Buh-bye Arnold?

Gah. I'm going to miss out on voting against our Gubernator (it's almost as if that title NEVER gets old) in 2006.

From the Washington Post, which I realize is a ridiculous source for state-wide news:

The governor's once-soaring popularity ratings have dropped in recent months, and some surveys have shown that, after a steadily increasing number of ballot initiatives in recent years, many voters oppose a special election, which could cost the state $44 million to $80 million, according to various estimates. If his issues lose with voters in the fall, said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at the University of California at Berkeley, "it makes his reelection prospects lower, and will make it harder to deal with the legislature."

Schwarzenegger has not declared whether he will seek reelection in 2006.

Our populist-wannabe senator, eh? That kind of doesn't work without the voting population behind him.

"How can we just stand around while our debt grows by billions and billions of dollars?" he said.

Or, in Arnold-speak: "Haww kahn ve zhust staahnd avound vile aur dep grows by billiahns ahnd billiahns ov dah-llars?"

Three main issues will be:
1) budget/spending cuts
2) redistricting
3) merit-pay vs. tenure for teachers

And from LA Times, it isn't too hard to determine that they don't like this too much. Or maybe they're just too busy blasting the Michael Jackson trial verdicts (not guilty of all charges) :

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this evening set a special election on Nov. 8 for California voters to consider his plans to overhaul state government and a handful of unrelated but controversial initiatives...

The initiatives he has embraced would alter the balance of power in Sacramento by shifting the job of drawing legislative districts to a panel of judges, imposing a new spending cap on the government budget, and lengthen the time required for public school teachers to obtain tenure...

The special election is expected to cost taxpayers at least $52 million, according to the Secretary of State's office, although the governor's opponents say their own survey of 58 counties shows a figure closer to $80 million...

Schwarzenegger promised during his campaign for governor that he would never change Proposition 98, which sets minimum funding for schools. But he now says the initiative, which voters passed in 1988, unfairly puts a strain on the budget at the expense of other government programs...

The governor's final initiative would make it harder for teachers to get job protections, and make it easier for them to get fired for poor performance. The governor originally had proposed paying teachers based on merit, but his political allies, who sponsored all three measures, failed to collect enough signatures in time for that plan to appear on a fall ballot...

This is more than half of the article. For the Michael Jackson case, they have:

ANALYSIS: Accuser's Mother Was 'Weakest Link'
READING OF THE VERDICT: AUDIO VIDEO
PHOTO GALLERY: The Scene in Santa Maria
VIDEO: D.A. Sneddon Jurors 1 Jurors 2 More
QUICK UPDATES: LAT Reports From Santa Maria
VERDICT BLOG: Reactions
DOCUMENTS: The Legal Paper Trail
-->TIMELINE: Tortured Road to a Verdict

Kind of puts the priorities of a prominent member of the American MSM (mainstream media) in perspective, eh? No wonder George is always reading stuff by 'em Brits all the time. Well, okay. I adore the Washington Post but even I said "ENOUGH!!!" to their seemingly endless Deep Throat coverage. Shameful...