A Shot at Bringing Capitol to the Middle

They weren’t invited, but they came anyway, several hundred strong, to watch a double feature: the public hanging of Gray Davis and the world premiere of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newest and most challenging role.

California governor.

“It’s a historic transitional moment for California,” said Camie Martin, an advocate for the disabled. She has such high hopes for Gov. Schwarzenegger, she arrived 90 minutes before the swearing-in Monday morning and staked out a spot against the chain-link fence at 10th and N streets.

By 11 o’clock, hordes had closed in with cameras and binoculars, pressed against the fence along with her. Like Camie Martin, none of them had cracked the invitation list of 7,000-plus, and it was hard to know if they were there to see a governor or a movie star. Either way, it wasn’t much of a view from 150 yards out, across the lawn, under the trees and up the Capitol steps.

But they got their money’s worth, because by the time they got home from the pep rally in which Schwarzenegger promised a new day, one of the bricks was lifted off their backs. Two minutes into his term, Schwarzenegger kept a promise and signed an order rescinding an increase in the vehicle license fee.

It was a triumphant moment, cinematic in its dramatic flair, and possibly the last simple move Schwarzenegger will have for a while.

Now he’s got notoriously divisive legislators to deal with.

Now he’s got these high expectations from Californians who want little else from state government but for it to leave them alone and solve all their problems at rock bottom prices -- delusional desires Schwarzenegger fed in his campaign.

“The campaign was all show-time, and now we’ll see what he’s got,” said Stu Spencer, who worked with Ronald Reagan and Earl Warren and has been called the granddaddy of GOP consultants.

But Monday was a day for Schwarzenegger and his wife and four kids, and today, rather than spoil the party by dwelling on his possible shortcomings or the cold, blunt force of unshakable fiscal reality, let me say something about the rare promise of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Like him or not, there’s an upside to having at the helm a Rockefeller Republican -- social moderate, fiscal conservative -- who ticks off the most strident and annoying extremists in both the Republican and Democratic parties.

“Voters are more centrist than legislators or special interests,” says GOP strategist Dan Schnur. As an example, more than 20 Democratic districts voted for the recall of Democrat Gray Davis and for Republican Schwarzenegger.

Nationally, there’s nothing but rancor and poison in political dialogue, and the airwaves and bestseller lists are populated with carnival barkers who drive the wedge even deeper. Sacramento, too, has been paralyzed by this relentless cleaving.

But Schwarzenegger can change that. He can put California out front yet again by setting a new standard for political compromise.

Not that it will be easy, because you could hold a meeting of all the Legislature’s moderates in a broom closet. Districts were drawn up to protect party extremists on both sides, which is why Dems spent like thieves and outnumbered Republicans just tossed bombs from the right flank.

But as Schnur said, legislators are going to have to answer to constituents. If they don’t, there’s a good chance Arnold will be able to locate a TV camera or two, bypass legislators and speak directly to real Californians.

“Republicans now have a place at the table in the budget process, and we have a novelty in California,” says Bruce Cain, who teaches political science at UC Berkeley. “We have the potential to create an interesting dynamic where maybe Arnold ends up doing business with moderate Democrats and has the courage to leave the [Republican Sen. Tom] McClintock conservatives out of the discussion.”

It’ll be a messy scrum at times, and the stakes for Schwarzenegger are huge, given his problem-solving boasts and the high expectations he created.

At some point, he’ll have to hurt some of the people who bought into his promise.

But he can use the state’s gargantuan projected budget gap to his advantage. It’s all the more reason for him to lead, to be bold, to pummel special interests and trample politics as usual, and to do right by all those people pressed against the fence, watching, waiting, hoping.