SAN JOSE — California's Republican governor focused increasingly on winning the votes of Democrats as his campaign for twin initiatives on Tuesday's ballot drew toward a close Sunday.
Meantime, two of the four major candidates for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate stumped hard for support -- former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin in Orange County and former Secretary of State Bill Jones in Sacramento.
A third GOP Senate nomination contender, former Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian of San Marcos, kept his campaigning Sunday to a single evening radio interview with KSFO-AM in San Francisco. And former Los Altos Hills Mayor Toni Casey took the weekend off from appearances while her campaign telephoned voters.
As Tuesday's election has grown closer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bid to pass Propositions 57 and 58 -- the centerpieces of his plan to eliminate the state's budget deficit -- has focused increasingly on winning the votes of Democrats, particularly those in the Bay Area, where he spent Sunday.
Schwarzenegger completed a two-day swing through the state to promote the propositions by stopping at a rally inside the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose that would have been fit for the most Democratic partisan.
As the Republican governor spoke, much of the Bay Area's Democratic establishment stood behind him in support of 57 and 58: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein; Democratic Secretary of State Kevin Shelley; regional representatives from La Raza and the NAACP; and liberal lions such as United Farm Workers activist Dolores Huerta. The governor was even introduced by state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), who has helped nurture generations of Democratic politicians here.
"I have never been surrounded by this many Democrats since the last time I had dinner with the Kennedys in Hyannisport," Schwarzenegger told a crowd of about 150 at the library. "It's unbelievable. What's going on here?"
The answer, of course, is a political campaign in which Schwarzenegger's strategists believe they need more Democratic votes.
Proposition 57 would authorize the state to borrow up to $15 billion to refinance the last three years of accumulated budget deficits and provide some cash for expenses in the next budget year. Recent public opinion polls gauge the proposition's support at just above 50% -- ahead, but not yet comfortably so. The proposition remains behind among Democratic voters, the polls have shown.
