Via the NYT: This Time, Schwarzenegger May Not Get a Hollywood Ending

The four ballot measures Mr. Schwarzenegger supports are trailing in the polls, and his re-election prospects next year appear, for now, to be dimming. His approval ratings are in a tailspin, and his stage presence has been drained of much of its bombast and bluster.

At a televised forum here last week, with audience members picked to represent a cross-section of voters, several questioners interrupted Mr. Schwarzenegger and accused him of distorting facts to sell the four ballot measures, which are among eight up for a vote in an election ordered specially by the governor.

[…]

In addition to deciding on the union dues measure, voters will determine who will draw legislative district boundaries, how much budget power to give the governor and whether to enact new rules governing the probationary period for new teachers.

Also on the ballot are measures on parental notification for teenagers seeking abortions and the regulation of electric utilities, and competing measures for discounts on prescription drugs.

The special election is a symptom of the partisan gridlock in Sacramento, where the Republican governor and the Democrat-dominated Legislature and its union backers agree on almost nothing.

Some interesting issues on the ballot. I am especially intetrested in the districting issue.

And, as F&Vs has noted, Arnold’s political slide has been raher remarkable:

A poll by the independent Field Research Corporation of San Francisco found that the governor’s call for a special election made voters less inclined to vote for his re-election next year. As of late October, only 36 percent of registered voters said they would support his re-election, the Field poll found. Fifty-five percent said they would not vote for him.

Matthew Shugart has some specifics on the ballot measures and the polling numbers. Indeed, he has several very interesting posts on the subject of tomorrow’s special election.