Results of the 2005 Special Election

The votes have been cast; the ballots have been tallied. Governor Schwarzenegger's Special Election has been nothing short of a blow-out -- a resounding defeat for the partisan Republican agenda he tried to impose on California.

He was right about one thing: when the people flex their muscles, then the state gets much stronger. 

Yesterday, the people sent an unmistakable message:

That they're tired of the Schwarzenegger agenda of debt, division, and diminished opportunity.

And they're ready for a new way, so we can lift up our state - lead with our highest aspirations - and summon our enduring greatness once again.

I'm proud of the teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters, the hard-working Californians who saw through the thin veil of the Governor's divisive rhetoric, and beat back these harmful measures at the polls.

But that doesn't mean yesterday's election was without consequence.

In fact, this Special Election cost us an entire year of missed opportunities - a year in which we could have improved our schools, started to climb out of the mountain of debt that will burden our kids, started a real debate about how we can build a better future for the generations to come.

Instead, it was a year of this Governor's bread and circuses - more partisan Republican pageantry, to distract us from the very real challenges we face.

Next week, it will be two years to the day since this Governor took office. We don't need further proof that he's been a failed Governor - a photo-op politician who has left an endless trail of shattered promises and fumbled opportunities for this great state.  He's loaded billions of dollars of debt on our kids.  He's cut money out of the classroom and turned thousands of young people away from our state colleges and universities. He's turned his back on caregivers and on patients and on families who need help.

Arnold Schwarzenegger looks out at this state and sees little more than a sea of enemies - people to insult, constituencies he can poke in the political eye.  The way he runs down our schools and our teachers; the way he goes after hard-working Californians; the way he talks about our state as if it's nothing but a bunch of broken gym equipment - I wonder if he sees the same California I see: a place that makes opportunity real for each new generation of seekers and idealists; a place where anyone can climb the ladder if they're given a hand up.

Only by seeing that potential - only by seizing it - can we build the best California. 

Like so many Californians, I come from a family of immigrants. And like so many of my generation, I was given a hand up - student loans, financial aid, work study to earn my way through college. I know first-hand: if we give our people more chances, not fewer, they can live out their dreams.

So I'm running for Governor to stand for a set of ideals; to put California's government back on the side of working families; to be a Governor who actually wants to do the job of governing.  

As many of you know, I've been called the “anti-Arnold, ”because I stood up to him from the beginning, back when he started taking this state down the wrong path -- back when his approval ratings were as high as his box office receipts.

I believe a contest between Arnold Schwarzenegger and me will offer Californians the clearest choice in a generation:

A choice between two different visions of what makes a strong society - trickle-down, versus lifting our people up.  Showering more on those who have the most, versus ensuring that the promise of California is a birthright of the many, not a privilege of the few.

There's also a clear difference in how we see the job itself. You can't lead a state if you see it as a great-big political pin-cushion, or just another movie set.  A Governor has to lay out the challenges before us - and marshal the will to truly meet them. It's an extraordinary opportunity, and I aim to embrace it.

I won't run down our public schools - I'll build them up - to attract the very best and brightest young minds in America to serve in our schools.

I won't pretend we can renew opportunity on the cheap - I'll challenge Californians to make sure the money's there so we can meet the highest standards, and have the best schools, the best teachers in America.

I won't slam the doors to higher education, as this Governor has done, hiking tuition and fees and trying to keep 25,000 qualified kids out of our public universities - I'll open the doors to college wider than ever.

I know there's a tough battle ahead - and even though the Governor's agenda is as bankrupt as his Enron buddies, he has powerful, rich Republican backers, and a massive celebrity megaphone.

But I'm ready for this fight.  I'm ready for the hard work of governing that lies beyond it. Yes, we have great challenges.  But our capacity to meet them is just as great.  We're the wealthiest state in the richest nation in human history, the frontier of idealism, the nation's laboratory of ideas and innovation.

With leaders like Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, and Fabian Núñez by my side; with the help and support of so many hard-working families, who still have faith in the California dream; with an unshakable belief that we can master this moment.

We're going to reclaim this state, to make it a place that serves the many, and not just the few; to forge a future as bold and bountiful as California's potential; to lift up all who have been left out, or locked out, or left behind.

I know in my bones, that's something worth fighting for.  And may the great debate begin.