Gov. Tries to Mend Fences With GOP

Fresh from a season of cooperation with Democratic lawmakers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger moved Wednesday to appease members of his own party by signing a series of GOP-sponsored bills and vetoing a measure that would have banned homophobic comments from school textbooks and curricula.

Since the legislative session ended last week, Schwarzenegger has acted on bills of interest to key parts of the state’s Republican coalition: veterans, businesses and social conservatives. On Wednesday, he signed six GOP-sponsored bills, four aimed at helping veterans and two designed to keep children farther away from registered sex offenders.

Schwarzenegger also vetoed a Democratic bill that would have prohibited public schools from teaching anything that “reflects adversely” on people because of their sexual orientation. His action came a day after a rally was held outside the Capitol by conservatives who were upset that he had signed a bill last month prohibiting any organization that receives state funds from discriminating against homosexuals.

Political analysts said the governor needed to reinvigorate Republican voters after a legislative session in which he agreed to an increase in the minimum wage, $37 billion in new state debt for public works projects, and an anti-global warming measure that will mean new restrictions on industrial emissions.

The last act particularly inflamed corporate backers of Schwarzenegger, who complain that it will be a substantial financial burden on businesses. He offered them some consolation Tuesday by vetoing a measure intended to have the state take over the business of providing health insurance.

“The governor’s No. 1 challenge between now and election day is motivating core voters,” said Jon Fleischman, a former director of the state Republican Party and publisher of a popular conservative website, FlashReport.org.

Fleischman said Republican problems in Washington, D.C., have created “the potential for a very depressed turnout” in the Nov. 7 election. “These kinds of vetoes are important because it reminds core Republican base voters that the governor represents a marked contrast from Phil Angelides,” the Democratic challenger, Fleischman said.

Steve Schmidt, Schwarzenegger’s campaign manager, said the governor’s decisions on the bills were based on their merits and dismissed the idea that Schwarzenegger’s conservative support needed shoring up.

“All the data I look at shows that Phil Angelides has a big problem with his base,” Schmidt said. “Our base is united at the level it needs to be behind Gov. Schwarzenegger.”

But Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a conservative advocacy group, said that to redeem himself, Schwarzenegger needs to veto two additional bills awaiting his review.

One of those measures would require school districts to adopt policies that prohibit discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation. Districts that didn’t comply could lose state funds. The second measure would pay 10 schools $25,000 each to create pilot programs that teach tolerance.

“The governor needs to veto all three school indoctrination bills -- not one, but all three,” Thomasson said. “Parents and grandparents want a consistent governor, not a flip-flopping governor.”

Around the state, conservative activists and radio hosts have lambasted Schwarzenegger’s deals with Democrats, most of which drew almost no support from Republican legislators.

In an online column posted Wednesday, William E. Saracino, a member of the editorial board of the California Political Review, a conservative magazine, wrote that “I hope he -- or his campaign team -- remembers he was not elected to be Gray Davis Lite and that there is a Libertarian candidate for governor on the ballot.”

Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist working with Angelides, said Schwarzenegger has been sending confusing “mixed signals” to voters by his frequent political shifts.

“It’s just all spin and public relations, and one day he’s on this side of the street and the next day he’s on that side of the street,” Carrick said. “You have to wonder if all that’s going to catch up to him by the end of the election.”

Carrick predicted that members of both major parties would solidify behind their candidates. On Wednesday, one of the state’s most powerful unions, the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., endorsed Angelides, the state treasurer, at its convention in Reno. Though the Schwarzenegger administration has struck labor deals with state employee unions, it has balked at making a deal with the prison officers union.

That union has been airing television ads in the Sacramento region critical of Schwarzenegger and is believed to have more than $10 million in its campaign accounts for use this fall. The union spent more than $2.5 million to help elect Davis governor in 1998, but union leaders have not decided how much they will spend on Angelides’ campaign.

“I didn’t expect anything else,” Schwarzenegger told reporters at the Capitol about the endorsement. “One thing I know for sure is I will stand firm in my negotiations with the CCPOA and nothing will take me off that track. I can’t be intimidated in any way.”

jordan.rau@latimes.com

Times staff writers Dan Morain and Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.