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News Briefs 4 D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E A year of dogged protests against Arnold Schwarzenegger and corporate interests culminated in historic one-two victories for CNA and California's registered nurses last month when the governor fi- nally dropped his challenge to the safe staffing ratio law after his ini- tiatives were all trounced in the No- vember special election. On Nov. 10, Schwarzenegger qui- etly dropped his appeal of a Sacra- mento Superior Court decision that the Department of Health Services il- legally rolled back key provisions of the landmark ratio law that CNA sponsored. This move came two days after voters turned down all of the ini- tiatives he directly sponsored, meas- ures that would have given him unprecedented powers to cut the state budget, hurt education, and suppress the voice of union mem- bers. None of the other measures passed either, signaling voters' whole- sale rejection of Schwarzenegger's ploy of steamrolling the Legislature and calling a special election that no- body wanted. The results also echoed CNA's call to voters to reject all the special election measures. "The nurses stood up, they fought back, and they proved that democracy can actually work," said Rose Ann DeMoro, CNA executive director. "That's a very important lesson for California." Indeed, the broad-based cam- paign by RNs and their public worker allies against Schwarzenegger's poli- cies will undoubtedly go down in state history books as a seminal achievement that could potentially change the direction of California policy and politics for years to come. Labor formed new coalitions and al- liances, Hollywood star power lent a hand in the form of Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, and Rob Reiner, new organizing tactics were tested, and CNA is credited by all as the first group with enough courage to chal- lenge Schwarzenegger. These victories would have ap- peared unthinkable just a year and a half ago. California's politicos are still scrambling to analyze how a governor that enjoyed a 70 percent approval rating little more than a year ago could have fallen so far, so fast. RN Deborah Burger knows how. As CNA's president, Burger ap- peared at many of the 107 protests CNA has staged since Schwarzeneg- ger's administration first announced in November 2004 that it was re- versing through emergency order critical provisions of the ratio law. These included delaying for three years improved 1 to 5 ratios in med- ical-surgical wards and suspending ratios in emergency departments. These protests, often at swank ho- tels and other locations where Schwarzenegger was fundraising millions of dollars from wealthy conservatives and corporate exec- utives, were held in sun, snow, wind, rain, or night. "Everybody was telling us to make a compromise with him, but we fought so long and hard for the ratio law, for our patients, that we CNA Nurses Triumph Twice on Election and Ratios