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Interview With Former California Governor Pete Wilson

Aired October 09, 2003 - 15:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: California's most recent Republican governor, Pete Wilson, was one of the co-chairmen of the Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign. And a number of former Wilson aides will be with Schwarzenegger when he goes to the governor's house.
Former Governor Wilson is with me now from Culver City, California.

Governor, thanks for joining us.

PETE WILSON (R), FORMER CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: Happy to join you, Candy.

CROWLEY: OK, let me get the national picture out of the way. Is there any national message here, national implication, or is this a California-centric thing?

WILSON: I think it's primarily a California thing, because the circumstances that dictated the recall are really unprecedented.

This is the first time we've seen unconstitutional deficit spending, digging a deep hole. That's never happened. And I think there are other states that have the recall mechanism, but it's been rarely used. In fact, this is only the second time it's been used for a governor in history.

CROWLEY: I think, mostly, people are wondering, a lot of things start in California. So what they're wondering is, is that anger that Californians clearly took to the polls, sort of the beginning of something nationwide? Is it already out there? Do you have any sense for that?

WILSON: Well, there's definitely anger in California. Whether it is nationwide, I would tend to doubt.

I think what happened is that people voted here in anger, and it was justifiable anger. Now, we don't want to rub it in after it's all over, but, very frankly, the fact that this deficit spending occurred and was really pretty much concealed from the people in the last election last fall I think angered people, justifiably.

CROWLEY: Let me talk to you about a Schwarzenegger governorship. As you know, there are a number of conservatives who weren't all that thrilled with him, thought that maybe he was a bit too liberal for them. Is he going to be able to bring together the factions of the California Republican Party and the factions of the California Democratic Party? This is a pretty big job. WILSON: Well, I think what you saw in this election was that a quarter of the Democrats voted for recall and voted for Schwarzenegger. And the Republicans massively got behind him. There was one candidate who refused to get out of the race, a Republican, McClintock. But he wound up getting something like 12 percent of the vote.

CROWLEY: I want you to answer this question as honestly as you possibly can. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that he will not raise taxes. He says he wants to put some more money into education. Given the state of the economy in California, is it possible to balance your budget without raising taxes?

WILSON: Yes, it's possible.

You can do it by cutting spending. And, as time goes on and as you improve the business climate, which, five years ago, was one of the best in the nation and has deteriorated to one of the worst, as you make the changes necessary to bring back confidence on the part of investors and job creators, your revenues will increase.

CROWLEY: I had a Democrat say to me the other night on election night that they give Schwarzenegger about a 100-day honeymoon, and, after that, the recall begins. What kind of resonance do you think that will have? Because there are as many angry Democrats out there as there were Republicans who started this particular recall.

WILSON: I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true.

I think that they are reasonable and fair, regardless of registration. And they know very well that we're talking rank-and- file. I'm not talking about office-holders. You were talking office- holders. But the rank and file understand, Arnold Schwarzenegger has inherited a mess. They voted for change. They know who caused the mess. And if the same people who caused the mess, which were not just the governor, not just Davis, but the legislature, the Democratic majorities in both houses, if they persist, then they're missing a clear message that was contained in the recall of Davis.

It's very lucky for the legislature they weren't on the ballot, subject to recall, because, if they had been, a lot wouldn't be here.

CROWLEY: Well, about that legislature, it's Democratically run. This seems to me a bit of a recipe for gridlock.

WILSON: Well, I lived with it for eight years and had to veto a lot of bad legislation, which, subsequently, Gray Davis signed. And that's an explanation for why the deterioration in our business climate, our jobs climate, has occurred.

And it will take some time to come back. It took some time before I could persuade Democratic legislators during my administration that they really had to change and be welcoming to new job creation, because, without it, you don't get the revenues. You don't get the payrolls. You have, instead, people on welfare. CROWLEY: Former Governor Pete Wilson, we thank you so much. We'll be keeping track of what goes on out there in California. Thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com








Aired October 9, 2003 - 15:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: California's most recent Republican governor, Pete Wilson, was one of the co-chairmen of the Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign. And a number of former Wilson aides will be with Schwarzenegger when he goes to the governor's house.
Former Governor Wilson is with me now from Culver City, California.

Governor, thanks for joining us.

PETE WILSON (R), FORMER CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: Happy to join you, Candy.

CROWLEY: OK, let me get the national picture out of the way. Is there any national message here, national implication, or is this a California-centric thing?

WILSON: I think it's primarily a California thing, because the circumstances that dictated the recall are really unprecedented.

This is the first time we've seen unconstitutional deficit spending, digging a deep hole. That's never happened. And I think there are other states that have the recall mechanism, but it's been rarely used. In fact, this is only the second time it's been used for a governor in history.

CROWLEY: I think, mostly, people are wondering, a lot of things start in California. So what they're wondering is, is that anger that Californians clearly took to the polls, sort of the beginning of something nationwide? Is it already out there? Do you have any sense for that?

WILSON: Well, there's definitely anger in California. Whether it is nationwide, I would tend to doubt.

I think what happened is that people voted here in anger, and it was justifiable anger. Now, we don't want to rub it in after it's all over, but, very frankly, the fact that this deficit spending occurred and was really pretty much concealed from the people in the last election last fall I think angered people, justifiably.

CROWLEY: Let me talk to you about a Schwarzenegger governorship. As you know, there are a number of conservatives who weren't all that thrilled with him, thought that maybe he was a bit too liberal for them. Is he going to be able to bring together the factions of the California Republican Party and the factions of the California Democratic Party? This is a pretty big job. WILSON: Well, I think what you saw in this election was that a quarter of the Democrats voted for recall and voted for Schwarzenegger. And the Republicans massively got behind him. There was one candidate who refused to get out of the race, a Republican, McClintock. But he wound up getting something like 12 percent of the vote.

CROWLEY: I want you to answer this question as honestly as you possibly can. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that he will not raise taxes. He says he wants to put some more money into education. Given the state of the economy in California, is it possible to balance your budget without raising taxes?

WILSON: Yes, it's possible.

You can do it by cutting spending. And, as time goes on and as you improve the business climate, which, five years ago, was one of the best in the nation and has deteriorated to one of the worst, as you make the changes necessary to bring back confidence on the part of investors and job creators, your revenues will increase.

CROWLEY: I had a Democrat say to me the other night on election night that they give Schwarzenegger about a 100-day honeymoon, and, after that, the recall begins. What kind of resonance do you think that will have? Because there are as many angry Democrats out there as there were Republicans who started this particular recall.

WILSON: I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true.

I think that they are reasonable and fair, regardless of registration. And they know very well that we're talking rank-and- file. I'm not talking about office-holders. You were talking office- holders. But the rank and file understand, Arnold Schwarzenegger has inherited a mess. They voted for change. They know who caused the mess. And if the same people who caused the mess, which were not just the governor, not just Davis, but the legislature, the Democratic majorities in both houses, if they persist, then they're missing a clear message that was contained in the recall of Davis.

It's very lucky for the legislature they weren't on the ballot, subject to recall, because, if they had been, a lot wouldn't be here.

CROWLEY: Well, about that legislature, it's Democratically run. This seems to me a bit of a recipe for gridlock.

WILSON: Well, I lived with it for eight years and had to veto a lot of bad legislation, which, subsequently, Gray Davis signed. And that's an explanation for why the deterioration in our business climate, our jobs climate, has occurred.

And it will take some time to come back. It took some time before I could persuade Democratic legislators during my administration that they really had to change and be welcoming to new job creation, because, without it, you don't get the revenues. You don't get the payrolls. You have, instead, people on welfare. CROWLEY: Former Governor Pete Wilson, we thank you so much. We'll be keeping track of what goes on out there in California. Thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com