Gov. Misses Chance to Beef Up GOP Support

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger shunned an opportunity over the weekend to toss out some red meat to Republican activists in open revolt against his policies.

It was a mistake. The feeding would have been inexpensive -- not costing him politically, but giving hungry GOP convention delegates something tasty to chew on. It could have tempered their intraparty predator instincts.

But Schwarzenegger, preparing for a tough reelection race, doesn’t seem to care much about Republican grumbling, as evidenced by his comment Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press”:

“I am there to govern and to serve the people of California, meaning Democrats and Republicans -- even though there are some on the right wing that are not happy about that, that think I should only govern for Republicans. But that’s not what I promised the people.”

That’s hard to argue with, but the party faithful do occasionally need to be rallied. Schwarzenegger tried only halfheartedly in a convention speech, and many “right-wingers” left supporting him just halfheartedly, if at all.

“I’m going to vote for him,” said Steve Frank, a rebel Simi Valley conservative. “The question is whether I can get my neighbors to vote for him.”

Or if he’ll even try.

“I think he’s not temperamentally qualified. He’s too erratic,” said Michael Schroeder of Newport Beach, a former state GOP chairman. “He thinks careening from right to the far left is moderate.”

Schwarzenegger’s new strategy team -- mainly imports from President Bush’s political operation -- is determined not to let the party “kooks” dictate the governor’s campaign tack. There’s a game plan and he’s sticking to it -- and it principally involves attracting independents and moderates. The more right-wingers attack the governor, his strategists believe, the more attractive he becomes to moderates.

Except, the first rule of building a winning political coalition is to secure your base. And Schwarzenegger’s base is eroding, based on a recent poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. It showed that 66% of Republicans approve of the governor’s job performance. That’s not high enough for somebody seeking reelection. He needs at least 80%. Moreover, his approval among GOP voters has dropped six points in the last month. And among all voters, it’s just 40%.

True, the 1,400 delegates and hangers-on attending the Republican state convention in San Jose didn’t represent a fly-speck’s share of the electorate. And it’s an age-old question: Just how relevant are these people?

Party activists are relevant because they become the campaign phone-bank volunteers and precinct walkers. The party agitators get quoted in the news and can influence grass-roots partisans. Moreover, because of campaign “reforms” with loony loopholes, tens of millions of political dollars this year will be laundered through both parties.

So came the big convention banquet Friday and everybody was excited to hear from the gov. But he didn’t even sit down and eat with the delegates, let alone work the tables, meeting and greeting. We’ll just assume he was attending to urgent state business, but that’s not an acceptable excuse for a pol who badly needs to restore relationships within his own party.

Then his speech, with minor word changes, could have been given just as well to a Democratic group. It was a formula speech when the situation called for fire.

The formula: Thank delegates profusely for hanging with him during the special election debacle, point to his initial record of accomplishment as governor and pitch his unprecedented $222-billion infrastructure plan that many delegates consider far too excessive.

“I believe in boldness, not in Band-Aids,” he said. “What is the future of the Republican Party in this state if we ignore the needs of California and its people? I can tell you what it is: It is a dead end....

“We Republicans must begin to change our outlook. We cannot just fight, we must build. We cannot just follow, we must lead.”

Fine, even if it did sound a little in-your-face.

But there was one small paragraph he sped through that contained wonderful ingredients of potential red meat, if properly nurtured:

“We still need to put the pressure on the federal government to do its job securing our borders. We still need to continue our economic growth. And we need to pass Jessica’s Law.”

What about the border? Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently was down there in a tunnel for illegal immigrants, demanding stiff penalties for anyone who digs such a cross-border smuggler’s subway. Where was the governor? The Austrian immigrant could have excited convention delegates by talking about “the right way and the wrong way” to come to America.

Jessica’s Law? He might have mentioned why it should be passed: Because child molesters need to be locked up for a very long time, then kept away from schoolyards and tracked for life. Children must be protected.

There was nothing from Schwarzenegger -- nor has there ever been that I’ve heard -- about the University of California executive compensation scandals and their waste of tax dollars.

This was as close as Schwarzenegger got to red meat: “We did not raise taxes. Does anyone here doubt what will happen to our taxes if the other party reclaims the governorship? Think about that for a second.”

The main message these days is: “Rebuild the infrastructure.” And that, indeed, is the most important thing he and the Legislature are attempting.

But it’s an eye-glazer for most party activists -- except the ones rebelling against its cost.

Schwarzenegger must tend to the care and feeding of his own party. Otherwise, agitated activists could take a bite out of him in November.

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