‘B-Minus’ Governor Still a GOP Plus

When in need of an Orange County Republican weathervane, my go-to guy is Buck Johns. The young man (64) keeps his ear to the ground, knows what he’s talking about and, best of all, is happy to spill it -- whether things are going his way or not.

When we last talked, in August 2003, things were going his way. He and other conservative Republicans had decided to get smart and rally around a single candidate in the governor’s recall election -- a guy named Arnold Schwarzenegger. He wasn’t exactly Johns’ cup of tea -- Johns would prefer that his candidates not be sleeping with someone with Kennedy family connections -- but he made it clear that Schwarzenegger was plenty good enough.

Schwarzenegger won, returning a Republican to the governor’s chair in Sacramento. Now, not yet 2 1/2 years later, the natives are restless. There’s a movement afoot to whip the governor into shape, with some conservative activists in the state Republican Party saying they’ll try to strip Schwarzenegger of the party’s endorsement at the state convention next month unless he dumps his new Democratic chief of staff. And, in general, starts acting more like a Republican.

Sounded like a good time to dial up Buck Johns, a longtime board member of Orange County’s influential Lincoln Club, to find out if he rued the day he cast his lot with Schwarzenegger.

“No, no, no,” says the irrepressible Johns. “He’s added a wonderful and delightful dimension to Republican politics in California.”

No translation necessary: Schwarzenegger is the state’s most magnetic personality -- the man can still sell tickets -- and he’s a Republican. “All the things we wanted to do to add excitement and vitality, he’s done that in spades,” Johns says.

I suggest that sounds like he’s giving Schwarzenegger a B+. “Maybe a B-minus,” Johns says, adding that he agrees with much of the criticisms. The difference seems to be that Johns is mellower about them and hasn’t lost faith that Arnold is the man.

So, I ask, is all this governor-bashing just political posturing? “Make no mistake,” Johns says. “This is a big deal. He’s making fundamental errors and hurting himself and the party by doing these things.”

But Johns still is using the same calculator he was in 2003. “We’re looking at some of these moves that are just so anathema to the right wing of the party,” Johns says, “so it’s kind of a jarring thing as he’s making these bold steps.... All of us are jarred a bit by those things, but as we sit and look at the alternatives, we gravitate back.”

Johns agrees that Schwarzenegger’s appointment of Susan Kennedy as his chief of staff was the major misstep. But his appointment of liberal judges is another sore point.

That’s why I like to talk to Johns: The man gives good commentary.

I ask Johns what will come of the budding mutiny. “It’ll die out after the convention,” he says. “There will be no withdrawal” of the party’s endorsement, he says, while predicting that the convention mood will be much less celebratory than the one Schwarzenegger got at the 2003 state convention just weeks before the recall election.

Indeed, Johns says, the sniping at Schwarzenegger is a good thing. Referring specifically to a couple of party activists who aired their Schwarzenegger criticisms, he says, “Those guys are young and full of fight. It’s a healthy thing, a good thing for the party. It’ll let [Schwarzenegger forces] know the party won’t go quietly into that good night.”

In the meantime, Johns watches the pendulum. Schwarzenegger swung left, then back right in 2005 and now has swung back past dead center and is listing too far left, Johns says.

Confident the big guy will correct course, Johns laughs and says that, with a little help from his friends, the governor will be right back where he needs to be.

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Dana Parsons’ column

appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.