The final week of this special election campaign will apparently include a new strategy from the opponents of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: an attempt to link the unpopular GOP governor to the unpopular GOP president.

A progressive/liberal group of California Democrats calling themselves the Courage Campaign today unveiled a TV ad linking the governor to President George W. Bush. The goal, says a release from the campaign, is to help fuel more progressive/liberal voters to turn out at the polls on November 8th.

"Arnold's ballot initiatives," says the voiceover on the ad, "are the same misguided George Bush policies that have put America on the wrong track."

The ad buy appears to be pretty small (about $50,000) and the group clearly hopes to get a lot of "free media" coverage by rolling it out to those of us covering the campaign.

It's an interesting strategic decision, considering that polls have shown all of the governor's initiatives already struggling. Campaign stops and endorsements in 2004 aside, few political pundits would go so far as to say Schwarzenegger and Bush are the same on the issues. The governor's moderate stance on social issues certainly puts him in a different corner of the GOP.

Will the new campaign seal the deal for Californians who seem grumpy about the governor's proposals? Or might it lead swing voters to feel the anti-Arnold forces are overplaying their hand? Or, in the end, will it simply blend into the cacophony of homestretch election noise?