GETTING TO KNOW
THE GOVENOR
~Uncommon Sense~
The Governator turns out to be engaged politically and ready to change his mind. But what else don't we know about him? One columnist's final dispatch
Arnold Schwarzenegger returns from a Hawaiian vacation this week to resume what has to be the most surprising and most intriguing chapter in California political history since Sinclair Lewis nearly usurped the state house.
Since emerging as a dark-horse candidate in the recall of the dour and cynical Gray Davis, our movie-star governor has taken the political stage by storm, capitalizing on his celebrity and his status as an outsider to secure a massive bond issue that will refinance part of the state debt, and to win early concessions from both Republicans and Democrats in Sacramento.
He has done so with equal measures of threat and diplomacy, by turns strong-arming and wooing party leaders. But as much as we've gotten a chance to witness his progress, Governor Schwarzenegger continues to defy efforts to classify him, politically or ideologically. He has shown himself to be pragmatic and flexible, free from the honed political positions that tend to hamstring the partisans surrounding him at the capitol. At the same time, he has contradicted his avowed beliefs often enough that he remains, four months into his tenure, a wild card.
So far, it appears that the governor has won every major battle, sticking to his own timetable and working systematically through a list of priorities. But his success with the voting public only adds urgency to the underlying question: Who is this guy, and where is he leading the people of the Golden State?
The answers will take more concrete form over the next couple of months as the governor presents and defends his first state budget, a spending plan that must address what analysts project as a deficit of at least $15 billion. In the meantime, the governor's performance through his first months in office allows a few pointed observations.
First, and this is among his most endearing traits, is that he's still learning. Instead of the jaded and worldly demeanor we've come to expect from the seasoned pros who usually occupy high political office, Schwarzenegger comes off as genuinely interested and personally engaged. On the critical question of workers' compensation insurance, the governor spent weeks mediating negotiations between business groups, labor unions, and personal-injury attorneys. And while a compromise has yet to surface, Schwarzenegger was refreshingly candid in his exasperation with the "unbelievable" influence of lobbyists in the Legislature.
More important, in his willingness to get involved directly, Schwarzenegger has avoided hewing to the hard-line positions of his ostensible allies. It was telling that the impending deal on workers' compensation all but collapsed while the governor was on vacation; to judge by the complaints of Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, Schwarzenegger's staff reverted to partisan form with their boss out of town. Arnold, it seems, was the person who kept the process honest.
Coupled with Schwarzenegger's freshman status is his independence. That led to what may be his greatest achievement so far, persuading leaders of the state's Indian tribes to consider new terms that would give the state a cut of earnings from casino operations. Again, a final deal is still pending, but this was an area where all parties were locked in intransigence - until Arnold changed the equation.
Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger's learning curve also comes with a price. His decision to press for a new, $15 billion bond issue - rather than stick with the $11 billion in borrowing authorized under last year's budget - had unexpected repercussions when backers of high-speed rail from L.A. to San Francisco decided to abandon a prospective November bond issue. The rail project is critical, of course, but the sponsors believe voters have already spent all they are willing to spend.
In the same vein, Schwarzenegger was unforgivably naive to believe the state budget could be balanced by an audit targeting "fraud and waste" in the Sacramento bureaucracy. That option evaporated within weeks of budget director Donna Arduin's arrival in California. Likewise, Schwarzenegger glibly dubbed himself "The Collectinator," but he was disappointed to find that his party ties and voter appeal won him few points in Washington, where he hoped to secure new federal dollars to help bridge the state budget gap. Only now, apparently, is the governor settling down to the difficult business of hammering out a plan to address the yawning deficit.
More disturbing than his inexperience is Schwarzenegger's tendency to shrug off the important role that government can play in people's lives. He seemed genuinely surprised, for example, at the outcry that greeted his order to cap enrollment in aid programs for handicapped and disabled people. And his decision to remove the head of the state Bureau of Automotive Repair threatens to emasculate one of the best and most cost-effective consumer service agencies in the state. His appointment of Charlene Zettel to head up the Dept. of Consumer Affairs, a lackluster Republican Party hack who sat on Schwarzenegger's transition team, smacks of political payoff, not political vision.
And then there's the tendency that I find frankly frightening: Schwarzenegger's willingness to simply lie when it suits his purpose. On the campaign trail, for example, he vowed to maintain funding for local government in order to keep cops and firefighters on the street. But weeks after taking office, he deserted his supposed principles and slashed more than a billion dollars from state grants to local government.
Schwarzenegger made similar promises to preserve funding for schools and colleges. He then turned around and hit education hard, increasing fees and forcing widespread class closures. Again, it's a mark of flexibility that no cows are sacred to Schwarzenegger. But we're just past the hundred-day mark of his new administration, and already the governor has repeatedly violated his own professed beliefs. It's getting hard to believe that this guy actually stands for anything.
He's also made it clear that politics is no passing fancy. The Gov. intends to run again and would go for president if he could, which renders questions of character and intent all the more important. Schwarzenegger currently presides over no fewer than six political action committees, along with a separate, private non-profit corporation that experts say can be used to hide the identity of contributors. And he's shown that he's ready to spend money as fast as he pulls it in: Schwarzenegger spent $27 million to win the recall election, and has raised $11 million since, which he can devote to ballot initiatives or to his own reelection. State regulators are considering new rules to control spending by candidate-controlled political action committees, but as California Common Cause director Jim Knox observed recently, "He's taking us into new ground."
The governor's continuing political evolution will provoke a fascinating dialogue in the weeks and months to come, as will the corruption probes in Los Angeles, John Kerry's bid to unseat George Bush, and of course, the continuing conflagration in Iraq. Unfortunately, I won't be a part of that dialogue. I will be retiring from this space to focus my attention on a book project.
Before I sign off I'd like to say a few words of thanks to my editors Dean Kuipers and Steve Appleford, who insisted I had a contribution to make. At a time when so much seems to be at stake, and with the First Amendment under increasing fire, encouraging new and contrary points of view is an optimistic act of faith. That's what the alternative press was always supposed to be, and I've been proud to help CityBeat uphold that tradition.Published: 04/15/2004
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