Is She a Democratic Fox in the GOP Governor’s Henhouse?

Democrat Susan Kennedy reacts strongly to anyone who questions her political loyalty to the new boss: Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I wouldn’t have taken this job if I wasn’t going to fight like hell for his reelection, if I didn’t believe deeply that he should be reelected,” Kennedy told me.

It has been two weeks since Schwarzenegger selected the former Democratic pro as his chief of staff, the most powerful nonelective job in state government.

She’s the gatekeeper to the governor’s inner office, the filter for what he reads, the advisor who gets in the last word -- the coordinator of compromise or combat. His confidant.

So it’s easy to fathom the continuing furor of GOP and Democratic pols generated by Schwarzenegger’s announcement that Kennedy had jumped ship to help save his vessel.

Here’s somebody, after all, who had long been a liberal activist and political strategist: for abortion rights, the state Democratic Party, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gov. Gray Davis, who appointed her to the Public Utilities Commission.

“That was two lifetimes ago,” Kennedy says of the political activism.

Actually, it was 1998, when she coordinated Davis’ get-out-the-vote effort and rallied Latinos in East L.A. by demonizing then-Gov. Pete Wilson for his aggressive 1994 campaign against illegal immigration. But Wilson, a Schwarzenegger mentor, has praised the Kennedy appointment.

“I dropped those bags long ago,” she says. “I’m a Democrat, but the key is that party shouldn’t matter. If parties matter, then we’re stuck in the quicksand looking at things through a party prism instead of what’s good for California....

“The way you get things done is one vision, one agenda, one team.”

Sure, bipartisanship is terrific when it works. But this still is a two-party political system in Sacramento. It’s not a nonpartisan mayor’s office, let alone an academic think tank. Players are expected to wear team jerseys.

“I’m a lineman, he’s the quarterback,” Assemblyman Ray Haynes (R-Murietta) says of Schwarzenegger. “I’ll block for him as long as I know, when all’s said and done, that he’s throwing the ball to our team.”

For some time, Haynes says, he hasn’t been sure where Schwarzenegger was throwing. The Kennedy appointment is only the latest example. That was the message Assembly Republicans delivered to Schwarzenegger in a private huddle Wednesday. And it’s one expected to be conveyed to the governor by both Senate Republicans and state GOP leaders in separate meetings today.

“A Republican governor should have a Republican chief of staff,” says Senate GOP leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine. “If she’s an honest person, she’s not going to be blabbing everything. But you’re always more comfortable with somebody of your own party, and someone you’ve had a long working relationship with. Like Fred Aguiar.”

Aguiar, a former Republican assemblyman from Chino, was head of the state consumer affairs agency when Schwarzenegger tapped him last week to be his Cabinet secretary. Aguiar had been a candidate for chief of staff. But Kennedy was pushed by the governor’s wife, Maria Shriver, and also by the first lady’s powerful new chief of staff, Democrat Daniel Zingale. Kennedy and Zingale had both worked for Gov. Davis.

Schwarzenegger chose Kennedy because of her vaunted administrative skills and political smarts. She’s focused, disciplined, tough and a policy wonk. “There’s no on-the-job-training needed here,” says one gubernatorial staffer who has been working closely with Kennedy, but didn’t want to be named for fear of being seen as a kiss-up.

Other staffers, however, are watching and waiting -- not only wary of Kennedy, but of Zingale, who sits in on policy meetings.

One worry is that Kennedy and Zingale will push Schwarzenegger to the left.

“That totally underestimates the governor,” Kennedy says. “Republicans need to have more faith in him....

“He has a strong vision of what he wants to do. He brought me in because he trusts me. I’m a professional. I’m here to implement his agenda, not mine.”

Their agendas, she says, aren’t much different.

Kennedy had a pro-business record on the PUC. “I’m very skeptical of regulation.”

She agrees with the governor that tax increases “should be the last resort ever.”

She supports the death penalty.

And although she’s a lesbian with a partner, Kennedy supported Schwarzenegger’s veto of a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriages.

“California has among the strongest domestic partner laws in the nation,” she says. “We need to pick our battles wisely. This is not the time to overreach. Besides, the people have spoken. You cannot disrespect the voters.” Californians in 2000 overwhelmingly passed an initiative to recognize only heterosexual marriages.

But Republicans also worry about Kennedy’s inevitable political plotting. It’s impossible to erect a firewall between politics and policy in a governor’s office.

“God knows I’ve spilled enough blood over the years that I’ve earned the reputation for being loyal,” she says. “Nobody should question my integrity....

“Are there politics involved in legislative strategy? Absolutely. My job is to help Gov. Schwarzenegger, and I won’t hesitate for one second to do that. Obviously, that means helping people who support him in the Legislature.”

Looked at one way, Kennedy’s appointment was a dumb move because the governor didn’t need any more political grief.

But a clearer view is that if this Democrat can save Schwarzenegger -- get him working productively with the Legislature -- it may be his smartest move as governor.

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