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Democrats To Campaign With Arnold, Laud His Role In Big Bonds Passage
New West Notes ^ | 05-06-2006 | Bill Bradley

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.”


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: bigbangbonds; billbradley; bipartisanship; cagop; calbondage; calinfrastructure; callegislature; franknitti; prop1b; prop1c; prop1d; prop1e; steveschmidt; strategicgrowthplan
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To: Lancey Howard
Boxer, Feinstein, Gore, Kerry - - there's a whole lot of goofballs, parasites, and scumbags casting votes in California.

Boxer won when Herschensohn was abandoned by his own party over a bogus accusation. Feinswine poses as a moderate, but we all know she's a crook and the GOP does nothing to expose it. Simon lost by only 325,000 votes after one of the most incompetent campaigns in history with 1.6 million Registered Republicans staying home and with his own operatives sabotaging the effort.

The reality is that with the choice between hard left and right, conservative issues do well. Conservative candidates have fared badly more because of their own party than anything else.

41 posted on 05/06/2006 10:07:59 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to manage by central planning.)
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To: no dems
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.

The package they just passed is very similar to those they have been talking about all year. Here are some comments that demonstrate this is NOT about infrastrucutre:

From the Desert Sun, March 19, 2006 :

Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, said that the governor and lawmakers dodged a bullet by not passing a bond package that had become bloated and misguided so that only $9 billion of $50 billion would have gone for actual construction, by his calculations.
Associated Press, February, 16, 2006
Assemblyman Rick Keene, R-Chico, said he was concerned the governor's plan would eat up the state's ability to sell other bond proposals for as long as 40 years. He also complained it provided too little in bond funds for transportation, flood control and water storage. "We've got only $13 billion going into what I think California thinks infrastructure is," he said.

42 posted on 05/06/2006 10:16:23 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: FairOpinion

He holds dual citizenship. You can't praise one without acknowledging the FACT the other exists.

And yes--I see it as a problem.
I don't believe one can honestly pledge loyalty to two countries. It causes both to come in question.


43 posted on 05/06/2006 10:20:44 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: Lancey Howard

"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."

When he wrote that it was addressed at me, I never said "California is a liberal state"

This is the kind of nonsense that ruins us here in California.

I am so conservative that I have never registered as a Republican because they are too liberal for me, I vote for them in every election because they are always the best choice to further my political interests.

I'm a McClintock man, in the 1994 revolution I was being paid by two campaigns and working for free for a third campaign here in Cal.

My two favorite candidates out here in recent times (besides McClintock, were Bruce Hershonson and Sonny Bono (if Bono surprises you, you never heard him in a debate)

Many of us are striving to salvage something in California, since we managed to passed prop 187, it hasn't gone too well for us.

If you want to help, please do but spare us conservatives your BS.


44 posted on 05/06/2006 10:20:51 PM PDT by ansel12
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Comment #45 Removed by Moderator

To: calcowgirl

You are NOT quoting the curernt bond package, but some old potential ones, which are NOT what passed.

The current bonds:

"The $37.3 billion public works bond package that’s headed for the November ballot could impact where Californians live, how long it takes them to get to work, where there kids go to school and whether they’ll face flooding. The package, split into four ballot propositions that were approved early Friday morning by lawmakers, would generate $19.9 billion for highway, rail and port projects; $10.4 billion for school and university construction and remodeling; $4.1 billion for flood control; and $2.85 billion for housing, parks and transit-linked development."

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=58342


The infrastructure is in dire need of fixing, and the Dems wouldn't have allowed it to pass, without the school and housing part. It's like, when you buy a pound of meat, but you have to take the bone.


It looks like 2/3 are going for useful stuff, such as roads and flood control. That's probably the best deal we could have with the Dems controlling the Legislature.


46 posted on 05/06/2006 10:27:24 PM PDT by FairOpinion (Dem Foreign Policy: SURRENDER to our enemies. Real conservatives don't help Dems get elected.)
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Comment #47 Removed by Moderator

To: ansel12
"I am so conservative that I have never registered as a Republican because they are too liberal for me, I vote for them in every election because they are always the best choice to further my political interests. "


===

Well said. You are a REAL conservative, not like the faux-conservatives, who, in the guise of claiming to be conservatives, go out of their way to help Dems get elected to destroy CA, and since I live here, I strenuously object to that.
48 posted on 05/06/2006 10:30:25 PM PDT by FairOpinion (Dem Foreign Policy: SURRENDER to our enemies. Real conservatives don't help Dems get elected.)
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To: Lancey Howard; ansel12

It seems like you are admitting you lost the rational argument, since you are resorting to personal insults.


49 posted on 05/06/2006 10:32:34 PM PDT by FairOpinion (Dem Foreign Policy: SURRENDER to our enemies. Real conservatives don't help Dems get elected.)
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To: FairOpinion

What argument? I think you're confused.
Did you mean to post to me?


50 posted on 05/06/2006 10:37:59 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: FairOpinion
Nice try, but those are NOT the infrastructure bonds that passed -- you are quoting things from back in February and March.

The current, smaller bond package IS all for infrastructure.

WRONG. Very, very wrong! The same still applies. Have you looked at the new ones? They are basically the same packages, FO. Go compare the Transportation provisions in AB 1838 to AB 134 to the current SB 1266. They are virtually the same when it comes to their lack of infrastructure. The most recent switch was to strip out the affordable housing, previously buried in the Transportation bill, and make it its own $2.850 Billion Proposition. They added in a couple Billion in the process. Providing loans to the poor, building women's shelters, and hundreds of millions for "park creation" is hardly "infrastructure."

51 posted on 05/06/2006 10:38:10 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: Lancey Howard; ansel12

You were hurling personal insults at ansel 12, hence my comment.


52 posted on 05/06/2006 10:41:04 PM PDT by FairOpinion (Dem Foreign Policy: SURRENDER to our enemies. Real conservatives don't help Dems get elected.)
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To: FairOpinion
You are NOT quoting the curernt bond package, but some old potential ones, which are NOT what passed.

Wrong again, FO. I've read the ones that just passed Thursday night and summarized the bill numbers Here. I summarized who voted for what Here. Why not look at this thread, starting at about post #9 and see the millions for retrofitting buses and other NON infrastructure items. Or, go here to see the $135,000,000 in housing for farmworkers, so deceptively written that you have to look up existing code to figure out what pork they have hidden in here. All the posts are linked to the bond packages just passed, which will be on the ballot as Propostitions 1A through 1E.

The liberals trying to pass this garbage, along with the liberal MSM, would love to characterize this as "infrastructure." Thank goodness I can read and understand it for myself as I recommend everyone do.

53 posted on 05/06/2006 10:50:00 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: FairOpinion
You were hurling personal insults at ansel 12, hence my comment.

Oh. And did you post anything to ansel 12 about his/her silly "spare us conservatives your BS" comment that was hurled at me from out of the blue? Or are you a hypocrite?

Nevermind. I don't care.
Have a nice life.

54 posted on 05/06/2006 10:53:08 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard; FairOpinion

One good thing about these discussions is they remind us to get involved.

Weeks ago I said I was going to drive to another district to help Kaloogian against Bilbray, but I got too busy.

Now if I want to help, it has to be Bilbray, but the good new is he is a moderate that at least leans to the right.

Sometimes (almost always) this politics stuff sucks.


55 posted on 05/06/2006 10:55:30 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: calcowgirl

Your post 42 quoted old, incorrect stuff.

My post 46 quotes the very same numbers, you quoted in the other thread you referred to. So what is the problem?

I had my post where I said this is all for infrastucture (45), pulled by the Mods, because I realized that statement was incorrect.


56 posted on 05/06/2006 10:58:23 PM PDT by FairOpinion (Dem Foreign Policy: SURRENDER to our enemies. Real conservatives don't help Dems get elected.)
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To: Lancey Howard

"Oh. And did you post anything to ansel 12 about his/her silly "spare us conservatives your BS" comment that was hurled at me from out of the blue? Or are you a hypocrite?"

Sorry, I was typing away and by the time I got to the end I thought I was responding to Cary-Okies insult, sorry about that, my attention wandered.


57 posted on 05/06/2006 11:01:26 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: FairOpinion
FO, what I quoted is NOT incorrect. To the extent the same elements still largely make up the bond package, the lack of infrastructure still exists. I have been through it, line by line--it still includes parks, retrofitting buses, etc. Unfortunately, with the new Frank Nitti approach by the Governor's enforcers, we won't even have the conservatives speaking out on this. He effectively silenced many of them into not voting at all. It's disgraceful and subverts our Representative form of governing. Just read the ballot description for the Housing bond. This is NOT infrastructure!
"Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006" and in the same square under those words, the following in 8-point type:
"For the purpose of providing shelters for battered women and their children, clean and safe housing for low-income senior citizens; homeownership assistance for the disabled, military veterans, and working families; and repairs and accessibility improvements to apartment for families and disabled citizens, the state shall issue bonds totaling two billion eight hundred fifty thousand dollars ($2,850,000,000) paid from existing state funds at an average annual cost of ______ dollars ($_____) per year over the _____ year life of the bonds. Requires reporting and publication of annual independent audited reports showing use of funds, and limits administration and overhead costs. (The Attorney General shall fill in the blanks in this subdivision with the figures provided by the Legislative Analyst for the annual average cost of the bonds and the number of years required to retire the bonds.)"

58 posted on 05/06/2006 11:08:05 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: Lancey Howard

That "conservative bs" comment wasn't directed at you.

I apologize, and to make it worse it seems to have set off a chain reaction.

Please forgive my mistake.


59 posted on 05/06/2006 11:13:21 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: calcowgirl; All
I knew it! Here I was just in there watching Sea Biscuit and they I come in here and find this horshit that you've found that Arnold is once again in league with the Dems, pushing social program nonsense and parks for the environment under the guise of so-called infrastructure bonds!

Schwartzenegger is a Republican FRAUD!!!

60 posted on 05/06/2006 11:17:23 PM PDT by SierraWasp (Without consistent core conservatives in charge, the GOP is fast becoming the Gelded Old Party!!!)
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