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Not quite the big one: Arnold Schwarzenegger''s election is sending out shock waves, but he may find that recent progressive reforms won''t be so easy to terminate.

Article Excerpt
SO, IS IT A WRAP FOR PROGRESSIVE California?

According to many political observers, largely but not entirely on the right, the recall of Democrat Gray Davis and the election of Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger mark a tectonic shift in California's political makeup. Over the past decade, as Latinos have voted in greater numbers and independents have trended Democratic, California has become just about the most reliably Democratic state in the nation. Since Davis became governor, at the prodding of a liberal-dominated legislature, he's signed landmark legislation establishing the state as a progressive beacon in a reactionary time.

California, for instance, became the first state to enable workers to take a paid family or medical leave. It forbade financial institutions from sharing data on their customers without their customers' approval. It placed far stricter restrictions on auto emissions than the federal government has, and it mandated that utilities produce 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by the middle of the next decade. And on the Sunday before the recall vote, Davis signed into law a bill requiring employers of more than 50 workers to provide health insurance (for which they'd get special tax breaks) to their employees by 2006 or 2007.

Is that what Californians were rejecting when they turned against Gray Davis? Did Cruz Bustamante acquit himself so appallingly (he got...