Governor Wins Some Voters and Loses Others

Re “Governor Lays Out Ambitious Agenda Certain to Draw Fire,” Jan. 6: I am a Democrat who voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger. I wish to give a public “shout out” to Democrats in the California Legislature to genuinely and with an open mind cooperate and work with our governor, who is demonstrably a man of principle with true compassion for his constituents. Democrats who defy him to serve political bias will suffer repercussions come reelection time, I predict.

It cannot be said often enough that it is time to abandon small-minded servitude to “politics as usual” and truly serve all the people.

Sunny Kreis

Santa Monica

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The governor fails the test of critical thinking. To argue that either you cut your workers’ pay and programs or you can’t balance your budget is a false dilemma, a false either/or argument. There’s another well- known and practiced possibility: raising your prices, in this case, some taxes.

William M. Hagan

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Hurrah for the governor. Once again educators will be asked to do more with less. Services will be cut, class sizes will be increased, teachers’ pay will be reduced and their morale will be lower. But at the same time educators will be expected to raise test scores and improve student performance across the board. Then when students’ test scores don’t rise and student performance does not increase, people will wonder what is wrong with today’s public education.

Tom Iannucci

Los Angeles

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The governor gave a great speech with a variety of nonpartisan ideas and goals that should warm the heart of every taxpayer. Bringing many of these worthy ideas to fruition will require stern, demanding action by the governor with strong support from the taxpaying public because so many of the ideas erode some of the power of the politicians, public employee unions and a wide variety of special interest groups. However, it seems he missed one of our major problems, illegal immigration.

Dave Connell

Laguna Beach

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Schwarzenegger has proudly announced that he wants to terminate $2 billion from the state schools budget. I like his movies, but his plan to save California is a bomb. Where do I go to sign the recall petition?

Frank Smathers

Santa Clarita