Former GOP Legislator Named to Replace Shelley

Choosing a Republican ally whose politics mirror his own, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday nominated former state Sen. Bruce McPherson as California’s chief elections officer.

If his selection as secretary of state is not blocked in the Legislature, McPherson -- who edited his family’s Santa Cruz newspaper for years before entering politics -- will replace Democrat Kevin Shelley, who was accused of bringing partisanship and ineptitude to the office. Shelley announced his resignation last week amid several inquiries.

McPherson, 61, was the most liberal Republican in the Senate until term limits forced him out last year. Since then, he has considered reentering politics while grappling with the 2001 slaying of his son, Hunter, during a botched robbery.

In recent days, with the Capitol full of speculation about whom Schwarzenegger would choose, McPherson was attending the San Francisco trial of two men accused of the killing.

A popular lawmaker on both sides of the aisle, McPherson is the temperamental opposite of Shelley, whose mercurial personality and regular tantrums contributed to his downfall. Schwarzenegger said McPherson would be a bipartisan leader and praised his experience with election issues while a legislator.

“I talked with both Democrats and Republicans before we really made the final decision,” Schwarzenegger said at a news conference. “And they all love Bruce McPherson. It’s amazing how many people love this guy and respect him.”

The nomination presents a political conundrum for Democratic lawmakers. Though many are friendly with McPherson, the party does not want to lose the secretary of state’s office in the 2006 election, and McPherson’s appointment would give the GOP a boost in that contest. Republicans held none of the eight statewide offices before Schwarzenegger ousted Democrat Gray Davis in the 2003 recall election.

McPherson said Schwarzenegger had not made his running in 2006 a condition of being offered the nomination. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do at that time,” he told reporters.

But Republicans were quietly pleased over the prospect of a party member who has repeatedly shown he can win in a heavily Democratic area -- Santa Cruz -- first in a 1993 special election to the Assembly and then to the Senate in 1996. McPherson lost a 2002 bid for lieutenant governor, 49% to 42%, but gained experience in that statewide run.

Under the state Constitution, either chamber of the Legislature can vote to confirm or reject his appointment. If no action is taken in the 90 days after Shelley leaves March 1, McPherson will automatically assume office. If either chamber rejects him, the governor must nominate someone else.

Senate leaders predicted that McPherson would win easy approval there, but his prospects in the feistier Assembly -- whose speaker, Fabian Nunez, had urged Schwarzenegger to select an apolitical caretaker without electoral ambitions -- was uncertain.

“I know Bruce McPherson to be a good man and I respect him,” said Nunez (D-Los Angeles). “The question is: Can he bring a nonpartisan flavor to this office in light of the growing partisan tensions in Sacramento?”

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) said his house would confirm McPherson “as fast as we can.”

“He’s well-known to all of us, well-respected by all of us, moderate politics, good integrity,” Perata said. “As far as I’m concerned, it was a smart decision on the part of the governor.”

The next secretary of state has his work cut out for him. California risks losing tens of millions of federal dollars unless it meets tight deadlines to create a more accurate database of legitimate voters and takes steps to help counties make it easier for the disabled and blind to cast ballots in secret.

In addition, state law requires that by June 2006 all of California’s electronic voting machines include a paper receipt that allows voters to check the accuracy of their ballot.

Election fever is likely to rise well before then, with Schwarzenegger toying with the idea of a special election this fall and close to 80 initiative proposals already submitted by him and others for that ballot.

“Bruce is a friend, a great guy, and he’ll have some big challenges ahead of him,” said Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), who is planning to run for secretary of state. She said she had not decided if she would vote for his confirmation.

Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, a Davis-based nonprofit group, praised McPherson as an “excellent choice” and credited him with a 1997 law that requires instant publication on the Web of campaign finance reports.

“He has a good track record on some important public issues,” she said.

In a decade as a legislator, McPherson voted with Republicans on budgets and other fiscal matters but often strayed across the aisle on gun control, abortion, and especially the environment, an issue particularly important to his coastal district. He was the deciding vote in a 1994 fight to ban offshore oil drilling.

“Bruce would generally be the first Republican that Democrats would go to when they were looking for a vote,” said former Sen. Steve Peace, a Democrat from El Cajon.

John Burton, a former Senate leader, said it would be a mistake to consider McPherson a bipartisan selection.

“Bruce is a nice guy, but Arnold’s obviously making a political appointment,” Burton said. “He’s putting Bruce in, I assume, to strengthen the political bench. Bruce was pro-choice, good on the environment and good on gun control, but other than that, Bruce is a Republican.”

Several former McPherson aides said he and the governor bonded in 2002, when Schwarzenegger enlisted McPherson in his fight to pass Proposition 49. That measure increased funding for after-school programs, which McPherson had championed in the Legislature.

They visited several newspaper editorial boards together, and Schwarzenegger held a fundraiser for McPherson’s campaign for lieutenant governor.

They also share some personal characteristics. McPherson, an avid golfer, is very athletic and, like Schwarzenegger, has a self-deprecating sense of humor. That was on display Friday when he told reporters he had been the governor’s second choice, after the state’s first lady, Maria Shriver.

McPherson is affluent, though certainly not on the governor’s level, according to his financial disclosure statements. He and his wife, Mary, own a house in Santa Cruz worth more than $1 million, and another property at Lake Tahoe, also worth more than $1 million. In his most recent disclosure statement last year, he also listed an investment in a hair salon franchise.

The secretary of state is responsible for administering and enforcing election laws and guiding county election officials. The office also handles disclosure reports from politicians and lobbyists, tracks assorted corporate filings and oversees the state archives.

A former Democratic assemblyman from San Francisco, Shelley earned good reviews for his handling of the historic 2003 recall election. But his political and professional troubles began to snowball last fall with allegations that state money he helped direct to a nonprofit community center in his Assembly district came back to him as political contributions.

In recent months, state auditors accused his office of bungling the expenditure of tens of millions of federal dollars earmarked for voter system improvements. A Personnel Board report concluded that he created an “abusive” work environment and allegedly mishandled worker complaints, leading to an attorney general’s investigation.

Federal elections officials have launched their own audit of how Shelley spent $46 million given to the state under the Help America Vote Act. Some of that money was used to hire temporary workers who attended political events on Shelley’s behalf.

In response, lawmakers from both parties have proposed making the office nonpartisan, but neither Schwarzenegger nor McPherson endorsed the idea Friday, even as McPherson noted that he had offered similar legislation in the past.

Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield said Democrats would be “playing politics” if they didn’t support McPherson.

Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer (D-Glendale) said he couldn’t predict how Democrats would vote on McPherson, but added, “I would imagine that he’s in a good spot.

“A lot of us know him and do like him,” he said. Still, Frommer complained that McPherson was “a little cute” about whether he intended to run for the office next year.

“I’m assuming he does,” Frommer said. “On that end, some of us are a little disappointed.”