Posted on 05/06/2006 8:10:07 PM PDT by Amerigomag
More good news for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the wake of Friday’s early morning passage of the $37.3 billion infrastructure bonds package, now set for California’s November ballot. He is getting major credit from Democrats for his role in making the deal happen. And major Democrats will be campaigning with him Monday on a flyaround tour of the state for the measure.
Joining the former action superstar, according to multiple sources in both parties, on his jet will be Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, along with the Republican legislative leaders, Senator Dick Ackerman and Assemblyman George Plescia. There may be more, it’s not a small plane. And look for other Democrats to turn up at the stops. Since this is the biggest plan for building for California’s future since the era of legendary Democratic Governor Pat Brown, that is a name you will hear often.
There have been sharp questions in many quarters, including here, about what Schwarzenegger did to make this happen. Although the highlight of his State of the State address, this version of the plan was put together during more than a month of negotiations between the “Fab Four” legislative leaders, with the governor seeming to follow along from a distance. Most of the sessions, according to informed sources, took place in Perata’s office. Those that did not took place in Nunez’s office. (Perata got the ball rolling last year with a major infrastructure proposal. Nunez keyed the insertion of spending on educational facilities.)
Perata called yesterday afternoon to discuss the deal and the governor’s role in it. He says Schwarzenegger played a key role in making it happen.
“The governor,” the Senate Democratic leader says, “was very engaged at the end. He played a big role in getting Republican votes.”
Perata and others described a series of private meetings between Schwarzenegger and Republican legislators to get the bonds over the constitutionally required two-thirds vote in each house.
“He pushed hard and effectively,” says Perata of Schwarzenegger’s involvement in the end game. Schwarzenegger was not the only one pushing on his behalf in some of those meetings with Republican legislators, both in “the horseshoe” (the Governor’s Office) and elsewhere. Schwarzenegger campaign manager Steve Schmidt weighed in as well. Schmidt, a protege of Karl Rove, has a somewhat intimidating reputation in Republican circles from his role in George W. Bush’s re-election war room and in shepherding Republican Supreme Court nominees through confirmation.
With evident amusement, Perata recounted what a Republican legislator told him of one Schwarzenegger/Schmidt private session with their fellow partisans. “The governor laid out the stakes, very directly.” And Schmidt? “He talked but he mostly sat there and stared. He wasn’t like Tom Hagen, Michael Corleone’s consigliere (referring to The Godfather’s “reasonable” mob honcho, played by Robert Duvall). He was like Frank Nitti. (Al Capone’s "enforcer.")”
Perata first proposed a major infrastructure package, in the $10 billion range, last year. But the idea was quickly sidelined by the harsh partisan politics of the former Mr. Universe’s disastrous “Year of Reform” special election agenda. After the collapse of the Arnold-driven negotiations in March, things looked bleak for a time. But Nunez, Perata, and the Republicans decided to take up Schwarzenegger on what had then seemed like an unhelpful suggestion, that they negotiate among themselves.
“It was very different this time,” says Perata. “Legislators are always deferential with Arnold because of who he is,” he explains, “in many ways it was easier for us working separately with him monitoring. That’s an appropriate role for a chief executive.”
“The deal points were already there” from the end of the earlier round. The legislative leaders realized toward the end of the March round of negotiations that the package had to be focused on core elements. “Our work,” says Perata, “centered on methodically going through each point in detail.”
Although there was friction during the March round of negotiations, Perata says of this successful round: “Fabian and I were like bookends.” He also praises Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman, who many sources say joined with Perata in a very effective bipartisan legislative team.
“Fabian and I got the Proposition 42 people (advocates of spending the gas tax only on transportation projects) and CTA (California Teachers Association) together on a compromise,” says Perata. That was necessary to head off a ballot measure about to be filed that would have blocked using that money for any other purpose in perpetuity. The compromise allows borrowing from those funds during times of budgetary crisis, but on a much more limited basis.
That set the stage from the Democratic side. From the Republican side, a sense of collegiality that had grown between the legislative leaders and Schwarzenegger’s late direct intervention in the process were the keys.
“This is a huge statement about California’s future,” says the happy Senate chief. “I think the public is ready and waiting for this.”
Pretty damn gross.
Pretty damn gross.
It was a JOINT effort and agreement between the Governor and the Legislature and they are all taking credit for it.
WHAT is so strange about that?
Of course, if we had listened to some of those rabid Republican partisans, maybe they wouldn't have nominated a closet Democrat to the Republican ticket in the first place, eh? The "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em mentality" in some dusty corners of the big tent is slowing poisoning the GOP, both in California and elsewhere.
"If the Austrian should switch his party registration. California will never be rid of this liberal interloper."
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"And if Kennedy will become a Republican..."
Arnold becoming a Democrat is about as likely as Kennedy becoming a Republican.
It would have been much easier for Arnold to switch to be a Dem, long before this, given the undubitable Kennedy pressure for many years. But ARNOLD STAYED A REPUBLICAN, because he believes in Republican values.
It would have been much easier for him to run in CA as a Dem, BUT HE DID NOT, HE RAN AND IS A REPUBLICAN AND A US CITIZEN.
Your referring to him as "the Austrian" reflects on your hatred of Arnold, NOT on Arnold.
For the MILLIONTH time:
Look what happened when Republicans nominated conservatives: they were beaten handily by Gray Davis, and we ended up with Gray Davis as governor, precisely because ONLY Republicans voted for them, who are only 34% of the voters.
Ignoring reality doesn't win elections.
The only way a Republican can get elected in CA, is by appealing to the center and even center left.
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CALIFORNIA VOTER AND PARTY PROFILES
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/JTF_VoterProfilesJTF.pdf
"The Democratic Party currently has an advantage of 1.4 million voters over the Republican Party (7.1 million to 5.7 million) or 9 percentage points (43% to 34%), according to the Secretary of State.
Among those most likely to vote in this year’s elections, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 7-point margin (44% to 37%), while 15 percent of likely voters are registered as independents.
... the fact that independents are more likely to lean toward Democrats than Republicans (42% to 28%) tends to work to the disadvantage of the GOP in statewide elections."
"COME WITH ME, IF YOU WANT TO LIVE"
Look at what Schwartzenegger has done about taxation and spending. Independents are on the side of Republicans on that point. But it helps to have a spine.
Arnold REFUSED to raist taxes, despite the Dem pressure.
And you seem to forget that the overwhelmingly Dem Legislature is the one who really controls spending.
Arnold put Prop. 76 on the ballot, precisely to control spending, and the CA voters defeated it.
So don't blame Arnold -- put the blame where it belongs: the CA Legislature controlled by Dems and the voters, who voted against Prop. 76.
.
California's newest State Assembly Assistant Republican Leader:
VAN TRAN Blasts DEAN: Calls for Soladarity in Iraq
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1536289/posts
.
Don't blame aRnold..
how convenient. even if he aided and abetted the dems from the gitgo with his nicey nice , hey, let's borrow 15 billion and work together.
they all borrow up a storm and that's all you have to offer.
FO, you are so predictable.
"Of course, if we had listened to some of those rabid Republican partisans, maybe they wouldn't have nominated a closet Democrat to the Republican ticket in the first place, eh? The "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em mentality" in some dusty corners of the big tent is slowing poisoning the GOP, both in California and elsewhere."
People can argue all night long about Arnold, but one thing that is inarguable is that without Arnold we could not have taken the governors seat from Gray Davis in a recall.
You seem to confuse the old Ca GOP with the new,, ever sine this party started running to the middle, its been getting its arse whupped. what does that tell ya?
the new big tent party is run by folks like the New Majority who owe their allegiance to no one except their own club. you got a hundred grand? you could join if you like. oh, but you need to know someone who is already in the club.
ask the FO account, maybe he she it can put a good word in for you.
Nonsense. Here is the last USA Today/CNN/GALLUP poll before the recall.
"6. If the choice were between Cruz Bustamante, the Democrat and Tom McClintock, the Republican, who would you be more likely to vote for: Cruz Bustamante or Tom McClintock?"
September 25-27
Registered Voters
McClintock 49%
Bustamante 42%
Probable Voters
McClintock 56%
Bustamante 37%
Despite having the second lowest Republican registration of any senate Republican seat up for election this year, McClintock's campaign ran more than 19 points ahead of party registration - the largest margin of any senate Republican:
Candidate Party Votes Percent
* Tom McClintock Republican 226,225 61.0%
Paul Joseph Graber Democratic 144,800 39.0%
So California won't vote conservative? Consider the spate of recent ballot propositions:
| Prop 227 | English only education in public schools | Passed |
| Prop 209 | No more affirmative action in State hiring or education | Passed |
| Prop 22 | Heterosexual marriage only | Passed |
| Prop 187 | No benefits for illegal aliens | Passed |
Simon lost to Davis by only 325,000 votes after the most incompetent campaign in history and while being stabbed in the back by his own Party.
Don't give us ‘California is a liberal state’ until you know what you are talking about. The problem is a gerrymandered legislature, not the voters.
“My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it,” he once explained. “People need somebody to watch over them.... Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.S. News & World Report, Nov 26, 1990
Maybe the Kennedy initiation is like the Mob's..
Only if Republicans are social liberals.
Arnold VETOED the homosexual marriage bill.
Both his Dem opponents said they will sign it, if they get elected.
Now, tell me who would you prefer as governor?
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