Not too happy about this. Was hoping Schwarzenegger would just disappear with many of the other republicans. :angry:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Schwar...661785547.html#Schwarzenegger wins in California againCalifornia Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger won re-election by a landslide after distancing himself from fellow Republican US President George W Bush, results showed.
"What a fantastic evening; I love doing sequels," Schwarzenegger told supporters in Beverly Hills.
"But this without any doubt is my favourite sequel."
The former Hollywood star first elected three years ago in an unprecedented recall vote beat his Democratic opponent, State Treasurer Phil Angelides, by 17 points with 99.6 per cent of the vote counted.
The star of the Terminator films scrapped a confrontational style that served him well as a champion bodybuilder and in movies but led to a complete defeat in a special initiative election last year.
A humbled Schwarzenegger, 59, turned on his charm, no longer taunted Democratic legislators as "girlie men" and backed a series of bipartisan laws, including reducing his state's greenhouse gas emissions.
Schwarzenegger also distanced himself from Bush, avoiding him during recent California visits and criticising the White House on issues such as global warming. He thus did well as Republicans suffered setbacks nationwide.
"Schwarzenegger was successful in embracing a more moderate agenda that affected people's lives in a positive way," said former Governor Gray Davis, whom Schwarzenegger ousted three years ago.
"The Republicans in Washington tuned out that agenda and are paying the price for that tonight."
The moderate approach worked in a state where 42 per cent of the 15.8 million registered voters are Democrats, compared to 34 per cent Republicans. It also worked at home, where the Austrian-born politician is married to Democrat Maria Shriver, niece of former Democratic President John F Kennedy.
Yet Schwarzenegger's charms did not translate into wider Republican victories in California: Democrats won all other state races except for insurance commissioner.
Angelides, a liberal Democrat and former real estate developer, struggled throughout the campaign and even the state's leading liberal newspapers backed his opponent.
Schwarzenegger dedicated much campaigning not to countering Angelides but to rallying support for more than $US37 billion ($A47.95 billion) in bonds to fund Californian infrastructure including roads, housing and schools. Those measures also passed.
While backing new bond spending, Californians rejected new levies, voting down higher cigarette taxes or a tax on oil producers to fund alternative energy development.
Also in California, Democrat Jerry Brown, 68, the man who held Schwarzenegger's job in Sacramento from 1975-83, easily won to become the attorney general of the America's most populous state.
Once derided as "Governor Moonbeam," Brown became a national figure by running for president three times and for eight years has been Oakland's mayor.