“California and a number of other state and local governments are experiencing the lack of liquidity in the credit markets firsthand,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “Many state and local governments have been unable to secure financing for bond offerings and for routine cash flow used to make critical payments to schools, local governments and law enforcement. While some states may be able to absorb a delay or obtain high-interest financing through private banks, California is so large that our short-term cash flow needs exceed the entire budget of some states. We expect to issue $7 billion in Revenue Anticipation Notes for short-term cash flow purposes in a matter of days.”

LA Times story

Schwarzenegger letter (PDF)

Lost in the hubbub over Hurricane Gustaf, party leaders’ phone-ins and Republican preganancy rates is what should have been a triumphal return by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzegger to the Nicollet Island Park Pavilion in Minneapolis, where last night his state’s delegation held a late-night party under twinkling red, white and blue lights.

The pavilion — a former boiler works and rubber factory — together with its surrounding parkland grounds portrayed a granary and a dump, respectively, in Schwarzenegger’s 1996 film, “Jingle All the Way” (pictured above). Filming tied up the site for the better part of a winter, with Schwarzegger in his pre-politics days sometimes sighted marching down nearby lanes alongside his body double, both chomping cigars.

The film was not among the several Arnold flicks handed out gratis on DVD at last night’s event, according to a Los Angeles Times blog, which cites a bartender at the Nicollet Island Pavilion who noted the irony in that “Jingle” was filmed there. 

Talks over a state budget crunch kept Schwarzenegger in Sacramento this week, meaning he missed a scheduled RNC speaking slot as well as state delegation events like last night’s. Such details didn’t keep Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at home earlier this year, but then Pawlenty was nursing an ambition for an office — vice president — which Schwarzenegger can’t hope to attain under the U.S. Constitution’s current native-son requirement.

The expected arrival of Hurricane Gustav has also thrown into question the rest of the week’s activities. There is no guarantee that John McCain will come to St. Paul. He doesn’t have to be present for the nomination to be official. “I hope and pray we’ll be able to resume some of our normal operations as quickly as possible,” McCain said at a press conference in St. Louis. “But some of that is, frankly, in the hands of God.”

The Los Angeles Times reports today that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has removed his mentor in acting and politics, Clint Eastwood, and his brother-in-law, Bob Shriver, from the state’s parks commission. Eastwood, a Republican who served as mayor in his hometown of Carmel, Calif., and Shriver, son of 1972 Democratic vice presidential candidate Sargeant Shriver, saw the terminations from the Republican governator as payback for their opposition to a proposed six-lane toll road through San Onofre State Beach. A Sierra Club official lauded Eastman’s “reverence for open space and public property,” which you can see for yourself in a public service announcement Eastwood made against the toll road.

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