Governor’s Gambit Takes the Game

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger loves to play chess. And his nomination of Bruce McPherson to be secretary of state is a checkmate.

Democratic legislators are left with no viable moves. They can give up or get clobbered.

If they surrender -- as President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) says the Senate will -- they’ll cut their losses, looking cooperative and bipartisan.

If they fight the nomination or stall confirmation -- as Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) indicates the Assembly might -- they’ll lose ugly, looking obstructionist and petty. They’ll provide ammunition for the governor as he attacks the Sacramento “system” and campaigns all over California for “reform.”

The Legislature will have 90 days to act on McPherson’s nomination after March 1, the date Democrat Kevin Shelley set for his resignation. Either house can block the nomination.

It’s unfortunate for the state that the resignation wasn’t immediate. But the Democratic-dominated Legislature can do its part by having the Republican nominee confirmed and ready to start cleaning up Shelley’s mess the day the scandal-torn San Franciscan vacates.

There’s no credible excuse not to.

McPherson, 61, a centrist former senator from Santa Cruz, is admired in the Legislature for integrity, smarts and pleasant nature. He’s familiar with the job, having been chairman of the Assembly Elections Committee.

Like Schwarzenegger, he’s a fiscal conservative and a social moderate -- for abortion rights, gun control and environmental protection. Ideologically, if not politically, he’s a Republican-Democrat mix.

“We know him. We trust him,” Perata said Friday after the nomination. “People would have to search pretty far and wide to come up with a plausible reason not to support him.”

Contrast that with the comments of Nunez, who didn’t seem sure whether to capitulate or fight -- or hold out Assembly confirmation as a bargaining chip. While calling McPherson “a good man,” Nunez questioned “whether he can bring a nonpartisan flavor to this office in light of the growing partisan tensions in Sacramento.”

The speaker had urged the governor to nominate “an experienced professional, not a politician,” who could focus on straightening out the office and not be distracted by a desire to run for election next year.

And that, of course, sounds disingenuous -- one politician objecting to another politician’s holding an elective office because he might be distracted by political ambition. The real concern is that an electable Republican will seize the office and gain an incumbent’s advantage.

People close to McPherson expect him to run in 2006. But they say the former newspaper editor is being straight when he denies having decided or even thinking much about it. Recently, they note, he has been preoccupied, attending the murder trial of two men accused of killing his only son in a robbery.

“In all honesty,” McPherson said Friday, “I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I would just like to concentrate on [making] some corrections within the secretary of state’s office and move as quickly as possible.... I’m going to leave my options open.”

McPherson ran for lieutenant governor in 2002 and lost. He enjoyed the campaign trail, associates say. But like most politicians -- two exceptions being Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis -- he hates begging rich people and special interests for campaign money.

Moreover, secretary of state is an office that holds little attraction for special interests. Contributions are slim. Voting machine vendors certainly have an interest, but there’s a stench about a chief elections officer hitting up firms whose profits he controls.

In fact, Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), an early secretary of state candidate, has introduced legislation to bar voting vendor contributions to aspirants for any office.

Since Schwarzenegger is calling for reforms, here’s a suggestion: Use the secretary of state’s office as a pilot project for public financing of state campaigns. This especially is an office where we want the occupant to be above suspicion. Shelley first got into trouble by accepting squirrelly donations suspected of being laundered illegally.

The Center for Governmental Studies has created a “clean money” plan for financing secretary of state races with public funds. Major party candidates could get $3 million total in the primary and general elections; minor party candidates less. Candidates with free-spending, rich opponents could receive triple the funds. In all, it could cost the public around $29 million once every four years.

A more widely discussed reform is to make the secretary of state’s office nonpartisan, like superintendent of public instruction. This would increase public confidence that the secretary was not playing partisan games when running elections and declaring winners. Shelley hired cronies to do partisan political work, using federal voter education funds.

Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg) and Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Salinas) have introduced measures to make the office nonpartisan. As a legislator, McPherson offered such a bill. But Friday he said, “It’s not something I’m going to be pushing.” And Schwarzenegger dumped cold water on the idea.

“The job has been handled really well in the past,” the governor said. “I don’t think that’s really the issue.”

Those reforms probably are unattainable now. What is attainable is a new secretary of state. And he should be attained on March 1.

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Reach George Skelton at george.skelton@latimes.com.