CA: 'Collectinator' heads to D.C. to discuss aid, base closings

Sac Bee ^ | 2/14/05 | David Whitney

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - Gov. Arnold "The Collectinator" Schwarzenegger is to swoop into Washington on Thursday, with state legislative leaders in tow, for an unprecedented meeting with the California congressional delegation and Bush administration officials in hopes of steering more federal money to the state.

Schwarzenegger pledged after his recall election victory to be the "collectinator," a play on his starring role in the "Terminator" movies. So far, there hasn't been a lot to show for it, but that could change dramatically on this trip.

State and federal officials are working to put the final details together on a five-year deal that might - or might not - mean more federal Medicaid money for California. As it is now, the budget laid out last week by President Bush calls for adjustments in Medicaid funding that could lop as much as $2 billion from the state's $19 billion annual entitlement for meeting the medical needs of the poor.

But the bigger focus of the one-day trip will be a two-hour meeting with the 53-member state congressional delegation - 33 Democrats and 20 Republicans whose combined seniority and power hasn't been concentrated in a single state for more than six decades.

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But this won't be just a meeting of the delegation and the governor. Also attending will be state Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland; Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Fullerton; Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles; and Assembly Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.

If there are deals that can be cut, the leadership at the Thursday meeting can do it. If there are pledges of cooperation and unity to be made in behalf of the financially desperate state, these are the people who can make them stick.

But don't count on any of that.