Governor, Democrats begin where they left off

As the California Legislature kicked off a two-year session Monday, Democratic leaders promised more of the same cooperation with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that brought them major successes in the past session, while outnumbered Republican lawmakers immediately dimmed the bipartisan glow.

Riding high from the deals they struck with the Republican governor last summer to raise the minimum wage, lower the cost of prescription drugs, regulate greenhouse gas emissions and borrow $37 billion to upgrade the state’s schools and roads, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) vowed another two years of teamwork.

“If we reject stalemate and stagnation, and if we commit ourselves to a path of civility and cooperation,” Nunez said in a speech after being reelected leader of the 80-member Assembly with boisterous applause, “who knows -- 25 years from now, this body may be honoring the lasting results of what we achieved together here, here in what we call the people’s house.”

In an unusual appearance for a governor, Schwarzenegger attended the swearing-in ceremony at Nunez’s invitation. The governor told the lawmakers and their families: “We can accomplish extraordinary things this year if we continue working together. Let us find what we have in common rather than things we should fight about.”

But Republicans’ frustration with their minority status quickly altered the mood. Within minutes of the governor’s call for compromise, on a routine motion to adopt the Assembly’s internal rules, Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) complained that Republicans had received the rules only three hours earlier and had had no time to review any changes.

“I’m under no illusion as to how my opposition ... will affect the outcome of this motion, but that is perhaps the point,” Blakeslee said. As he predicted, the rules were quickly adopted with only Democratic votes.

Mounting Republican frustration could complicate the big plans of Schwarzenegger, Nunez and Perata to stretch health insurance coverage to more Californians, craft the state’s budget and fix an overcrowded prison system.

Often at odds with the more moderate governor, Assembly Republicans last month dumped their leader, George Plescia of San Diego, in favor of Mike Villines of Clovis. Lawmakers at the time called Plescia a pushover who did a poor job of representing their views in budget and bond negotiations with Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders.

Similar complaints echoed Monday in a 2 1/2 -hour meeting of the Senate’s Republicans. Several votes were taken on whether to oust caucus leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine in favor of Jim Battin of La Quinta, but the challenger failed in his bid.

In a news conference Monday, Villines praised the success of the last session and promised more bipartisanship. He said he wanted “to be someone who gets things done.”

“There’s a lot more that unites our caucus with the governor than separates us,” Villines said. “No new taxes, less government, a little more personal freedom -- those are issues we agree on.”

In the coming year, he said, his caucus’ top priorities will be to bridge the state’s $5.5-billion budget gap without raising taxes and to slow spending. Several Republican votes will be needed to pass the budget by the required two-thirds majority.

Lawmakers return to work Jan. 3, and Schwarzenegger is expected to outline his goals in a State of the State speech the following week. The governor has said he does not favor a state-run healthcare program that would cover all Californians, and he has vetoed such bills.

But Nunez said many Assembly Democrats believe a universal approach is the answer.

Perata, the Senate leader, said extending health insurance was a matter of “political will.”

“We’re not talking about ‘Is it possible?’ ” he said. “Of course it is. Do we have the political will? That remains the question.”

A self-interest agenda also probably will surface next year. Schwarzenegger has vowed to find a way to take from legislators the power to draw their own districts. Voters rejected his 2005 effort at redistricting reform, Proposition 77.

Nunez and Perata both said they were open to ceding redistricting power to an independent panel and expected to negotiate details next year. In the last legislative session, Nunez explored linking redistricting reform to an extension of term limits. Voters in Los Angeles gave lawmakers hope when they voted last month to allow City Council members to serve three four-year terms instead of two.

Increasing the number of years a lawmaker can serve -- now six in the Assembly and eight in the Senate -- would stabilize the Legislature and stop the flight of experienced lawmakers and staffers, Perata said.

“The truncated terms are savaging this building and making this branch unequitable in the three branches of government,” he said.

On Monday, Nunez downplayed talk of linking redistricting reform to term limits and possibly moving California’s primary election from June to March so that lawmakers like himself, who are termed out in 2008, may serve longer in office.

“Those are all very stratospheric conversations,” he said.

Also on Monday, lawmakers introduced more than 100 bills, including efforts to legalize same-sex marriage, ban smoking in cars carrying children, regulate payday-loan companies that lend to military personnel and bill the federal government for the state’s cost of incarcerating people who are in the U.S. illegally.

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nancy.vogel@latimes.com