<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold25apr25,0,1633755.story?coll=la-home-headlines>
Working furiously behind the scenes, they mapped a brazen strategy to undermine the governor's agenda and beat Schwarzenegger at what he does best: reaching beyond Sacramento to mold public opinion and bring voters to his side.
Their multipart plan seized on sympathetic figures — nurses, teachers, firefighters and, most heart-tugging of all, widows and orphans — to portray the governor as cruel and put a human face on the "special interests" he promised to rout from the Capitol. One memo, prepared for Los Angeles union officials and echoed by other groups, advised Schwarzenegger's opponents to use police widows to testify that one of the governor's proposals would drive them into "the gutter."
The effort worked far better than either side anticipated, according to dozens of interviews reconstructing the turn of events. In just a few months, Schwarzenegger has gone from seeming invincibility to a politically precarious state, his approval ratings sagging and his staff plagued by internal scuffles. He has abandoned key parts of his reform agenda and signaled his eagerness to bargain on others.
Stephen Philion Assistant Professor, Dept. of Sociology St. Olaf College http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/sociology/People/faculty-staff/steve.html