Bond Deal Muddies Race for Governor

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s deal with lawmakers to put $37 billion in construction projects to a statewide vote has complicated efforts by his Democratic rivals to portray him as a failed governor who is too conservative for California, analysts say.

The bipartisan agreement to pour the money into schools, flood protection, traffic relief and housing also has scrambled the terms of debate in the June 6 Democratic primary between Phil Angelides and Steve Westly. They are vying to face the Republican governor in November.

Both Democrats, whose increasingly bitter fight moves tonight to a San Francisco debate, have questioned Schwarzenegger’s competence and belittled his achievements. The bond deal reached Friday gives him new ammunition to fight back.

Angelides, the state treasurer, and Westly, the controller, have joined Schwarzenegger in urging voters to approve the $37 billion in bonds, a union that serves to dim the contrast among the three candidates.

“It undoubtedly changes the dynamics immensely,” said Tom Hollihan, a professor who teaches politics and media at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication. “This is the Schwarzenegger that people thought they were electing when they voted out Gray Davis and voted in this kind of maverick who could get things done and reach across the aisle.”

Indeed, the 2003 recall of Schwarzenegger’s Democratic predecessor was fueled partly by the partisan stalemate that blocked Davis and the Legislature from finding common ground to weather a major fiscal crisis.

Early in his term, Schwarzenegger’s popularity soared when he bridged the gap between Democrats and Republicans in the Capitol to forge a bond deal to ease the budget crunch. Last year, however, his public-approval ratings plummeted when he dumped bipartisanship and battled Democrats and organized labor over ballot measures that voters roundly rejected in November.

Now, partisanship has become a central focus of the Democratic primary.

Westly, one of the Democrats who campaigned with Schwarzenegger for the budget-relief bond in 2004, has cast himself as a “problem-solver” willing to work with Republicans when it serves the state’s interests.

“We must move past the partisanship that has paralyzed this state and work together to tackle the tough issues facing California,” he said Friday in a statement endorsing the construction-bond deal.

Angelides has taken a different approach, defining himself as the state’s most outspoken Democrat in taking on Schwarzenegger from the start of his governorship. He describes his staunch opposition to the governor as a testament to his commitment to principles, such as higher school spending.

Angelides also has used Westly’s alliance with Schwarzenegger when the governor was popular to argue that his rival is an opportunist who is willing to sacrifice principles for personal ambition.

Having signed on to the bond proposals, Westly and Angelides risk appearing like “me too” candidates, said Tony Quinn, co-editor of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan election guide. The deal also enhances Schwarzenegger’s ability to associate himself with pragmatic spending that appeals to moderates who are turned off by much of the national Republican agenda, Quinn said.

“They are motivated by these things that are fundamentally nonpartisan,” he said. “This isn’t some ideological cause. This deals with real things like roads and levees.”

In the Democratic primary, he said, the awkwardness of the bipartisan bond deal is especially acute for Angelides. “It makes the Phil Angelides case harder to make,” Quinn said.

Angelides pollster Paul Maslin said the bond deal would have “zero impact” on the Democratic primary.

The Democratic contest, meantime, took a negative turn Tuesday as Westly started airing a television ad describing himself as “the only Democrat for governor who hasn’t proposed a $10-billion tax increase.” The ad refers to an Angelides plan to boost taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

Though Westly last month pledged to conduct a “positive campaign” in which he would not criticize Angelides by name in ads, the spot was the second in a row to criticize Angelides by implication. The first jabbed at unnamed developers who harm the environment, a charge Westly has made against former developer Angelides in public remarks.

Senior Angelides advisor Bob Mulholland said the ad showed that Westly’s campaign was “in a panic.”

As for Schwarzenegger, Democrats suggested that the bond deal would do him no good in regaining his centrist credentials.

“He threw that image away, and I don’t think it’s very easy for that to come back,” Maslin said.

Voters, Maslin said, are disappointed in Schwarzenegger, and his professional background as an actor heightens their distrust of him as he retreats from the conservative agenda he pursued last year.

“Now it’s an election year, and he starts to make nice?” Maslin said.

Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist unaligned in the primary, also played down the potential gain from any repositioning by Schwarzenegger, even if polls have shown signs of a political recovery for the governor. “All of this requires a certain amount of amnesia,” he said.

Westly strategist Garry South acknowledged the bond deal “certainly helps” Schwarzenegger, but said it would not “negate the case that this guy has been, for the last two years, a very unproductive governor.”

South described the infrastructure deal as a “bookend” to a Schwarzenegger term that started with repeal of an increase in the car tax, the budget-relief bond and an overhaul of the insurance system for workers injured on the job. In between, he said, was nothing but “failures and foul-ups” culminating in the 2005 special-election debacle.

“I’m not convinced that’s a very appealing record, once it’s been made known to the voters,” South said.

To maximize the new deal’s political bang, Schwarzenegger invited legislative leaders of both major parties to travel with him Monday on a private plane to airport news conferences in Oakland, Burbank, Santa Ana and San Diego.

The Democrats -- Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata of Oakland and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez of Los Angeles -- heaped praise on Schwarzenegger. In San Diego, Perata lauded Schwarzenegger for “strong gubernatorial leadership,” saying, “You can’t get things done unless you have a governor who’s willing to set the pace and set the bar.”

Perata and Nunez each pledged to campaign with Schwarzenegger in the fall for the bond measures -- at the same time that their party’s nominee will be trying to unseat the governor.

Nunez, who is co-chairman of Angelides’ campaign, went out of his way to credit Schwarzenegger for helping strike the deal.

“Obviously, the legislative leaders worked out the details,” he told reporters in Oakland. “But don’t underestimate the role that the governor played in this.”

Still, the bond deal carries risk for Schwarzenegger, particularly with his base of conservative voters, for whom vast construction spending holds little appeal.

“The governor is kind of stepping on his base,” said U.S. Senate candidate Dick Mountjoy, a conservative on the Republican ticket with Schwarzenegger in November.

Voters in Republican-leaning areas of the state failed to turn out in large numbers in November to vote for Schwarzenegger’s special-election initiatives, and ballot measures to borrow $37 billion could dampen conservative turnout again.

“Unfortunately, a lot of times, they just sit on their hands,” said Mountjoy, who described the bond proposals as “a bad deal for taxpayers.”

For Schwarzenegger’s campaign team, the grand scope of the bond deal has quickly become a device to enhance the governor’s stature as Democrats pursue their nomination fight.

“This election,” said Schwarzenegger campaign manager Steve Schmidt, “will be about a choice: Moving the state forward with the governor’s big vision for the future, and the Democrats’ small vision that takes the state back” to overspending and partisan deadlock.