Less Flexing, More Flexibility

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders in the Legislature are armed for political warfare only three days into their 2005 session. They need to call a truce before the new year develops into a bitter deadlock of the sort that helped drive the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis.

Last year, after just two months in office, Schwarzenegger wooed and won some Democrats’ support by smoking peace cigars with them under his Capitol patio tent. Together they worked out major compromises on a debt retirement bond, a very modest balanced budget amendment and workers’ compensation reform. By the end of the year, however, the governor was deriding the Democrats as “girlie men” and “losers” for opposing some of his programs.

Now Schwarzenegger is pondering a special election in the fall to sidestep legislators with a ballot measure on his proposed governmental reforms. First, however, he’s expected to call a special session of the Legislature to give lawmakers a chance to do things his way.

If a special election follows, Democrats are prepared to retaliate by putting on the ballot their own proposals that Schwarzenegger vetoed last year -- an increase in the minimum wage and a plan to import reasonably priced prescription drugs from Canada.

Schwarzenegger is expected to outline his plan in his State of the State address to a joint legislative session today and when he unveils his proposed 2005-06 budget, probably on Monday.

Democratic leaders say they’re primed for battle. Unfortunately, it’s just another word for gridlock. The state’s No. 1 challenge is passing a budget that attacks the state’s continuing annual deficit, now estimated at $8 billion. One of Schwarzenegger’s expected voter proposals is a hard spending cap that could reduce support for some state programs that already have suffered severe cuts. It’s hard to imagine the bitterly split Legislature passing a workable budget on time, by July 1, if that measure is facing voters in October.

Schwarzenegger also wants to take the process of legislative redistricting away from lawmakers and get going on his proposed government reorganization, which is expected to shift power from the Legislature to the governor. His redistricting plan has a lot of merit and is direly needed to reinvigorate California’s democracy by making races more competitive. As it is, the parties in Sacramento have gone to great lengths to carve out safe districts for themselves. The governor is right to use the threat of a special election to try to get Democrats to cooperate on a needed reform they may deem adverse to their interests.

Both sides feel emboldened by the results of the November election. Schwarzenegger’s support was critical to the outcome of several ballot initiatives, and Republican consultants are confident he would assure victory for a special-election agenda. Democrats, though, managed to hold on to every legislative seat despite vigorous campaigning by Schwarzenegger for Republican candidates.

In fact, neither side can be assured of winning a special election. And that should be an incentive for lawmakers to try to compromise before once again outsourcing their duty to the people of California.