Schwarzenegger and other officials were trying to tamp down those sentiments. "We understand that anger," the governor said. "We understand that frustration."
But, he added in a brief news conference after he spoke at First A.M.E. Church, "The people should know that this is about California's legacy, this is about California's future, because I think that we should not become . . . the poster child for dysfunction. We should be known as the state where everything is possible."
Even without a highly organized, money-heavy campaign or many rallying events, the opponents of the ballot measures were confident they had voters on their side.
"We've got our Internet networks up and we're cranking out last-minute information, but we're doing it on the cheap and it's been effective so far," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers' Assn.
The ballot measures were the product of a budget deal earlier this year between Schwarzenegger and lawmakers. Proposition 1A would boost the state's rainy day fund, invoke a spending cap and trigger the extension of recent tax hikes for up to two years. Proposition 1B would begin to restore cuts to schools if 1A is also approved. Proposition 1C would allow officials to borrow $5 billion in state lottery money for general purposes. Propositions 1D and 1E would transfer money for budget use that currently is set aside for children's and mental health services. Proposition F, the only one that polls show voters leaning toward approving, would ban raises for legislators and state officeholders in years when California runs a deficit.
The propositions not only have been complicated for voters to understand but also fragmented the state's typical electoral architecture. Republicans were forced to choose whether a spending cap that they have long sought outweighed a temporary extension of taxes. Democrats were pinched between a spending cap they have abhorred and the fact that if it fails, the money taken in the past from education would not be repaid. Labor groups that have marched in lock step for years, often against Schwarzenegger, were suddenly split, with many of the more prominent ones allied with their former foe.
Amid it all, money poured into the campaigns. Between Schwarzenegger and the California Teachers Assn.'s fundraising efforts, more than $25 million had been raised by the weekend, and $3 million more had been raised by backers of Proposition 1C, the $5-billion lottery measure. Among the contributions in recent days were $340,000 from the state Democratic Central Committee and $150,000 from SEIU Local 99, the Los Angeles City and County School Employees Union.
