The Claifornia Executive

by Katelyn Luebben-halvorson

This governor of California has a huge job, he is “the chief executive officer of a mega-state with nearly 36 million people and a $90 billion-plus annual budget that by itself id the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world.” The governor of California has to appeal to such a geographically and sociologically diverse culture, that he has to do a
lot of different advertising and the money to be able to appeal to so many different people. The governor sets policy and directs the state’s bureaucracy to implement the policy. The governor also develops a budget but also just as important, he signs or vetoes legislation approved by both the state Assembly and Senate. The governor’s most important source of power is the bully pulpit, “the platform the governor has to set the political and policy agenda for the state and to command attention from media, state legislators, and elites. The governor of California probably
has the hardest job out of any governor in the country. California is known for having lots of natural and man-made disasters or emergencies; such as earthquakes, fires, floods, droughts, infestations, or riots. When these disasters happen, the governor has to be ready to make very important decisions. The governor has the power to make things happen that needs to get done. California throughout the years has really gone downhill politically; we have the worst budget deficit in the country.

When Schwarzenegger came into office he knew what he was getting into and right off the bat; he fulfilled his most prominent campaign promise which was a rollback of the car tax, which added $4 billion to the states debt.
Arnold has been trying to get the state out of debt by rejecting anything that would result in a tax increase. I feel Arnold is trying to help this state out of its troubles but I also feel that he is trying to help his image. Just like Jacobs and Block said, “…his challenge was to comport himself in ways that would move his image away from that of a
one-dimensional hulk and to wrap it in an aura of statesmanship and credibility.” I feel that since Arnold never really played any real serious roles in any of his movies he is maybe trying to prove the he can be a serious man and he is just not all about muscles and blowing up things. I feel that Arnold did start off in the right direction but then
the crazy life of politics got to him and now throughout both of his terms he has been inconsistent and difficult to predict. I think it will be very interesting to see where our state ends up with all of its troubles.