This morning, Steve Schmidt, the Governor’s Campaign Manager, released the following exlusive statement to the FlashReport in response to yesterday’s election results:
Today, Governor Schwarzenegger will kick off the general election campaign by traveling through California and talking to voters about his vision for moving California forward. The Governor’s optimistic, hopeful campaign stands in stark contrast to Phil Angelides’ Democratic primary campaign of anger, negativity and policies that would set California back.
Now is the time when California voters will begin to see even more sharply the clear choice they will have in November. It will be a choice between the pessimism and typical politics of Phil Angelides, and the bold leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger.
In Governor Schwarzenegger, voters have seen a leader who acted to bring back our state from the brink of bankruptcy, who cut the car tax, and who reformed workers’ comp to bring businesses back to the state. Voters have seen a leader who has increased the state’s credit rating, who has cut the deficit and whose policies have helped create over 500,000 new jobs. Governor Schwarzenegger is continuing to lead California forward with plans to rebuild our schools, roads and levees.
Voters didn’t see a leader in either Angelides or Steve Westly, and turnout in this primary election looks to be perhaps the lowest in state history. The more voters got to know the Democratic candidates, the less they liked what they saw.
Independent polling numbers tell the same story. The Field Poll released on Friday showed voters – largely independent swing voters – gravitating toward the Governor even as the Democratic candidates were spending upward of $70 million on advertising.
Now, the Governor will begin telling Californians about his vision for the future of the state, and voters will see even more clearly the difference between his leadership and Phil Angelides’ pessimism and backward ideas. The Governor will work to build this state for the future, protecting the California Dream for coming generations. Phil Angelides, on the other hand, will raise taxes, raise them again, and then try raising them again, all while steering Sacramento back into the partisan political gridlock of the past.
The choice for California will be clear in November: move California forward with the leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger, or set California back with the pessimism and typical politics of Phil Angelides.