Coercive Style Gets Results

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is perched to capture another huge trophy: workers’ comp reform. Again, credit his capacity to cajole, coerce and compromise.

Schwarzenegger’s celebrity is an invaluable asset, attracting the public and politicians alike to his causes. But any California governor possesses the raw power -- with bill signings and political appointments -- to achieve great deeds. Schwarzenegger has been showing an innate ability to pull it all together into a complete power package.

He has been persistent and positive, not passive and petty.

“The guy is really motivated toward results,” says Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez of Los Angeles. “He wants solutions. We’re sitting in the room with him and he doesn’t think about the politics as much as fixing the problem....

“Arnold has been good. I appreciate his accessibility.”

That’s the cajoling. So is working late into the night in his office with Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) and ordering out for the lawmaker’s favorite schnitzel.

Still, Nunez and other Democrats get annoyed by what the speaker calls the Republican governor’s “grandstanding.”

The latest example was last week at a Costco store near Sacramento, where Schwarzenegger urged shoppers to sign petitions to place a workers’ comp initiative on the November ballot. The initiative is the governor’s backup -- his leverage -- if a compromise cannot be negotiated with the Legislature.

The deadline for turning in signatures is April 16. So, in effect, that’s the Legislature’s deadline, too.

“I’m out here gathering signatures because I want to put the pressure on legislators,” Schwarzenegger told the Costco crowd, calling stratospheric workers’ comp premiums “the poison of our economy.”

“The special interests are running our Capitol. And what I said during my campaign was that if the special interests push me around, I will push back.”

Of course, one politician’s special interest is another’s good government savant. Schwarzenegger has plenty of special interests pushing on his side, too.

Nunez dismisses such rallies as “counterproductive,” adding: “We just laugh at that stuff.

“I don’t think it’s conducive of the bipartisan atmosphere that the governor is trying to create. Good leadership isn’t when you put a hammer over someone’s head and threaten to use it.”

That’s the coercing. And, while it rankles, it does work.

Ronald Reagan not only was a great communicator, he was a great coercer. Democrats groused, but usually followed his lead on legislation. Does anyone really think legislators would be negotiating workers’ comp in March -- rather than the August end-of-session trading season -- if not for Schwarzenegger’s coercing?

Schwarzenegger has another similarity with Reagan: a willingness to compromise. The governor’s compromise on a spending cap led to passage of his $15-billion budget bailout bond.

Last week, Schwarzenegger signaled he might compromise on rate regulation for workers’ comp premiums -- some sort of provision to ensure that savings from reform aren’t merely pocketed by insurers.

Regulation is a Republican anathema, but it could be called something else. A guideline.

Regardless, to achieve real reform that saves business money, Republicans may need to sacrifice some of their principle and their patron insurers’ profits. Democrats already seem prepared to whack their donors, the workers’ comp attorneys, while tightening controls on benefits for injured workers.

The current system is indefensible, legislators of all stripes agree. California’s premiums are the nation’s highest while benefits are only average.

No legislative deal is sealed yet. This thing still could fall apart. But that’s unlikely.

There’s a confluence of political interests flowing together, creating a momentum for reform now, rather than waiting until November.

Schwarzenegger insists on “action, action.” Achievement. He wants to go out and sell California, marketing workers’ comp reform. Business’ bleeding can stop this year rather than next, if the politicians act immediately.

Failure is not an option, he says of every endeavor. So he focuses hawk-like on only one object at a time. It’s a Schwarzenegger trait: walk, but no gum-chewing. He can’t focus on workers’ comp indefinitely, however, because he has many battles to fight, especially the budget.

What’s more, it’s risky to take a workers’ comp proposal to the ballot. Opponents could frame the issue as greedy corporations versus disabled workers. He’d have to raise $20 million for TV from corporate interests. Ugly.

But Democrats also are motivated. They’re viewed as anti-business and need to spruce up that image. Their own business constituents have been beating on them for comp reform.

Democrats would rather cooperate with Schwarzenegger than fight him -- than have him campaigning alongside Republican candidates in competitive legislative districts next fall, railing about Democrats protecting avaricious attorneys and costing California jobs. Ouch.

As an institution, the Legislature likewise needs a big win to be productive and pertinent.

To paraphrase the governor, failure isn’t a rational option.

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George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.