Arnold Schwarzenegger

California voters delivered a potent defeat Tuesday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Capitol lawmakers, dismissing a slate of ballot measures they had championed as a way to fight the state's latest deficit crisis. Just one of the half-dozen measures passed in a special election marked by meager voter turnout: Proposition 1F, which bans salary hikes for Sacramento politicians in deficit years like this one.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday asked a panel of federal judges to delay their order that the state produce a plan to reduce prison crowding, saying he would take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court if they did not grant the request. In the motion filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the governor said the order should be delayed pending an appeal to be filed Thursday in the Supreme Court, arguing that the state would probably win in the nation's high court. The order was issued Aug. 4 by judges overseeing two lawsuits filed by inmates complaining of inadequate medical and mental health treatment.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's popularity sank this month as the state budget crisis worsened, but Californians overwhelmingly approve of President Obama's job performance, according to a new poll. Schwarzenegger's dismal ratings come amid a conservative backlash over $12.5 billion in tax hikes that he pressured fellow Republican lawmakers to join Democrats in passing last week.

The state's ethics enforcement agency has found no wrongdoing in its review of a complaint made four years ago against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in connection with a consulting contract he reached with a muscle magazine publisher days before he took office in 2003. The Fair Political Practices Commission, in a letter earlier this month, told a lawyer for the Republican governor that the complaint filed by the California Democratic Party is now closed. The contract with American Media Inc. was estimated to be worth up to $8 million over five years.

In television ads that began running statewide Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urges voters to endorse gambling expansion deals he struck with four Southern California Indian tribes. The deals were approved by the Legislature last summer and were to take effect this week. But competing gambling interests and other opponents gathered enough signatures to ask voters to repeal them by rejecting Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97 on the Feb. 5 ballot.

"Running With Arnold" might easily have been called "Running Over Arnold" as it reels off a greatest hits of the criticism leveled at actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger since he launched his political career. Perfectly in tone with election season, Dan Cox's documentary plays like a 30-second political attack ad (at 144 times the length), rehashing the accusations that have been bouncing off the Austrian-born movie star for years.

The state's ability to protect children, renters, workers and the elderly as well as California's wildlife and its land would be impeded under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals for closing a $14.5-billion deficit, state agency reports show.

With apologies to the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen: Governor, I knew FDR. He was a frequent guest in our home over the radio. FDR got my dad back to work during the Depression and was a reassuring voice in the war. In our family, FDR was God. Governor, drop the FDR bit. In fairness, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't really been claiming to be FDR -- no more than Sen. Dan Quayle was masquerading as JFK in the 1988 vice presidential debate.

Softening his past opposition to changes to California's term-limits law, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is endorsing a Feb. 5 ballot measure that would allow many sitting lawmakers to run for office again this year rather than be forced to leave the Legislature.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to enjoy high approval ratings among voters even as most think the state is heading in the wrong direction, a new poll shows. The grim financial picture the governor presented last week, including proposed steep cuts to schools, healthcare programs and other state services, has not hurt his standing with Californians. He enjoys the approval of 60% of registered voters, according to a Times/CNN/Politico poll conducted by Opinion Research Corp.