Sacramento’s Action Man

Candidates for governor usually fling out promises during their campaigns and then try to lower expectations when they take office -- there’s nothing gained in pointing to hopes that can’t be met. Not this governor. Arnold Schwarzenegger not only promised “action, action, action,” he ticked off a dozen ambitious tasks he vowed to complete within his first 100 days in office.

The minute Schwarzenegger took the oath Nov. 17, there was no question who was in charge. He marched to his office and issued an executive order rolling back the car-tax increase imposed by ousted Gov. Gray Davis earlier in the year. So what if it added a few billion to the debt? The same day, he called the Democratic-controlled Legislature into special session to develop the $15-billion state deficit-reduction bond and balanced-budget plan that will appear on the March 2 ballot as Propositions 57 and 58. He got the Legislature to repeal the controversial bill that allowed illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses.

He has schmoozed with legislative Democrats and Republicans, sharing cigars with them on the governor’s patio. Comfortable in his celebrity, Schwarzenegger often has eaten lunches and suppers in Sacramento restaurants. He has appointed some Democrats and independents to key state jobs and allowed a number of holdovers from the Davis administration to remain in others.

The governor checked off other items on the list: opening negotiations with casino-owning Indian tribes to collect more of their winnings for the state, and with public employee unions to reopen their contracts to save state money. The more complicated issue of reforming a costly workers’ compensation system is in the Legislature’s hands, and a complete overhaul by the governor’s March 1 deadline is impossible. Schwarzenegger has threatened a ballot measure but would be better off to broker a compromise.

The biggest test of the governor’s brief political life comes March 2 when voters decide on Proposition 57, his debt bond, and Proposition 58, his don’t-do-this-again budget initiative. To his credit, rather than deflecting responsibility, Schwarzenegger is facing disgruntled voters with a personal plea on behalf of these two imperfect measures. He’ll face harder choices soon, including the need for temporary tax hikes amid a still-sluggish state economy. He is also piling up questions about his ties to the developers and financiers he has hit up for $500,000 contributions to fund his initiative campaigns, and about knocking out core consumer protections in his zeal to get rid of business “overregulation.”

Schwarzenegger is learning how hard and expensive the initiative process can be, right down to ruining his campaign promises to stay away from special interests. But Schwarzenegger has also learned about his own power with the Legislature, and if he can keep refining it and artfully using compromise, he may have far less need to go to the voters than he predicted.