Drive, He Said

New West Notes ^ | 02-21-06 | Bill Bradley

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Heading into their state convention this coming weekend, Republicans continue to grouse about Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shift to the left. Now it’s the other former Gray Davis official at the center of things Schwarz. Not controversial new Arnold chief of staff Susan Kennedy, but Maria Shriver’s chief of staff, Dan Zingale.

There’s unhappiness in conservative ranks over Zingale’s role in Schwarzenegger’s core because some have discovered that he is the man said to have advised former Governor Davis to sign the ill-fated drivers license bill for illegal immigrants. Davis’s decision to sign the bill by state Senator Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) in the midst of the 2003 recall proceedings against him backfired with the electorate. Schwarzenegger made it an issue and polling showed it was a factor in Davis’s defeat.

But even though top Davis hands like then chief of staff Lynn Schenk and chief strategist Garry South didn’t want the ex-governor to sign the bill, it was almost inevitable that he would when the Legislative Latino Caucus made it a priority for their support. Having seen his margin of victory drop when he re-elected in 2002 because of a fall in Democratic turnout, Davis felt he needed to shore up his Democratic base to survive the recall. “Someone was going to convince Gray he needed to sign the drivers license bill,” says a Democratic insider. “It happened to be Zingale.”

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Bill Bradley is a consummate liberal insider and his blog is widely followed by both the left and the right.