No On Drilling, Meg Backs Arizona

30 July 2010 |permalink | email article

In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a new Public Policy Institute of California poll finds that Golden State opposition to offshore oil drilling has skyrocketed, while at the same time two-thirds of residents support the state’s landmark climate change law and believe it will create jobs.

The findings offer a major challenge to Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and U.S. Senate GOP candidate Carly Fiorina who like the idea of drilling as a revenue source for the state and oppose the climate law as a job killer. Both first time candidates are receiving heavy support from the oil industry.

The survey taken July 6-20 of 2,502 state voters showed 67 percent supported AB 62, the historic state law that mandates a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Marc Baldassare, CEO and PPIC president, said that “events in the gulf appear to have renewed opposition to more drilling here,” while even the recession hasn’t budged Californians’ strong support for AB 32. He added that a little more than a year ago a majority of Californians backed support for drilling.

Whitman flip-flops again

After heavily advertising her opposition to Arizona’s immigration law on Spanish language media, and as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Whitman told conservative Talk Radio’s “America’s Morning News” Wednesday that “I would let the Arizona law stand for Arizona.” Her comments came before a federal judge blocked key portions of the measure, touching off a prolonged legal battle on the matter.

In a recent expensive radio campaign to woo the crucial Latino vote Whitman attempted to outline her unequivocal position in both Spanish and English: NO on Proposition 187 and No to the Arizona law. It appears she’s straddling again, letting the Arizona law stand for Arizona, but adding that the law doesn’t make sense in California. Whitman may have backed somewhat away from mentor Pete Wilson’s “tough as nails” approach to illegal immigration. But her continued double talk dooms any effort to capture a significant portion of the Latino vote. She’s too cute by half!

Quotable

“He hasn’t apologized, and I don’t want it at this point. He will definitely hear from me.” – Shirley Sherrod, the fired Agriculture Department employee, making clear that she intends to sue Andrew Breitbart, the blogger, who posted the edited video of her making what appeared to be antiwhite remarks in a speech that was really about racial reconciliation.

207