Gov.’s Travel Spurs Tussle Over Power

California’s globe-trotting governor has spent nearly three months out of the state since being inaugurated, state records show, and the trips have become a political issue.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has traveled to Washington, D.C., Israel, Germany, Austria, Jordan, New York, Ohio, New Mexico and Japan. He has taken vacations in Maui and Sun Valley, Idaho, where he owns a 10,000-square-foot lodge and spends most Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Now, a Republican state senator is attempting to remove the lieutenant governor’s power to run the state whenever the governor leaves California airspace.

Schwarzenegger is required by law to inform Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante when he travels outside California. Bustamante becomes acting governor in Schwarzenegger’s absence.

A bill by state Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks) would change the state Constitution so that the lieutenant governor would take power only “during an impeachment or temporary disability of the governor.” The measure gets its first hearing in two weeks.

Bustamante’s office said the state’s chief executive needs to be in California more frequently in case disaster strikes.

In 1989 the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area when then-Gov. George Deukmejian was in Europe, forcing Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy to handle disaster-relief efforts.

“When you have somebody who is out of state as often as this governor, it shows you need someone there in the event of an emergency,” said Steve Green, a spokesman for Bustamante. “There was a time in the early 1990s when [then-Gov.] Pete Wilson had to take personal responsibility for the National Guard during the [Los Angeles] riots. Arnold would have a hard time doing that from the Cannes Film Festival.”

Schwarzenegger has access to a private jet, allowing him to return to California on quick notice if needed, as well as modern communication equipment, his defenders said. His chief of staff, Patricia Clarey, and personal aide, Clay Russell, are available 24 hours a day through the state Office of Emergency Services.

Cox said that granting the lieutenant governor power when the governor is absent is an anachronism from the 19th century.

“I thought it was just common sense in today’s age of instant communications,” he said. “The only negative feedback I have gotten is from the lieutenant governor.”

Cox said California has a full-time disaster-response team that can operate without requiring the governor to make every decision. And the law allows the director of the Office of Emergency Services to declare disaster areas -- helping to free up state and federal funds and personnel -- in the governor’s absence.

In total, 29 states -- including Florida, Ohio and Georgia -- allow governors to carry all of their powers wherever they go, much like the U.S. president

Because Cox’s bill is a constitutional amendment, it would require approval by two-thirds of the Legislature, and then would go before voters at the next election.

A bill similar to Cox’s passed the state Senate last year but died in the Assembly.

Bustamante, a Democrat and an outspoken critic of the governor, has not exercised his temporary gubernatorial powers when Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has been away. The two men never communicate, Bustamante’s aides said, except through letters informing him that the governor is leaving California.

But there have been conflicts in the past. During the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown in the 1970s, Lt. Gov. Mike Curb appointed a judge to the state appeals court. Brown returned and reversed the appointment.

As for spending more than three months out of state during his first year and a half, Schwarzenegger’s office said he spends the vast majority of his time, no matter where he is, working for California. The governor has said that even on vacation, he works on state business.

“He will never apologize for traveling throughout the state to be with the people, and he travels internationally to market California,” said spokeswoman Margita Thompson. “He travels to Washington, D.C., to make sure the state gets all it can.”

Records show that since he was inaugurated on Nov. 17, 2003, Schwarzenegger has taken 24 trips out of state. He was away for some part of each day for 101 days, according to his schedules; measured by hours, his time out of state totaled 87 days.

His schedules are calibrated to the hour. A month after being elected, for example, Schwarzenegger went to his Idaho lodge and was there from 2 p.m. on Dec. 23 to 5 p.m. on Jan. 4, the records show.

Democrats in the Legislature have complained that Schwarzenegger has spent more time outside of Sacramento than negotiating with them on his wide-ranging proposals for changing state government. In January, Schwarzenegger unveiled plans to put teachers and state employees into 401(k)-type retirement accounts, change the way voting districts are determined, curb state spending and pay teachers based on merit rather than seniority.

“When the governor returns from his fundraising trip to Ohio, to New York, and to Washington, we hope that he will join us in our effort,” Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) said in his weekly radio address March 5. (Democratic Asian American lawmakers, however, recently complained that Schwarzenegger had delayed his planned April trip to China by a few weeks, calling the foreign visit “critical.”)

Schwarzenegger has said that his door is open and that he is willing to negotiate with the Democrats as soon as they give him their proposals.

Meanwhile, he has been traveling to Washington to meet with President Bush and federal lawmakers and has met with voters throughout the state, attended the Arnold Classic bodybuilding conference in Ohio, hosted fundraisers across the nation and met with staff to discuss legislation.