Why do the legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger have record-low approval ratings?
Costantini: “It’s anti-incumbent fever running rampant because of the failures of government.”
Ed Costantini is a professor emeritus of political science at UC Davis. He says the candidates for governor will all play up their outsider credentials on the campaign trail.
Costantini: “All of them will run as candidates who want to break through the current system and will tout – in the case particularly of Whitman – the fact that she is not part of the current system.”
Whitman is the former CEO of eBay; she’s never held elected office. Poizner also came from the private sector, though he’s currently California’s insurance commissioner. As for Attorney General Brown, he’s spent decades in public service – including two earlier terms as governor. But despite all that time as an “insider,” Costantini says Brown has long been seen as a “maverick” – and he’ll probably try to take advantage of both.