Schwarzenegger Is Getting a Dose of Partisan Politics Reality

The way former Gov. Pete Wilson sees it, the current governor hardened his attitude against Democratic lawmakers when he learned how innately partisan they really are.

This shouldn’t have been a big shock, that partisan politics can be very partisan. It’s built into the two-party system.

But that’s easy to say and hard to experience, especially if you’re new to the game.

Even before Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for governor, Wilson was a mentor. Many of Wilson’s former advisors now are on the Schwarzenegger team. So Wilson is in good position to assess the governor’s motivations and moods as he prepares to bypass Democratic lawmakers and take his proposed “reforms” directly to voters in November.

“What has happened,” Wilson says, “is that he and some people close to him, who have not had the experience of working in a partisan political atmosphere, have found that contrary to their hopes and expectations and desires, there is not this atmosphere of warm, wonderful bipartisan cooperation. They’ve learned that the Capitol is a very partisan place where politics is played as a contact sport.

“He tried to maintain personal relationships, but has learned there are honest ideological differences -- and also people who are simply seeking partisan advantage wherever they can find it and are willing to take cheap shots.”

Moreover, says former Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga, now a government affairs consultant: “Arnold negotiated his own contracts in Hollywood. He was used to a business where when two people sat down to deal, they intended to make a deal. He was shocked in Sacramento. Unlike the private sector, sometimes people sit at a table just to look like they’re trying to negotiate.”

It’s because he’s so disgusted with the legislative process, allies assert, that Schwarzenegger is pitching his reform message all over the state and raising $50 million to sell, in particular, two ballot initiatives. One would control budget deficits. The other would make legislative and congressional races more competitive by taking redistricting away from the Legislature.

Schwarzenegger is not the first new governor to be dismayed by the level of partisanship. Even George Deukmejian -- who had been a legislative leader and attorney general -- was “appalled,” says his former chief of staff, attorney Steve Merksamer.

“He concluded early on that the only thing the Legislature understood was brute force. That’s when he became ‘The Iron Duke.’ ”

Later came term limits, which made it worse -- contrary to the electorate’s expectation.

Legislators became fidgety about their next elective jobs and, thus, more political. Leaders became instant lame ducks, lacking the experience and power to negotiate confidently with the governor, lead their caucuses and buck special interests. The special interests -- the politicians’ bankrollers -- filled the power vacuum.

These days, it’s not the politicians who are entrenched at the Capitol. It’s the special interests.

And, as he keeps saying, it’s the special interests that especially irritate Schwarzenegger -- the Democrats’ interests, of course, not his. He fumes about Democrats being beholden to the teachers and public employee unions.

“He was unpleasantly surprised,” Brulte says, “at how powerful the special interests are -- however you want to define special interests. Special interests are on both sides of the philosophical divide.”

It’s not only partisanship and special interests that have soured the governor on the legislative process. He’s frustrated by all the protectors of the status quo. That includes Republican congressmen who are fighting his push for a mid-decade, fair redistricting.

“He has concluded the only way to fundamentally change the way business is done in Sacramento is to fight for systemic change and break the stranglehold that the status quo interests have on the Capitol,” says Bill Hauck, president of the California Business Roundtable.

Hauck, who has worked for governors and legislative leaders of both parties, is co-chairman of a group that is raising money for Schwarzenegger’s ballot props.

Compounding all the natural obstacles to productive negotiations is Schwarzenegger’s lingering naivete about politics and government: the notion, for example, that he could “blow up the boxes” and save billions in bureaucratic waste. Those kinds of boxes don’t exist. He officially gave up last week.

The fantasy that he could call himself “the Collectinator” and muscle billions out of the feds -- or call Democrats names like “girlie-men” and they’d consider it only a joke.

The certitude that -- using his celebrity, charm and commitment -- he could bring disparate factions into a room and they’d all get along and agree.

Schwarzenegger learned what does work for him last year: Threaten an initiative, energize voters and bulldoze the Legislature into compromising. That produced workers’ comp reform.

This year, his proposals seem headed to the ballot one way or another -- either as initiatives or as legislative deals.

He would drop the initiatives, Wilson says, “if the Legislature presented him with something that was pretty close. He and I would be shocked.”

There’s probably more negotiating room than “pretty close.” But it’s up to Democrats to walk through the door that the governor has left open. If they and their interests are confident of beating him in November, they shouldn’t be.

Schwarzenegger is headed in a direction and knows why. Worse than partisan, Democrats seem confused.

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