Thread: Schwarzenegger's Opponents Seize on Border Issue

By Jim Christie
Fri Apr 29, 7:52 PM ET



SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has added Hispanic politicians to a growing list of political enemies by praising attempts to curb immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Hollywood star and former bodybuilder made an impressive start to his political career after sweeping to power in an unprecedented recall election in 2003, but his poll numbers are now slumping as the difficulties in running the country's most populous state mount.

Now, by backing citizen patrols intended to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the border, Schwarzenegger has compounded his woes.

Even before praising the armed "Minuteman" patrols on a radio talk show on Thursday, the Republican governor was under fire from Latino lawmakers for having said the United States should "close" its porous border with Mexico.

Austrian-born Schwarzenegger later said he meant the border should be secured. But Latino Democrats seized on his statement as evidence he was laying the groundwork for a political campaign focused on illegal immigration.

"We don't need an Austrian Minuteman," Art Torres, chairman of California's Democratic Party, said at a news conference on Friday. "In light of his praise ... can we really take the governor's apology last week for his comment about the need to close our borders at face value?"

Torres accused Schwarzenegger of raising illegal immigration to draw attention away from his wobbly drive to overhaul the state government by putting his proposals to the voters in a special election.

"He needs to apologize," Torres said, accusing Schwarzenegger of encouraging vigilantes and scapegoating immigrants.

Schwarzenegger's job approval is sinking in the polls -- down 20 percentage points since January -- and many analysts wonder if the agenda he unveiled early this year after a successful first year in office has stalled.

He has postponed plans for a ballot measure on a partial privatization of state pension funds and pushed back the deadline for qualifying a measure to strip lawmakers of the authority to draw voting district lines.

Schwarzenegger has also been dogged by noisy union protests and subjected to a blitz of negative advertising as he tries to sell his merit-pay plan for state teachers.

In a separate shake-up, Richard Riordan, a confidant and former popular two-term Los Angeles mayor, resigned this week as Schwarzenegger's hand-picked education secretary amid wide dissatisfaction with California's public schools.

With so much turmoil, Schwarzenegger's political opponents see an opportunity to scuttle his drive for a special election and to frame the debate over how to address California's estimated $9 billion budget shortfall, analysts said.

"They try to envision the governor with a bull's-eye on him and they're chucking an awful lot of spears at him," Ted Costa, a veteran initiative organizer helping Schwarzenegger's redistricting ballot measure said on Friday.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... enegger_dc

Art Torres is the former lt.govenor that Arnold edged in the election.