Governor Has Lead Role, but Shouldn’t Write Off His GOP Supporting Cast

Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte puts it this way: “A year ago, I was the Republican leader in the Capitol. I’m not anymore. I’m the best supporting actor.”

The Rancho Cucamonga lawmaker isn’t whining. This is not a lament. It is a statement of political condition, of life in the Capitol with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It is ironic that the relevance of a Republican legislative leader -- as it pertains to passing big bills -- fades significantly when a Republican becomes governor. They’re both in the same family, but the power pie is only so big and a governor always gets to cut the first slice.

That’s how the system works, especially when Democrats control the Legislature, which has been 41 years out of the last 45.

When there’s a Democratic governor, GOP lawmakers at least get to negotiate with the dominant party for their votes on bills that require a two-thirds majority. That happened early in Gov. Gray Davis’ regime. By his final years, however, nobody was talking and Brulte was throwing bombs. Either way, Brulte’s actions had impact.

With a Republican governor, GOP legislators always have been basically taken for granted. The governor just assumes that, after proper hand-holding, they’ll be faithful and back whatever deal he cuts with the Democratic majority.

The Republican governor wants a bill passed. Democrats control most of the votes. It’s that simple.

Except it isn’t always that simple, of course, because a governor also must deal with individual philosophies and human emotions.

And currently, as Schwarzenegger struggles to negotiate workers’ comp reform with legislative leaders, Republicans are hinting at rebellion if they feel ignored, if they’re treated as totally irrelevant. If they conclude that any agreement leans too far toward labor and doesn’t save enough money for business.

Nobody expects it to come to that, but there’s a subtle Republican message being conveyed to Schwarzenegger: Don’t forget us.

“To the extent we can be, we want to be helpful,” Brulte says. “Being governor, he gets to negotiate directly with the Democrats. And to the extent they reach an agreement that Republicans in the Legislature are comfortable with, Republicans will vote for it. And to the extent that we’re not, Republicans won’t support it.

“I want to support what he ultimately negotiates. Whether I do or not, that depends on what he negotiates.... Hopefully, they’ll get a deal that an overwhelming majority of the Legislature will support. It’s also conceivable that we get a deal very few Republicans support.”

Brulte observed Tuesday: “I don’t think there are many Republican votes for this [preliminary] bill and I told the governor that.”

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) had thought he and Schwarzenegger were nearing agreement on a proposal last week. The two genuinely seem to like and trust each other. But during a “Big Five” negotiating session of legislative leaders, the two Republicans -- including Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield -- balked at the direction Schwarzenegger and Burton were headed.

“John wants to negotiate one-on-one with the governor, which is OK; I would too if I were him,” says Brulte. But when Republicans began poking at some of the tentative Schwarzenegger-Burton agreements, Brulte says, Burton stormed out of the “Big Five” meeting.

Not much progress has been made since.

If a bill isn’t passed by April 16, Schwarzenegger vows, his political team will submit enough signatures to qualify a workers’ comp initiative for the November ballot. All sides say they’d prefer a legislative compromise, although some GOP candidates would love to run with the governor and his initiative in the fall.

Schwarzenegger and Democrats could cut a deal by themselves and pass the bill without Republican votes. Any measure would require only a simple majority vote. But the savings would get to business quicker if it were passed on a two-thirds vote as an “urgency” bill.

Anyway, the last thing Schwarzenegger wants to do is snub Republicans -- again. The new governor did that in December when he cut a deal solely with Democrats for a budget-balancing mandate, the future Proposition 58. Republicans had wanted a real spending cap and were disappointed and upset.

“Everybody learned from that experience,” says Assemblyman John Campbell (R-Irvine), who had been pushing a spending cap. “I don’t think you’ll see a repeat of that.”

Afterward, Schwarzenegger apologized to GOP lawmakers and promised not to do it again. He repeated that pledge in several newspaper interviews Tuesday, telling the San Francisco Chronicle: “I would not do this deal if the Democratic leaders and the Republican leaders are not happy with it and in sync.”

But Republicans aren’t taking anything for granted. And to make sure they themselves are not taken for granted, they’re resending a message to Schwarzenegger: Stay in touch.

Is this mostly about helping business or reasserting relevancy? That’s irrelevant.

It’s one way a minority party is heard and its constituents are represented. It’s how a centrist governor is forced to glance right. It’s the role of a supporting actor.