Gov.’s Performance in Role of ‘Reformer’ Seems a Little Strained

The most incongruous sight of the year in Sacramento has been Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger driving an olive-green, military Humvee with a huge, blue-and-white “Reform 1” plate strapped to the grille.

If somebody wants to drive a door-less, gas-guzzling, road-hogging Humvee, that’s fine. I occasionally drive a gas-guzzling, heavy-duty pickup. But don’t call it “reform.”

It doesn’t track. Using “reform” and “Humvee” in the same thought pattern -- in the same sight line -- is a clash of conflicting images. It’s a visual non sequitur.

Schwarzenegger tooled the motorized behemoth -- media cameras in tow -- to a suburban restaurant and worked the lunch tables, asking people for their signatures on initiative petitions to qualify his “reforms” for a special election in November.

But I suspect this gaudy event two weeks ago also was part of the governor’s continuing effort to retain his cartoon-character image and movie fan base. Why else would he drive across town in an action-hero prop?

This isn’t just about preserving his box office appeal and option to return to Hollywood. It’s probably more about sustaining his box office appeal so he can use it to attract and sway voters.

Schwarzenegger is not the first politician to believe he is more palatable and persuasive to the public as a political outsider than as an insider. Ronald Reagan never stopped playing the role -- at least in his own mind -- of “citizen politician.”

By every indication, this governor is much more comfortable “hanging” -- his pet word -- with “the people” than with the politicians. The people stand and cheer. The politicians are less doting, and less so all the time.

Schwarzenegger says he’s trying to use the public and the petitions as a hammer to pound the Legislature into negotiating with him on reforms. But he’s spending most of his time with “the people” -- mainly people writing him campaign checks -- and not very much in the Capitol trying to cajole and coerce Democrats into negotiating.

One “reform” would take redistricting of legislative and congressional seats away from the Legislature and turn it over to retired judges. The hang-up is that Schwarzenegger insists on doing the redistricting in mid-decade between federal censuses. He thinks he’d benefit from a more moderate Legislature in a second term. Democrats are just as adamant about waiting until the next census. So are some Republicans in Congress.

Waiting makes sense. Enact the needed reform in an orderly manner, rather than imposing another giant distraction on a political system that should be focused on public policy -- schools, healthcare, deficits.

Schwarzenegger also is pushing an initiative to scrap traditional pensions for new public employees and force them into 401(k) plans. So “the people” he claims to be fighting alongside against “the politicians” do not include most members of public employee unions, including cops and teachers.

Another so-called reform would require teachers to wait five years, instead of two, before receiving tenure. He has backed off his original proposal to pay teachers based on performance rather than years of service.

His top priority is to enact some type of spending restriction, but he’s not sure exactly what. Voters might recall that this was what Schwarzenegger’s Proposition 58 -- “The California Balanced Budget Act” -- supposedly was about last year. But that act’s impact has not matched the governor’s hype in selling it to voters. So he’s looking for a better product.

If Schwarzenegger really wants to reform government, he should start with the tool -- or toy -- he’s now obsessed with using: the initiative process.

The great reformer, Gov. Hiram Johnson -- whom Schwarzenegger professes to be emulating -- pioneered the ballot initiative a century ago so the people could protect themselves against the special interests, specifically the railroad robber barons. But increasingly, the initiative’s original purpose has been turned on its head. The initiative has become an instrument for special interests to protect themselves against the people’s elected representatives.

Not just corporate interests, but labor unions, the education lobby, environmentalists and anti-taxers have used the initiative -- spurred on by a growing beast: the campaign consultants industry. Feeding the beast has required increasing amounts of special-interest money.

Schwarzenegger raised $9 million to feed about 90 consultants last year, the Sacramento Bee recently reported. He hopes to raise $50 million to produce and promote this year’s initiatives -- selling “private briefings” for two with the governor for $89,200, seats at his dinner table with snapshots for $100,000....

He has been hitting up Wall Street interests and Washington lobbyists.

The going rate for petition circulators could reach $10 per signature. The signatures are being checked out by workers in India.

None of this has the look of the California people rising up to demand a special election for initiatives in November -- at a cost to taxpayers of perhaps $70 million. It has the look of a governor promoting his own agenda with the help of favor-seeking corporate interests.

So the first initiative reform should be to restrict ballot measures to regular elections. Save the public money. Prohibit special elections except in true emergencies, and never for initiatives.

The initiative process can be reformed without being repealed. But that’s for another column.

For now, let’s just say that stripping all pensions from public employees and tightening teacher tenure has about as much to do with real reform as does a Humvee.

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