Reply #16: Experts Split on Implication of Schwarzenegger Win [View All]

This is an article that sums up both sides pretty well.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031008/pl_nm/politics_california_implications_dc

Experts Split on Implication of Schwarzenegger Win
By Alan Elsner, National Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As politicians and pundits digested Arnold Schwarzenegger's stunning victory in California, some saw the vote as a major boost to President Bush but others doubted whether the result had national implications.

"I don't think it has national reach. Schwarzenegger had publicity, had money, he had poise and most importantly he was not Gray Davis. But California is still a Democratic state and I don't see that changing just because people are mad at Gray Davis," said Steven Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

(snip)

Gary Jacobson, a political scientist with the University of California, San Diego said Schwarzenegger might have a better chance of dealing with the budget crisis than Gray Davis, but only if he was brave enough to raise taxes. If not, he would be forced to cut spending on health and education, making him equally unpopular.


"It won't help Bush in 2004 and it may even hurt him a bit because he'll have a Republican presiding over California's budget mess," he said.

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