Gov. Pounds Away at Prop. 66
BAKERSFIELD — Buoyed by new poll numbers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used a daylong bus tour Saturday to drive home his opposition to a ballot measure that would change the state's three-strikes law, arguing that its passage would cause crime to spike and free thousands of prison inmates.
A Field Poll released earlier in the day showed the persuasiveness of a recent television advertising blitz in which the governor urges voters to reject Proposition 66.
In early October, only 18% of those polled wanted the measure to be defeated. That number nearly doubled in a poll conducted between Oct. 21 and 27, suggesting that two 15-second ads that feature Schwarzenegger are turning Proposition 66 into a close contest. Now, 55% of respondents support the measure, a 10% drop from polls of only weeks ago.
"Child molesters, rapists and killers" would go free if the measure passes, Schwarzenegger told hundreds of supporters at the Anaheim Convention Center, the middle stop of a three-county swing that ended in this San Joaquin Valley city.
Proponents of Proposition 66 slipped into the governor's campaign events, first at the Del Mar fairgrounds and then in Anaheim. A heckler in the Anaheim crowd shouted at the governor: "You're a liar."
The three-strikes measure would change the law to require that a criminal's last strike be for no less than a serious or violent felony. Backers accuse the governor and several leading law enforcement officials of exaggerating the effect it would have on prison inmates convicted of lesser crimes.
"I have a son who is serving a 25-year-to-life mandatory minimum sentence for watching someone sell drugs," said Sue Reams, 56, a proponent of the measure from Orange County. "The guy who sold the drugs got a four-year sentence."
Schwarzenegger spent the third day before the Nov. 2 election driving from San Diego County to Bakersfield in a two-bus caravan dubbed the "Road to Reform Express." He played chess with a friend along the way and watched Fox News, according to an aide. Automated telephone calls by the governor to hundreds of thousands of voters boosted the Southern California crowds, sprinkled with men and women in Bush-Cheney T-shirts with "Don't be a Girly Man" on the back.
The Schwarzenegger rallies at times had the flavor of tutorials. As visual aids, the governor's political team displayed placards showing the governor's stance on some of the 16 measures that voters will consider Tuesday. Holding up signs indicating his position ("No on 66"; "Yes on 64"), the governor laid out reasons for his endorsement and urged voters to follow his lead.
