RECALL SCHWARZENEGGER

We are embarked on a remarkable journey to secure the signature of over a million registered voters to rescue the 2006 legislative session and save our state from a catastrophe.

TO THE HONORABLE ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER:

Pursuant to Section 11020, California Election Code, the undersigned registered qualified voters of the State of California, hereby give notice that we are the proponents of a recall petition and that we intend to seek your recall and removal from the office of Governor of the State of California, and to demand election of a successor in that office. The grounds for the recall are as follows: threatening public safety and welfare by grabbing funds from local governments and demoralizing public workers, failing in general to deal with state's major problems as they near crisis proportions, and dismantling public education in California by starving schools of necessary funds while protecting special interest groups of wealthy taxpayers. California should not be known as the state with poor schools, poor healthcare, and poor disaster readiness, all caused by a governor serving only the rich...

So began our work to save California from a certain disaster under Governor Schwarzenegger, himself a beneficiary of another governor's recall two years ago.

Very few governors in American history have alienated so many groups of people in their state, in such a short time.

Schwarzenegger promised to protect California's educational system from budget cuts. In fact, in 1999, voters had decisively mandated that the public education budget be protected from economic upturns and downturns and be guaranteed a certain minimum.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, upon taking office, took two billion dollars away from California schools and has stubbornly refused to return the money. Public schools have been forced to layoff experienced and dedicated teachers, close classrooms, and eliminate vital curricula. More and more parents are forced to consider removing better students from public schools in favor to private schools. Public education is on the brink of extinction here in California.

Healthcare in the United States had been in general turmoil for over a decade due to a number of factors. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived on the scene at a critical juncture. Lacking knowledge and experience and motivated only to protect his special interest group of wealthy taxpayers who funded his election,

Arnold Schwazenegger grabbed billions of dollars from municipalities, starving public hospitals of funds they desperately needed to care for the poor. Schwarzenegger recklessly and unilaterally decided that overworked nurses can take care of more patients, ignoring well-respected research showing that forcing nurses to care for too many patients leads to patient injuries and deaths.

In times of an economic downturn, history shows that the poor suffer disproportionately. Public policy must be carefully crafted to shelter the poor by taxing the rich whose welfare is least affected by taxation. In fact, just a few years ago, during its economic boom, California gave the wealthy taxpayers a substantial tax break. It would have been natural to rescind the tax break and restore the former rates, when the economy took a downturn. Instead,

Arnold Schwarzenegger steadfastly refused to raise taxes, insisting on reducing motor vehicle license fees. Cities lost a huge amount of revenue and Schwarzenegger single-handedly created a crisis. Cities have been forced to drasically cut services to the poor, the sick, and the aged. Many cities have even closed down vital programs that shielded the disadvantaged from a catastrophe. Schwarzenegger's reckless budget planning has affected services to the middle class as well. Libraries have been forced to close on weekends, and fire stations have been forced into rotating shut-downs. Nearly three years have passed, and he has not had any creative solutions that would cure our ills, as he implied he had when he ran for this office. Time is running out! Everyone is in danger since California's disaster readiness has been drastically reduced.

When the economy is slow, public workers, like firefighters and police officers, are asked to reduce their pay demands. It is the time when the public must show their appreciation to those who protect our safety and welfare. Instead,

Arnold Schwarzenegger recklessly proposed that pensions be reduced for widows of firefighters and police officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in serving the public. He has caused an unprecedented uproar, demoralizing the front-line defenders we need when disaster strikes. Completely insensitive Arnold Schwarzenegger's totally insensitive response to worker's protest is to now attack their unions of public workers, trying to silence them, in order to gain an unfair advantage over them.

The foregoing is just a small sample of the unbelievable behavior of this man whose only previous experience is as a Hollywood actor in movies in which he portrays mostly reckless and insensitive characters. The state of California is not his movie set. We need a bright, sensitive leader who is truly mature. With our state on the brink of disaster, courageous men and women reluctantly came to the conclusion that they have no choice but to recall this governor and set our state once again on the proper and safe course.

We are embarked on a remarkable journey to secure the signature of over a million registered voters so that this man can be made to face the people in time to rescue the 2006 legislative session. Ousting him in November of 2006 would be too late, making us lose one whole year of legislation. By then, our illustrious, world-class university will be irretrievably lost, our public hospitals dismantled, and many of our poor will be homeless and in the streets. By then our experienced public school teachers will have been forced to take enticing jobs in the private sector, forever sealing the fate of our children. The timing of this recall is crucial. Let us all work together to make it happen!

We will need 30,000 volunteers to commit to securing 40 signatures apiece from at least five California counties. Our early experience has shown that if we carefully choose where we collect the signatures, people are eager to sign and are grateful to the volunteers. We also need people to serve on organizing boards and sub-boards, and to make phone calls. Please write volunteer@saveCALnow.com with the subject line TABLE (if you want to collect signatures), BOARDS, or MAKE CALLS. Please include your phone number and the best time to reach you. Thank you!

Volunteers: Please check the Update section every few days for announcements. We are getting a lot of inquiries as to how to get petitions to sign or circulate. The Secretary of State must approve the final form and we are in the process of submitting a printable form that precisely meets their specification. Online signatures and downloadables are not acceptable for our purpose. There is much work to be done before we begin distributing petitions. Volunteers are pouring e-mails into our mailbox. The first work we are asking the volunteers to consider doing is to find more friends, co-workers, and relatives who feel as fervently as they do, who can help us. We then ask those who are recruited to go and find yet more volunteers. Some of the volunteers will be hosting a series of parties to find more volunteers and to make this task fun. For those who are new to this type of political activities, you are going to meet the finest people and make new friends, some of whom will be lifelong. There is so much fervor in those volunteering, that we predict we will create a very powerful force in California even long after our dysfunctional governor is gone. We will all be so proud of how we saved California! This is a historic, people's uprising!

Kenneth Matsumura, M.D.,

Proponent of Recall knm@saveCALnow.com TEL (510) 548 1516