Nunez, Gov. Tune Up for Special Election Fight

In a further sign of deteriorating relations between lawmakers and the governor -- just when they need to come together to agree on a state budget -- Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger traded barbs Tuesday over elements of a special election expected this year.

Nunez called the Schwarzenegger administration dishonest, saying the governor had repeatedly broken his word. Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, criticized lawmakers for proposing new taxes to balance the budget.

Nunez’s comments came a day after Mike Murphy, Schwarzenegger’s chief political consultant, gathered reporters to say that the governor was considering backing a proposed initiative that could shrink the political influence of public employee unions.

Nunez said the Republican governor had privately and repeatedly assured him that he had nothing to do with the “paycheck protection” initiative, which would require that public employee unions get written permission from members each year before spending their dues on political campaigns. The governor’s support of such a measure would amount to a declaration of war on Democrats, who hold a majority in the Legislature, and some of their most generous donors.

“We’ve questioned him all along,” Nunez told reporters in a hastily called news conference. “People that are very close to the governor have been raising money for [the union dues initiative]. And we said, ‘Governor, do you have anything to do with this? Do you have any ties to this?’ And he totally distanced himself from it, saying he had nothing to do with it.

“I just took his word for it. And now we learn yesterday that not only is the governor ... tied to it, he now has decided that he’s going to go out and raise money to get this on the ballot and certainly to get it passed.

“It really speaks to the type of dishonesty that has come out of the governor’s office.”

On other issues, such as workers’ compensation reform, public pension reform and the budget, the governor has “gone back on his word, he’s gone back on his deals,” Nunez said.

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said Nunez misunderstood Murphy’s comments and owes the governor an apology.

“He should knock off his Howard Dean histrionics and come to the table to do what is in the best interests of California,” she said, referring to the Democratic presidential candidate’s televised scream after losing the Iowa caucuses.

Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, ridiculed lawmakers for proposing tax increases to balance the budget.

“The same people are back at it again,” Schwarzenegger said, “trying to spend more money that we don’t have, trying to increase taxes. Spend, spend, spend. It’s the same ballgame again.”

But the governor also said it was “perfectly fine with me” to put a tax measure on the ballot, as Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) has suggested.

“If the legislators can’t make the decision, let the voters make the decision,” Schwarzenegger said during an appearance at a Placer County elementary school. “I wish him good luck with that. I personally am against increasing taxes.”

The exchange of charges comes as Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers must craft a state budget in time for the July 1 deadline.

“The vitriol is higher than it’s been in a long time,” said Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at Cal State Sacramento. “The specter of the special election has dialed up the rhetoric. It’s changed it to very personal, mean-spirited, name-calling bullying.”

The agenda that Schwarzenegger has discussed putting before voters in such a special election has changed several times since he unveiled the idea in January. He dropped proposals to overhaul public employee pensions and pay teachers based on merit instead of seniority, but he is still pursuing initiatives to cap state spending and take away the Legislature’s power to draw its own districts. The governor has until mid-June to call an election, most likely for Nov. 8.

On Monday, Murphy cast the special election as an all-out political battle between the governor and the Legislature. He said Schwarzenegger had asked him to do polling and public opinion research on the union dues initiative. Murphy said he did not believe the initiative would pass unless the governor backed it.

“Arnold has not touched the Legislature with a feather yet compared to what the real campaign will be,” Murphy said.

In a brief news conference Tuesday, the governor declined to elaborate on Murphy’s remarks. “He speaks for himself,” Schwarzenegger said. He described his order to research the paycheck protection initiative as routine, saying he has that done on all initiatives.

During his round-table interview with reporters Monday, however, Murphy left no question that he was speaking about the governor’s motives, viewpoints and strategy leading up to the possible special election.

Democrats believe Schwarzenegger may be doing a good-cop, bad-cop routine with Murphy: The consultant can break the bad news about the union due measure to Democrats, while Schwarzenegger can claim ignorance and continue to talk with them behind the scenes.

“They’re trying to be too cute by half and play these little games,” said Democratic consultant Roger Salazar. “It’s the worst-kept secret in Sacramento that the governor’s behind the paycheck protection initiative. Democrats, Democratic constituencies and labor groups are all fully aware that this is the governor’s play.”

The chief proponent of the union dues measure is Sacramento antitax advocate Lewis K. Uhler. But most of the money to gather signatures for the measure has come from the Small Business Action Committee led by Joel Fox, who also heads Citizens to Save California, a committee backing Schwarzenegger’s ballot agenda. Schwarzenegger has taken no official position on the measure.

At a visit to an elementary school in Rocklin near Sacramento, the governor dropped into first-, third- and sixth-grade classrooms and urged lawmakers to support the $115.7-billion budget he proposed Friday. Democratic lawmakers call that budget unacceptable because it does not include $2 billion that they believe the governor promised education groups last year.

The California Teachers Assn. has been hammering the governor for what its leaders call a broken promise in television ads across the state.

“This is a right-out lie,” Schwarzenegger said.

The governor said his agreement last year to withhold $2 billion in education money and pay it back did not specify which year he would return the money to education. He said there is not enough money this year to restore the $2 billion.

“We did not make a promise we would give it back this year because I couldn’t guarantee we could give it back this year,” Schwarzenegger said. “We didn’t know how much money we had.”

In another dig at the governor, Nunez on Tuesday praised Secretary of State Bruce McPherson for telling reporters that “there’s no way” election officials could handle a redrawing of legislative and congressional boundaries next year.

The redistricting initiative backed by Schwarzenegger would have a panel of retired judges redraw the lines as soon as possible, even though the process historically occurs once a decade after the census.

The governor argues that the current boundaries, drawn by the Legislature, unfairly favor incumbent politicians. Democrats have said they are willing to cede authority to an independent panel, but they oppose a mid-decade redrawing of lines.

McPherson, a Republican appointed by Schwarzenegger, called redistricting in 2008 questionable and said the earliest elections officials could probably incorporate new lines in an election was 2010.

“As he did with his flawed pension plan,” Nunez said, “the governor should withdraw his support for this initiative immediately.”