Another piece today–this one coming in The Washington Post–sees the Schwarzenegger-backed propositions going down to defeat (registration required). This seems to be now a trend over the past week or so, as we’ve been discussing here.
The propositions would, the piece says, give the governor far more power. “But three recent polls, by the Public Policy Institute of California, the Field Research Corporation and the Los Angeles Times, seem to suggest that the governor is headed for a political Judgment Day. Of the four ballot measures Schwarzenegger is backing, only one — the weakest in terms of policy consequences — seems primed to pass, according to the polls.”
And over at The New York Times, the Sunday Business section gives us this little, hardly-surprising, tidbit about Schwarzenegger’s relationship with Wal-Mart:
“Once indifferent to politics, Wal-Mart’s founding family has learned the value of having – and supporting – friends in high places.
One such friend is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California. Last year he vetoed a bill that would have forbidden employers to lock workers inside businesses, a practice Wal-Mart has used. Last month he vetoed a bill that would have required California to identify the employers of people who are paid so little that they qualify for government health services. Again, Wal-Mart is the No. 1 example.
While the governor was vetoing, heirs to Sam Walton were busy writing six-figure checks to his political causes. It began after Mr. Schwarzenegger vetoed the lock-in bill. John T. Walton, a Wal-Mart director who died four months ago, gave $200,000 to his political committee, the California Recovery Team, according to The Los Angeles Times and USA Today.
On the day Mr. Schwarzenegger vetoed the latest bill, Christy Walton, John’s widow, wrote a $250,000 check to the governor’s committee. Three weeks later, Wal-Mart’s chairman, Rob Walton, gave $250,000 to the governor’s campaign to limit the political activities of labor unions. (Wal-Mart itself, which is famously allergic to unions, chipped in $100,000 of its own.)”
