Governor Tries to Tie Legislative Agenda to Bond Measure Coattails

Sounding confident that the ballot measures he is backing will pass March 2, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to transform momentum from his campaign for Propositions 57 and 58 into legislative victories on workers’ compensation, the state budget and rollbacks of business regulations.

That confidence has grown even though the most recent independent polls, conducted last month, show Proposition 57 trailing, with support of fewer than 40% of those surveyed.

On Wednesday, Schwarzenegger visited this dusty Central Valley town to pick up endorsements from three large farm groups. But in a departure from previous campaign appearances, he did not describe the two propositions in detail.

Instead, he devoted most of his speech to his pledge to make California more friendly for farms and other businesses by lowering electricity prices, unemployment insurance costs and the premiums employers pay for workers’ compensation insurance.

“It is time to remove Sacramento’s man-made burdens and obstacles

Proposition 57 is a $15-billion general-obligation bond issue to cover the state’s structural budget deficit. Proposition 58 is a balanced-budget amendment to the state Constitution.

Republicans and Democrats alike say their private polling shows support for the measures above 50%. State Controller Steve Westly, the Democrat who is co-chairman of the campaign with Schwarzenegger, said Tuesday that he had seen a private poll showing Proposition 57 with 55% support.

In recent weeks, Schwarzenegger, following a game plan similar to the one he used in winning passage of the after-school measure Proposition 49 in 2002, has piled up endorsements from unlikely bedfellows. Among them: the United Farm Workers and the California Farm Bureau, the California Teachers Assn. and the California Taxpayers Assn., the AFL-CIO and the California Chamber of Commerce. Schwarzenegger’s California Recovery Team also has raised millions from corporations for an onslaught of TV advertisements for the measures.

The bipartisan support has drowned out the measure’s few opponents, including the liberal state Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat who prefers higher taxes to paying interest on Proposition 57’s borrowing, and conservative state Sen. Tom McClintock, a Republican who wants the state’s deficit fixed with deep spending cuts.

Jeff Randle, a political consultant for the governor who helps put together endorsements, said Wednesday that Propositions 57 and 58 have “probably the biggest, most diverse, most bipartisan coalition ever.”

Schwarzenegger’s confidence and his renewed focus on workers’ comp and other business-friendly measures highlight the extent to which the governor has made Propositions 57 and 58 a referendum on himself.

He has campaigned for the measures daily and has tried to cast them as extensions of the popular mandate that he received in the Oct. 7 recall election. And he has stamped the campaign with his loose, personal style.

On Wednesday, he climbed on a remote-controlled tractor, joked about his roots in rural Austria and said of California’s economic situation: “People are almost losing their shirts -- you have seen this happen with Janet Jackson.”

Dan Schnur, a Republican political consultant, said, “A win for Proposition 57 is a booster rocket for the rest of the Schwarzenegger agenda.”

If the measures pass, Schnur said, “it’s a sign of reaffirmation from the voters and it becomes that much harder for legislators in moderate and suburban Democratic districts to vote against him on his other priorities.”

In Sacramento, signs abound that Schwarzenegger is anticipating victory. He has been pressing to speed up the timetable for passing the budget. Schwarzenegger wants to move the introduction of his scheduled May budget revision to April, and push a June 30 deadline for adopting a budget into May.

He also has been negotiating vigorously with legislative Democrats on workers’ compensation. He has set a deadline of March 1 for the Legislature to pass a package. Otherwise, he has said, he will sponsor a ballot initiative on workers’ comp in November.

The scene on the Capitol steps Tuesday morning, as the California Democratic Party endorsed Propositions 57 and 58, offered a preview of the contest over whether those ballot measures would have political legs.

After the endorsement, Schwarzenegger’s communications director, Rob Stutzman, immediately attempted to link bipartisan support for Propositions 57 and 58 to the governor’s other priorities.

“It bodes well that we can come to some agreement on workers’ comp reform and the state budget,” Stutzman said.

Nearby, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton bristled when a reporter asked if Propositions 57 and 58 would have coattails. “It’s irrelevant to what comes next,” Burton said. “The budget will be what determines how the governor is doing.”