Schwarzenegger 'terminates' Angelides in landslide victory

By Stone Martindale Nov 8, 2006, 15:42 GMT

Austrian-American California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has handily won re-election by a record landslide Tuesday, after distancing himself from fellow Republican President George W. Bush and taking a moderate and progressive stance on issues and defeating opponent Phil Angelides.

The Terminator was first elected three years ago in a recall vote.

"What a fantastic evening; I love doing sequels," Schwarzenegger told supporters in Beverly Hills. "But this without any doubt is my favorite sequel."

Schwarzenegger, 59, turned on his Austrian charm, no name calling legislators as "girlie men, " he agressively brought forward a series of bipartisan laws, including reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions.

Schwarzenegger put healthy distance between himself and Bush, avoiding him during recent California visits and criticizing the White House on several issues.

"Schwarzenegger was successful in embracing a more moderate agenda that affected people's lives in a positive way,' former Gov. Gray Davis, whom Schwarzenegger ousted three years ago, told Reuters. "The Republicans in Washington tuned out that agenda and are paying the price for that tonight."

Schwarzenegger dedicated much of his campaigning to rallying support for more than $37 billion in bonds to fund infrastructure including roads, housing and schools. Those measures also appeared to pass.

While backing new bond spending, Californians rejected prpositions for new levies, voting down measures to boost raise cigarette taxes or to tax oil producers to fund alternative energy development.

Democrat Jerry Brown, 68, the man who held Schwarzenegger's job in Sacramento from 1975-83, won the race to become the attorney general of the nation's most populous state.

"Governor Moonbeam," as Brown was once called, became a national political figure by running for president three times, and for eight years acted as Oakland's mayor.