Our View-Next gubernatorial race showing north/south divide

Arnold Schwarzenegger swooped up the governorship with movie star quotes and promises of a new day and six years later we are no better off. We are still out of money and we have even fewer jobs.

What happened to getting us out of debt and protecting education? With the big guy’s campaign promises lying by the wayside we just have to wait to see what the next guy is going to do.

Who will be the next governor of the great state of California? Will it be another movie star? A Democrat or a Republican? A Southerner or a Northerner?

Since 1982, California’s governors have hailed from Southern California. That’s 27 years of Southside rule — that’s as long as most of us have been alive. Whether it’s Southern California or Northern California, it’s all California. What’s the big difference?

The NorCal/SoCal rift rears its hostile head in unexpected places. There are at least four Facebook groups on the subject of the California divide. They all pronounce the same sentiments: the southerners can’t drive in the rain, the northerners say “hella, hella much,” NorCal rocks, no, SoCal does.

It’s a funny California thing for most of us, but when it comes to the future of the state it becomes a serious issue for some.

In the running for 2010 are as follows: Schwarzenegger’s budget director, Tom Campbell, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman. All are Republican, all are from Northern California and two of the three are billionaires.

Whitman sounds a lot like Arnie did back in 2003. She said she wants to focus on fixing education by raising our status up from 48th out of all 50 states. She vows she would not raise taxes. Whitman told Capitol Weekly she was, “incredibly stunned by the budget details … especially the magnitude and nature of the tax increases.”

Arnie promised to protect education. We all have seen how that turned out. The “Educ-Hater” won the election by repealing the auto tax; something that could have produced some desperately needed funds.

On the Northern Democrat side we have: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Attorney General —and former governor — Jerry Brown and possibly Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Southern California’s only hope rests on the shoulders of Los Angeles’ Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. In the terms of history it’s improbable that Villaraigosa will be the next governor.

A Los Angeles Times article argues the significant lack of southern representatives in the next gubernatorial election is due to a non-cohesive SoCal region and “local politics don’t provide a solid political base for the next level of governance.”

Over the last 40 years, all California governors excluding Jerry Brown, have hailed from the south. Southern California has had its turn and it hasn’t turned out so well. Perhaps a northern leader can bring change to Sacramento.

There is a fear out there that the next governor of this largely liberal state is going to be a Republican — one from the top end of the state. One worry is the impact of Southern California’s public higher education, where the larger population depends on increasingly disappearing resources. Is a wealthy Northerner going to understand or even care about what is going on in the South?

Some suggest that perhaps it is time to divide into two states, kind of like the Carolinas; North California and South California. Many complain that electing a Republican will give wealthy northern elephants the upper trunk.

Is this what we want or need? Will this even happen?

It’s important that we vote someone into office who understands the state and has a good plan to bring us back to where we once where. We can achieve this by electing a governor who can be a real leader — one who will make Sacramento work.

We need to work together to be a strong state, Northern California is good and so is Southern California — together they can be even better.

Whether it’s NorCal or SoCal, it’s all-Cal.