Chronicle Editorial
October 4, 2004

We in the Alliance can't stand by and just wait for the next iteration of Arnold that shows up for work next year, should he be re-elected. We have no confidence, no history, no evidence of core values that would reflect a Governor who will show up after the election working in partnership with the Democratic Legislature, working in concert with working men and women to finish the work needed for real health insurance, long-term funding solutions for education, or protecting workers.

We've seen no evidence of any consistent behavior that would warrant our trust. We simply can't trust him.