Posted on 03/06/2005 9:57:24 PM PST by SierraWasp
The engine driving the governor
Six businessmen use wealth and influence to propel reform initiatives
By David M. Drucker - SACRAMENTO BUREAU Inside Bay Area
SACRAMENTO — In his campaign to bypass the Legislature and place his package of fiscal and political reforms on the ballot, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is relying heavily on an independent committee led by six of California's most influential and prominent business advocates.
Their group, Citizens to Save California, is, so far, the primary political committee funding Schwarzenegger's statewide push for the 600,000 signatures he needs — per initiative — to place his proposed constitutional amendments on a November special-election ballot. From authoring voter-initiatives to holding campaign events, the group has become the engine behind the Republican governor's reform drive.
"We're just in recall (mode) year two, that's where we are," said Joel Fox, a Granada Hills small business activist who is co-chairman of the committee. Since March 1, when Schwarzenegger announced he was done waiting for legislators to vote his measures onto the ballot, Citizens to Save California has sponsored five Schwarzenegger campaign appearances at small businesses and restaurants throughout the state, filmed footage of him driving a Humvee for future television commercials, and enlisted an army of paid signature-gatherers.
To date, the group reports raising about $1.8 million toward its $13 million fund-raising goal, including one donation of $1.5 million from A. Jerrold Perenchio, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Univision, an American, Spanish-language television network based in Los Angeles.
Fox heads Citizens to Save California with Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Bill Hauck, president of the California Business Roundtable, Rex Hime, president of the California Business Properties Association, Larry McCarthy, president of the California Taxpayers Association, and Allen Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce.
All six are close allies of Schwarzenegger, sharing his philosophy of avoiding tax increases and reducing state business regulations that some economists say have put California at a competitive disadvantage with other states.
The governor's critics say his close alliance with business leaders — including some who lobby state government — blows a hole in his claim to be a populist reformer representing "the people."
If anything, say Democratic leaders and liberal government-watchdog groups, the organizations led by the individuals behind Citizens to Save California are the real, big-moneyed special interests, not the unions representing civil service employees, public school teachers, firefighters and police officers.
"Citizens to Save California is comprised of neither citizens, nor are they going to save California," said Carmen Balber, spokeswoman for the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "It represents the largest industry interests in California, most of whom are also Gov. Schwarzenegger's largest campaign contributors."
Organized labor is fighting back and has created a ballot committee of its own.
Six unions — including the California Teachers Association and California Professional Firefighters — formed Seriously, Saving California. This committee, which could publicize its agenda as early as this week, expects to endorse, and campaign for, ballot measures and encourage voters not to sign the governor's petitions.
Officials of the committee declined to comment for this story.
Schwarzenegger wants to amend the state constitution to add a spending restraint to the state budget, implement merit-pay for public school teachers and transform the public employee pension system from one that guarantees benefits to a market-dependent 401(k) system. He also wants to remove the power to draw legislative and congressional districts from the Legislature and give it to a panel of retired judges.
Constitutional amendments require voter approval — whether placed on the ballot by signed petitions or a two-thirds vote of the Legislature — and Fox said Citizens to Save California plans to qualify three measures that relate to Schwarzenegger's agenda as a backstop against legislative resistance.
The governor has already endorsed initiatives to overhaul the public employee pension system and lengthen the number of years — from two to five — public school teachers must work to gain tenure. Once the group agrees on an initiative to restrain government spending, Schwarzenegger is expected to endorse that one as well.
"We saw somebody who was willing to lead major reforms and we knew he needed help to get the job done," said Fox, who worked as a policy consultant on Schwarzenegger's 2003 gubernatorial campaign and is also president of the Small Business Action Committee.
Of the governor's four proposals, redistricting reform is the one Citizens to Save California does not plan to address. On that issue, Schwarzenegger is backing an initiative authored by conservative Sacramento political activist Ted Costa, who filed the petition that led to the recall of Gray Davis.
Schwarzenegger decided to coordinate his 2005 signature-gathering effort with Citizens to Save California — rather than through his own political committee, the California Recovery Team, because of new state campaign finance regulations limiting how much money a ballot committee controlled by elected officials can raise.
Last summer, the Fair Political Practices Commission, which regulates campaign finance in California, ruled that not only are governors and gubernatorial candidates limited to the $22,300 per-individual, per-election contribution limit enacted into law with the 2000 passage of Proposition 34, but so are the political committees they control.
This regulation — effective for all elections following Nov. 2, 2004 — was not on the books during then-candidate Schwarzenegger's recall race or the governor's various 2004 ballot campaigns, and committees not controlled by candidates or elected officials, like Citizens to Save California, are still exempt and permitted to raise money in unlimited amounts.
"The rules changed," said Marty Wilson, who directs fund-raising for the governor's re-election committee and the California Recovery Team.
TheRestofUs.org, a Sacramento-based fund-raising watchdog group that has singled out Schwarzenegger for criticism, believes the committee is in fact controlled by Schwarzenegger. It recently filed a complaint with the FPPC, alleging the group is therefore violating campaign-finance regulations by accepting contributions in excess of the $22,300 limit.
Citizens to Save California denies the charge. Its attorney emphasizes that regulations specifically allow committees and elected officials to coordinate their activities, and adds that nothing precludes committees from tailoring their campaigns around an elected official's agenda.
"This committee has done everything by the book," attorney Steve Lucas said.
Officials for the committee note that while the pension-overhaul initiative sponsored by the committee and endorsed by Schwarzenegger is similar to his plan introduced into the Legislature, the education reform measure the committee is pushing is not, as it does not include the merit-pay component central to Schwarzenegger's legislative proposal.
Arnold is making the lefties cry, and I like that.
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