There hasn't been much of a post-mortem among politicos about the May 19 election -- partially because the state's fiscal crisis hasn't allowed time for pondering, but also because it's seemed pretty darn clear: the voters thought the budget deficit measures stunk.

Nonetheless, a couple of interesting points have come up in the past 24 hours... today from the state's preeminent pollsters and yesterday in my interview with Governor Schwarzenegger.
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And now, the least surprising news of the political year: the special election called by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to help solve the state's budget dilemma was a bust.

The voters have spoken. And their very loud answer on the five budget-related ballot measures with real impact: no.

There's a risk in playing crime scene investigator before the smoke has fully cleared. Still, it's hard to deny some of the more obvious reasons for Tuesday's train wreck, things that most everyone in California politics has been talking about for weeks...
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The labor union campaign opposing Proposition 1A has released its first TV ad, attacking the measure's planned budget reserve as a way to "spend billions on pork barrel projects."
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With no fanfare, the main campaign in support of the six budget measures on the May 19 ballot has pivoted to a media blitz focused on just two measures... the two with the most state budget money riding on them, and the two that are most valuable to the campaign's biggest donors.

Unlike press releases heralding earlier ads, there was no notification to the media that the Budget Reform Now campaign was launching a new ad, one featuring a firefighter warning of possible bad times ahead.
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A lot has already been written about today's Field Poll and the sense that a big thumping could be in the making for all but the most marshmallowy of the May 19 budget ballot measures.

That may be. But let's dig into the numbers for a couple of ponderables, including even a few that hint all might not be decided.
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The opening TV ad from the omnibus campaign to pass all six budget ballot measures is out, and it's clear that the campaign is appealing to the popular sentiment that only voters can rein in those pesky politicians.

The ad from the campaign led by Governor Schwarzenegger uses the common sense of an average Joe to make its case for Propositions 1A-1F. The message: these are a way for "us voters to clean things up."
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A few weeks from now, once the voters have spoken, pundits will either be calling it the height of political genius... or a political blunder for the record books.

"It" is the multi-billion dollar tax increase that will only happen if voters approve Proposition 1A, the spending constraint/reserve fund measure that makes major changes in the annual budget process.

The tax increase and the rhetorical bombs being lobbied about those taxes are the focus of our second day of coverage of Prop 1A on The California Report.

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The rhetoric in support and opposition of the marquee measure on next month's special election ballot is fairly simple. The measure itself is anything but.

On this morning's edition of The California Report, we presented the first of two stories examining the details and ramifications of Proposition 1A.

A close examination of Prop 1A finds it's neither the tight spending cap nor ultra-prudent rainy day fund it's often made out to be. As often is the case in politics, the truth is a little more complicated.
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With the statewide special election now less than five weeks away, the first TV ad of the campaign to pass the budget-related measures is out.

And given its backers, it's not surprising which measures it promotes.
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The first campaign ads have been released by backers of the six budget-related ballot measures, sending a simple and expected message to voters: vote yes or things will get worse.
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