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.”
Teh only polls that matter are on election day.
And history PROVES that conservatives CANNOT get elected in CA for statewide office, because they only get the votes of the 34% Republicans, while the remaining 66% votes for the Dem.
You do NOT win elections with 34% of the votes.
lol.. coming from you , that is laughable,, like it mattered who won the GOP primary last time around..
why don't ya kick Bill Simon a few times like you and others have in the past. was that just sending a message after the golden boy Rairdon got shut down? that must have really soiled the New Majority's shorts to no end, huh?
What will you do after the New Majority pooches this election? They are well on their way, it would seem, being as they now embrace their dem "opponents" for the approval of "the Bond Package that will "save" California"...
Teh choice for CA governor is:
A) ARNOLD (Republican, pro-business)
B) Angelides or Westly (Socialist Dems)
You have to pick one, if you don't, choice B is the default.
All you do is bash Arnold and the Republicans, and never say a single critical word about the Dems, it's obvious that with all your rethoric, you knowingly are helping Angelidea and Westly. Your words and actions speak for themselves.
Oh, I see, FO thinks conservatives shouldn't run for office because "moderate" Republicans like FO won't let them win.
They said the same things to Reagan.
Now they destroy his legacy while wrapping themselves in his rhetoric to get elected.
And thanks to the Frank Nitti approach, despite the fact some of these ridiculous bond packages could have been blocked given the 2/3 majority required to pass, Republican legislators abandoned the pay-as-you-go proposal with many opting to abstain entirely from voting and yet others actually voting for such "investments" as housing for farmworkers and other pork-filled projects. See the full "hall of shame" here.
Why are you calling me a "moderate", because I prefer to elect Republicans, instead of Democrats?
And you are calling yourself a conservative, because you want to take actions, which will inevitably result in Dems getting elected?
What's wrong with this picture?
That's close to the conservative base. Think you can win without that 34%?
You're about to get the opportunity.
The voters of California decided to recall governor Gray Davis by a 5 to 4 margin (55.4% in favor of recall vs. 44.6% against recall).
There were more votes for Schwarzenegger than for the next three candidates combined, including fellow Republican McClintock.
There were also more votes for Schwarzenegger than votes against recalling Davis (some were concerned beforehand that Davis' replacement might not reach this level).
Voters elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to become Davis's replacement by a plurality of 48.6% to runner-up Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's 31.5%.
MC Clintock got 13.5%
prop 209 was in 1996
prop 227 in 1998
prop 187 in 1994
prop 22 homo marriage always loses, every where.
Great! "Show us"
Cut off your nose to spite your face, elect socialist Dems. Obviously THAT is what you want.
With McClintock having the highest favorable rating of any candidate.
The assertion was that Arnold was the only candidate who could have won. It was false. Deal with your guilt some other way.
I wish he would switch his party registration because that would make statements like this one less frequent:
“The governor,” the Senate Democratic leader (Don Perata) says, “was very engaged at the end. He played a big role in getting Republican votes.”
Something everyone is missing here. This money is for infrastructure; not for welfare, teaching Spanish in the California Assembly, building a gay marriage chapel or grants for 10,000 taco stands in Southern Cal.
Maybe the infrastructure needs some attention.
Thank you. Take care. Lots of "Vichy French" conservatives prowling around for some reason.
"Deal with your guilt some other way."
Well one of us clearly has some strong emotions we need to get under control, but thanks for your concern.
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.
Boxer, Feinstein, Gore, Kerry - - there's a whole lot of goofballs, parasites, and scumbags casting votes in California.
"Maybe the infrastructure needs some attention."
===
You are absolutely right.
CA has the worst roads in the nation. They badly need fixing.
California Tops the List of Worst Roads in the Nation
Dec. 27, 2001--California's rutted, cracked and neglected roads now rank at the bottom of all 50 states in roadway quality and per capita dollars being spent to improve them, according to a new study from Transportation California.
Last year the state's roads were third worst in the nation. With 37 percent of 168,000 miles of state and local roads rated poor, the state has fallen to dead last on the list, according to The Road Information Program, which prepared the study.
``A generation of underinvestment in California's streets, highways, overpasses and bridges has resulted in a shameful deterioration of what once was a showcase transportation network,'' said Larry Fisher, executive director of Transportation California, the state's leading transportation advocacy and public education organization.
http://www.allstays.com/Features/CaliforniaWorstRoads.htm
He ran on a platform of fiscal conservatism and, as demonstrated yet again by the subject thread, jettisoned it all in favor of bigger government and big spending.
Your referring to him as "the Austrian" reflects on your hatred of Arnold, NOT on Arnold.
FO, Arnold IS an Austrian, citizenship he worked hard to obtain.
When he calls himself an "Austrian," is that some sort of self-hate complex?
Schwarzenegger said he "will remain with all my heart a Grazer, a Steierer and an Austrian."
[Source]
Oddly enough, the head of the federal government has likewise been focusing on the infrastructure in Iraq and Washington DC for several years now, and apparently also wants to build lots of new infrastructure in Lousiana. If the "seal the borders" crowd gets its way, that'll be another infrastructure project. Infrastructure always needs more attention, particularly when the government is put in charge of it, and regardless of whether or not the government in question is going deeper and deeper into debt.
"The problem is a gerrymandered legislature, not the voters."
===
Arnold tried to fix that too, with Prop. 77, which was defeated by the CA voters.
Arnold is a US citizen, so he is an AMERICAN, and he is very proud of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.