A Capitol Mutual Admiration Society

Weeks before the final push of the legislative session, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez strode into the office of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and plucked a campaign button from a secretary’s desk. The Democratic Assembly leader pinned a “Schwarzenegger: Protecting the California Dream” button on his shirt and entered the inner sanctum of the governor’s Capitol office.

It was a small but telling gesture of just how close Nunez -- who co-chairs the campaign to elect Schwarzenegger’s opponent, state Treasurer Phil Angelides -- has become to the incumbent governor, who Nunez not so long ago said mixed with him “like oil and water.”

After months of intense politicking that ended at midnight Thursday, the Los Angeles Democrat and the governor not only showed that they could work together but also that they actually seem to like each other.

“We have developed a relationship. We have gotten to know each others’ families,” Schwarzenegger said. He views Nunez “not only as a politician or as someone that is the other party, but as someone who has a lot of things in common” with him.

“It becomes, then, a different thing than just thinking about what can I get out of him and what can he get out of me,” Schwarzenegger said during a July interview. “It’s like, how can we work together and how can we help each other.”

Nunez said Friday that he considers the governor “a great friend” and that their relationship is at “an all-time high.”

On the governor’s part, there are smart political reasons for him to cooperate with the leader of the Democratic-controlled Legislature as he faces reelection. On the campaign trail, Schwarzenegger needs to show Democratic voters that he has a record of success on the issues they care about, including the environment and helping working families.

But what began as political strategy has grown into a comfortable, pragmatic relationship that in recent weeks resulted in deals to raise the minimum wage, cut the cost of medicine for poor people and restrict industrial greenhouse gas emissions -- highlights of a legislative session that both men hailed as one of the most productive in decades.

Even after the Legislature rebuffed Schwarzenegger’s efforts at the 11th hour to expand Indian gaming and reform prisons, the two exchanged subdued comments devoid of loaded partisan finger-pointing.

Their relationship took hold during months of get-togethers, both professionally and for leisure. The two have dined at La Serenata de Garibaldi in Boyle Heights, part of Nunez’s 46th Assembly District. They call each other frequently. They will soon be campaigning together for the $37-billion infrastructure bond package on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Their wives, both named Maria, have become friends. They both have teenage children and fret about not spending enough time with them. Both are enthusiastic, athletic and have immigrant roots. And both ascended three years ago from unlikely backgrounds to the top tier of California politics.

Champion bodybuilder and movie star Schwarzenegger, 59, came to California from small-town Austria, the son of a police chief. Nunez, 39, worked his way up through the labor union movement, one of a dozen children of a maid and a gardener.

Neither man, said UC Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain, is highly ideological. Schwarzenegger married into the true-blue Democratic Kennedy clan and is moderate on such social issues as abortion. Nunez describes himself as a “core Democrat” who understands that a healthy economy works better than government aid to lift people out of poverty.

The two have met on the patio of Schwarzenegger’s airy Brentwood villa, where Nunez once smoked a cigar with film star Danny DeVito.

But it took some brutal politicking before they realized they needed each other.

Schwarzenegger swept to power in a historic 2003 recall election in which he vowed to break the grip of special interests on the Capitol. Nunez, newly elected by the dominant Democrats, tried to get tough with him. Little more than a year ago, Nunez was accusing Schwarzenegger of being a bully and untruthful, while a governor’s spokeswoman chided Nunez for “histrionics.”

In the beginning, Nunez and the governor warily circled each other, one a world-famous personality, the other a little-known politician who shot to a leadership post after only a year on the job.

“It was tough at the beginning,” Nunez said, “dealing with a guy who’s arguably ... not only the most popular politician in the country, [but] perhaps in the world.”

The governor’s staff called the speaker “Fibian” for the way Nunez would occasionally tell the public something different from what he had told the governor. In 2004, Schwarzenegger vetoed five of the six bills Nunez sponsored.

Nunez said the governor failed to recognize the Legislature as an equal branch of government and thought that he could control, cajole or charm lawmakers to get his way. The governor’s early staff was, he said, “far too partisan for him.”

The turning point in their relationship began during the depth of Schwarzenegger’s political woes last fall, when he was campaigning for three November ballot measures that he touted as direly needed reforms.

At the time, Nunez was the governor’s harshest critic, publicly deriding him for calling the special election. Privately, Nunez sought a compromise with the governor that would allow him to cancel the election.

But the governor was suspicious that Nunez was playing him, pretending to seek a compromise to stall Schwarzenegger from campaigning. The two could not agree to alternative ballot measures. All eight ballot measures, including those backed by the governor, failed, and Schwarzenegger’s popularity hovered at its lowest levels.

“He was trying to dissuade me ... but when you are in that track, you look at it like, well, of course he’s going to say that because he doesn’t want reform,” the governor said in July.

Since the rebuke, Schwarzenegger has begun behaving like a political centrist. He embraced Nunez’s landmark effort to cut emissions of the gases linked to global warming, despite the opposition of his business allies. He agreed to raise the minimum hourly wage from $6.75 to $8 over the next two years after vetoing similar legislation in the past.

Although Nunez co-chairs the campaign committee to elect Democrat Angelides, the speaker said he’d be a fool to rebuff the governor.

“The governor is acting like a Democrat, and we are going to benefit from that,” Nunez said. “He might be a Democrat,” he added, chuckling. “I don’t know.”

Last May, Nunez raised a few eyebrows when he introduced Schwarzenegger at a reception for Mexico’s President Vicente Fox by saying, “California is once again, my friends, on the move, thanks largely to this next man, the governor of our great state and a good friend of mine, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Nunez beamed with such enthusiasm that Schwarzenegger joked he would use the introduction to benefit his campaign.

“This is really great stuff that I can use to get reelected,” said Schwarzenegger. “I’ll say, ‘Fabian said.’ ‘The speaker said.’ Oh, yes. This is going to be great.”

Both men say their alliance will make future debates on their differences -- including how to reform prisons and health insurance -- easier.

“I think the longer we work together, the better partners we will become,” Schwarzenegger said.

Some political observers explain Nunez’s improved relations with the governor by speculating that he would like to see Schwarzenegger reelected so that his good friend Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa won’t have to face a Democratic incumbent should he decide to run for governor in 2010.

The theory goes that Nunez then could run for Villaraigosa’s spot as mayor after term limits end his Assembly career in 2008.

Nunez dismisses such talk and said he doesn’t know what he’ll do after leaving the Legislature.

“There’s no grand scheme plan that Antonio and I have to do a checkerboard play of one, two, three,” Nunez said.

Schwarzenegger called his current relationship with Nunez “a very good place to be.”

“I think in the end we both probably want people to look back 10, 20 years from now,” Schwarzenegger said, “and say, ‘You know, there’s one relationship that was ... spectacular. Those guys got so much done.’ ”

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nancy.vogel@latimes.com