Tuesday, October 31st 2006
Heckling in San Francisco
Yesterday Phil Angelides had a phone banking event in San Francisco. A number of his supporters made phone calls for him and a few were even in front of the building chanting and waving signs. In the spirit of political debate, some supporters of Arnold Schwarzenegger including me showed up to wave signs as well.
The Angelides supporters did not play nice. One of them called us Nazis and another stole a stack of Schwarzenegger signs from me and ran off with them. They chanted how much they hated Arnold and stole a Golden Bear chant to say this was union territory. We responded with “No new taxes” and “Scoreboard.”
They tried to intimidate us. The Angelides supporters even dropped water on us from the windows of their building and broke a megaphone of Arnold’s supporters. When the police came to interview people about the damaged megaphone, the person they were looking for had conveniently left the building.
For a minute Angelides himself appeared to encourage his supporters. Mayor Gavin Newsom also showed up to rally the Democratic faithful.
The one thing I did not expect was the lack of manors of Angelides’s supporters. I can understand rowdy and childish behavior from college students, but these were grown mature looking adults.
Keep Fighting
While the certainty of Arnold’s victory is growing every day, we cannot stop now. It is still a close race for many of the down ticket candidates. There are great conservatives including Tom McClintock and Tony Strickland who need those last few points to win. Arnold’s coattails can help, but we need every vote we can get. The campaign structure for Victory 06 is immense and is still in need of volunteers for the last hours of the campaign. On the national level Republicans might falter, but we can make California a big victory.
whatever happened to freedom of speech?
how pathetic.
Comment by jane — 10/31/2006 @ 2:48 pm
You know it,
You tell the story,
You tell the whole damn world this Phil dumps slug in the Bay Territory.
Terminator 4, opening State-Wide, November 7, and you are all invited.
Comment by Anonymousx — 10/31/2006 @ 7:55 pm
My guess: Arnold wins handily, while the rest of the GOP ticket (with the small exception of Mr. Insurance, maybe) all lose. The fact of the matter is Arnold and Tommy-boy are different California Republicans. Independents and moderate/conservative Dems can vote for Arnold - most can’t stomach GOP boys like McClintock.
Comment by Anonymous — 11/1/2006 @ 8:41 am
This behavior happens often at these “Democratic” events. It’s telling that here in California, we see the common headline “Democrat and Union leaders said…”
The Democratic Party in California is bought and paid for by the unions, specifically public employee unions. Knowing the tactics of union “organizers” (enforcers), no one should be surprised at tactics like the ones described above.
The Left has a very, very hard time dealing with rejection. To them, it’s simply inconceivable that anyone would not support them. Therefore, violence and intimidation are acceptable. After all, conservatives are not “real” people.
Comment by Scott — 11/1/2006 @ 9:11 am
As a California, I can honestly say that I’m often concerned with the power unions have in California - but the GOP sure as hell is no better! You don’t see them trying to reform prison pay or pensions, do you?
And you think GOPers are ok with people not supporting them? According to Bush and many prominent GOPers, if you vote Democratic next Tuesday, you’re voting with the terrorists. Riiiiiiiight.
Comment by Archangel — 11/1/2006 @ 2:10 pm
And how, exactly, is the GOP in this state supposed to reform anything when the Dems have a 60% control in both houses of the Leg?
Arnold tried the initiative route, but as we know, it failed.
Nothing will change here until there is a balanced Leg, or until the people here finally get enough of the Democratic/union control
Comment by Scott — 11/1/2006 @ 4:36 pm
It is disappointing to hear about such a violation and immaturity as relating to democratic values.
Civility goes both ways.
Comment by Nathan — 11/1/2006 @ 6:25 pm
They have a popular GOP governor with influence in the legislature - and the GOP can hold up LOTS of stuff in the legislature, as many things require a super-majority. Moreover, you don’t even hear a pip-squeak from GOPers arguing against the prison-guard union.
I think we’ve already seen some positive changes recently - with a now popular GOP governor and legislative Dems that seem, finally, to want to effect change that isn’t focused on some core base, things may be on the up and up. I’m still voting against Arnold for social policy reasons and his views of prop 13 - but on the whole, things are not as bad as they were a few years ago. And maybe if Angelidies and Westly hadn’t gone nuclear on each other, A would have been a much stronger position to take on Arnold.
But most importantly, do you really think the state GOP isn’t beholden to one interest or another?
Comment by Archangel — 11/2/2006 @ 12:21 am
I for one would not be surprised by a lack of manors.
Comment by Anonymous — 11/2/2006 @ 5:08 pm