Governor’s Agenda Losing Traction

As superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County, James Fleming attended Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 inauguration. He gave speeches supporting him at the Rotary Club and the PTA.

But Fleming recently turned against Schwarzenegger, after receiving a letter from the governor alleging that “California taxpayers have been forced to give money to a failing [education] system.” Fleming took that as a personal insult.

“Up until a few months ago, I thought the world of this man,” said Fleming. Now he believes Schwarzenegger has “demonized” educators.

Nearly every governor experiences a sophomore slump. But Fleming’s rejection of Schwarzenegger illustrates the governor’s newest political problem: He is turning last year’s friends into this year’s enemies.

A Field Poll released in late January showed a 10-point drop in Schwarzenegger’s approval rating -- from 65% in September to 55% now. That is one point lower than former Gov. Gray Davis’ rating after his first 10 months in office. And the poll found that 53% believe California is on the wrong track, up from 38% in September.

For his part, Schwarzenegger believes the state’s problems are urgent and must be dealt with immediately. He is using harsher rhetoric than last year as he unloads a host of problems all at once for the Legislature to fix.

The plans would alter the power of public employee unions, teachers, hospital nurses, and lawmakers from both parties. His new urgency has alienated many groups that were happy to make deals with him last year.

“We don’t intend to be bullied into responding to the governor, especially when he appears to be either ignorant or disdainful of the process,” said Jim Hard, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1000, the largest state employees union in California.

The group is facing benefit cuts after peaceful negotiations with Schwarzenegger last year that the union thought had settled matters. Unlike last year, Hard said, he has not spoken with the Schwarzenegger administration about its agenda for 2005 -- which includes privatizing the public pension system for new employees.

Schwarzenegger recently unveiled his 2005 school reforms, which included merit pay for teachers, eliminating tenure and privatizing teacher pensions. His announcement took place without the wide array of statewide education organizations that had backed him last year.

The loss of support prompted Schwarzenegger to create his own education group this year, paid for with campaign funds. Schwarzenegger’s Coalition to Improve Public Schools has reached out to 1,600 school officials asking for their support; only about 200 have come to the governor’s side.

The group includes the California Charter Schools Assn. Before it embraced Schwarzenegger, the group faced disagreement among its members over which side to take. Officials acknowledged that they risked alienating the major groups that run schools.

“It was a tough decision,” said Caprice Young, president of the charter schools group and a former Los Angeles Board of Education member. “It’s never fun to take an action that will be unpopular with people.”

Political consultants running Schwarzenegger’s education coalition recently toned down its letter to school officials asking for their support. Instead of characterizing the entire system as “dysfunctional” in the first sentence, the letter says Schwarzenegger wants to spend more on schools, noting that “it is difficult to exaggerate the importance of education.”

But the damage had already been done. Schwarzenegger reneged on his education deal from last year -- announcing in January that public schools would get $2 billion less than they are owed under Proposition 98.

And school officials were also put off by a Schwarzenegger plan to shift to districts the cost of teacher pensions and services for the mentally disabled. San Diego County estimates the mental health change alone could cost them $6.4 million a year.

“I think what we are doing now is robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Rudy Castruita, San Diego County superintendent of schools.

Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger’s communications director, said the governor’s chief critics have been unions interested in “maintaining a system that serves their interests.”

“The public sees through union politics,” Stutzman said. “They know there is all the difference in the world between the teacher in the classroom, a nurse in a hospital room and hard-working state employees, and their unions.”

Schwarzenegger said last week that he would press ahead: “I have ambitious plans for California this year. Last year, we stopped the bleeding; this year, we are going to heal the patient.”

Because of the divided loyalties in Sacramento this year, some groups have found themselves in uncomfortable positions simply for supporting the governor. Common Cause, a nonprofit watchdog group, recently endorsed Schwarzenegger’s plan to change how California’s legislative districts are drawn.

Common Cause -- whose motto is “No permanent allies and no permanent enemies” -- agreed to compromise on requiring the lines to be drawn next year, five years earlier than it would have liked.

“Some of my friends have been calling me and e-mailing me, asking me how I could support the governor on anything,” said Roy Ulrich, a Common Cause board member.

Lawmakers say they have noticed that Schwarzenegger’s impatience with them has come far earlier than last year.

In July 2004, Schwarzenegger called lawmakers “girlie men” because they had not passed a state budget he had introduced seven months earlier. This year, only six days after introducing his final piece of reform legislation, he accused lawmakers of laziness. At the state Republican convention, he mocked their low approval ratings and said he is waging a “great battle” against “evil.”

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) said Schwarzenegger doesn’t seem to understand the deliberative process of the Legislature. He said the governor has been offering “half-baked ideas” instead of methodically working through problems like last year.

Schwarzenegger’s first year in office generally was considered bipartisan and cooperative. He overhauled workers’ compensation, passed a state budget, eliminated driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and put a $15-billion spending bond and budget cap on the ballot -- all with the help of the Legislature.

This year, all at once, Schwarzenegger wants a new spending cap for the budget, merit pay for teachers, private investment accounts for public employees and a new way to draw legislative districts. In addition, Schwarzenegger is working on a new energy policy to prevent blackouts, campaign finance reforms, and new housing and transportation policies.

Dan Schnur, a veteran Republican political consultant, said Schwarzenegger has to be careful: “If he tries to get the voters to focus on each individual component of the reform package, he will overload the voters. But if he can figure out a way to present it to them as part of a broad thematic, he might be able to pull it off.”

The governor is responding to the renewed criticism with a series of radio ads defending his policies, and he has been holding public events almost every weekday, giving speeches in which he labels his critics as losers.

Meanwhile, Democrats say the governor’s falling poll numbers are telling him that harsh rhetoric is less effective than collaboration. “I am seeing a governor who is more willing now to negotiate than he was a week or so ago,” said Nunez, who recently traveled to Washington with the governor.

Nunez said he has hope the governor wants to work out a deal with the Legislature, as he did last year. On the plane back home, he said, “not once was there a conversation that anybody was feeling uncomfortable about. He basically was going back to being the governor that got elected.”