One Hundred Days of Arnold
WHALEN, BILL
One Hundred Days of Arnold Muscular governance in Sacramento. BY BILL WHALEN Sacramento ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER will celebrate his 100th day as California's governor in New York City, at a...
...In mid-January, he arranged for a power lunch at San Francisco's stylish Le Central brasserie with former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan (now the state's education secretary), former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, San Francisco's new district attorney Kamala Harris, and San Francisco Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein...
...Seeking a deal on health care has the potential of steering Schwarzenegger towards potentially epic political battles over Medi-Cal reform and dealing with the 20 percent of California's population that's uninsured...
...Workers' Compensation: Schwarzenegger threatened the legislature with a November initiative if it didn't deliver on a reform bill...
...It's Schwarzenegger's third sphere —his politico-celebrity partnership with California first lady Maria Shriv-er—that's hardest to decipher...
...The California Recovery Plan— Propositions 57 and 58—is the first serious test of his political prowess...
...Conservative Republicans, led by State Sen...
...Why the steep admission price...
...He's reportedly eyeing an eight-bedroom mansion that, ironically, was intended to be the governor's residence when the Rea-gans ordered it built in the 1970s...
...That means spending lots of quality time in Sacramento...
...He challenged the legislature to send him such a measure by March 1, but that won't happen...
...Schwarzenegger raised $26 million for his recall campaign, and has six active campaign committees...
...What's more, Schwarzenegger is still good copy for the Sacramento press corps...
...He also caught a break from a factor beyond his control: With John Kerry now the prohibitive favorite in the Democratic nominating race, California's primary has lost its luster...
...In a similar vein, Schwarzenegger privately cut a deal with Gray Davis's old allies, the California Teachers Association...
...When he's not on the LifeCycle in his 12th-floor suite at the Hyatt, it's not unusual to see him working up a sweat at the Capital Athletic Club, a five-minute stroll from his office...
...But there's more to it than that...
...This is not to suggest that Schwarzenegger's first 100 days have been gaffe-free...
...In movies, investing, and politics, he's made a habit of surrounding himself with more knowledgeable advisers...
...on Day one, he signed an executive order overturning the tripling of the state's car tax...
...After the primary, he may seek to work out a compromise with the Democratic leadership...
...Why does he treat the new job as more than just another "location shoot...
...That's a job for the federal Department of Labor, not a California gover-nor—^besides, Schwarzenegger might want to review Bill Clinton's swing-and-a-miss when he tried to settle the 1994 baseball strike...
...Part of it is landing the job he's dreamed about for at least 15 years, since the first buzz about a run for office by "Conan the Republican...
...Davis took more pleasure in fundraising than governing...
...Hardly...
...Schwarzenegger has proven to be much more of a Sacramento fixture than was anticipated...
...Harris, who once was romantically linked to Brown, is reportedly now involved with Bronstein, who was formerly married to Sharon Stone, who was Schwarzenegger's Total Recall costar...
...But after 100 days on the job, one thing is clear: The Gover-nator's still the one having all the laughs...
...Tort Reform: In litigation-happy California (one lawsuit filed for every 20 residents), the private sector desperately wants reform of Section 17200 of the state's Business and Professions Code, which allows lawsuits without proof of injury...
...Who knows if Schwarzenegger will continue to find the humor in his new daily routine...
...Tom McClintock, claim that a 13.4 percent across-the-board cut in government services would make the state deficit-free by mid-2005...
...Formerly a top aide to Pete Wilson, Clarey is Schwarzenegger's administrator, gatekeeper, and guide for how to navigate the legislature...
...Davis often locked himself in the governor's office and ate alone...
...BY BILL WHALEN Sacramento ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER will celebrate his 100th day as California's governor in New York City, at a $50,000-a-plate dinner at the home of Robert wood Johnson IV, owner of the New York Jets...
...the Gov-ernator invites Republican and Democratic lawmakers downstairs to his first-floor office for photo-ops and souvenir cigars...
...Schwarzenegger and his political mastermind, Mike Murphy, had planned for it since November, when it was obvious that any budget fix would require going back to the voters...
...He's still negotiating with Indian tribes on a gambling revenue-sharing agreement...
...Team Arnold now claims support in the mid-40s...
...And his "People's Reform Plan" to bar the governor and legislature from fundraising during the budget process is so far missing in action...
...His strategists figure it will take at least $10 million to sell a skeptical electorate on the merits of borrowing $15 billion to cover the state's deficit...
...The February 24 fundraiser for Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Plan (two propositions on the March 2 ballot to refinance the state debt and impose spending limits) has been roundly criticized by the press since it was learned that Team Arnold wanted Wall Street honchos to buy $500,000 tables of 10 for the event...
...Campaign donations were a source of affirmation for an insecure governor, which helps explain why he ended as Captain Queeg in last fall's recall mutiny...
...These can be dealt with either behind closed doors in Sacramento, or out on the campaign trail in high-stakes initiative fights...
...He took a hit for firing and then rehiring the state corrections system's inspector general...
...57's support lagging in the mid-30s, and doing particularly poorly among Democrats averse to supporting a Republican governor's idea...
...57's odds...
...Schwarzenegger's final card to play: He'll court voters as he did in the recall's closing days, barnstorming the state and saturating the airwaves...
...His fourth big promise in last fall's recall election was to reform the state's out-of-control workers' compensation system...
...True, some columnists have griped that Schwarzenegger overuses the word "fantastic"—the tipping point coming when Arnold used that adjective to describe a court ruling that forced him to personally pay off a $4 million campaign loan rather than retire it through campaign donations...
...Schwarzenegger's approach has been to chip away at opposition by courting prominent California Democrats as well as the left-leaning California Teachers Association...
...They include: TAXES: Schwarzenegger insists he will not raise taxes to balance next year's state budget...
...The campaign began in January...
...The governance side is led by chief of staff Patricia Clarey...
...He's been spending $1.5 million a week on television ads that began in early February...
...Schwarzenegger's strength has always been that he recognizes his weaknesses...
...Leave it to Schwarzenegger to come up with a political remake of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice...
...Now, it will be challenged by a November initiative...
...There are any number of issues where he's on a collision course with the Democratic-controlled legislature...
...For Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, raising money is a means to an end—^getting elected, settling the budget deficit—^though it's something he does with Kennedyesque "vigah...
...In exchange for the union's agreeing to a temporary spending cut, he reportedly agreed not to tinker with Proposition 98, the state's constitutional guarantee of generous education spending...
...And they privately complain that the governor's press conferences are long on comedy and short on substance...
...At one point during the lunch, Bronstein joked that Brown should write a column for his newspaper...
...If he goes the compromise route, Schwarzenegger will find himself in the middle of one of California's longest-running food fights between the state's Chamber of Commerce and the trial lawyers' lobby...
...If so, watch for how he balances the desire to compromise with the pressure from his friends in California's business community, for whom workers' comp is a top priority...
...That means fewer Democrats turning out March 2, which improves Prop...
...Does this mean the Sacramento press corps is ready to pillory Schwarzenegger as it did his predecessor, Gray Davis, as a money-obsessed pol willing to grant favors for donations...
...The big question, then, isn't so much whether he wins on March 2; it's whether he will continue trying to steer to the middle in the eight months leading up to the November general election...
...Schwarzenegger needs cash, and he needs it in a hurry...
...Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, put their trust in Republican history: Ronald Reagan raised taxes in 1967 and 1971, as did Pete Wilson in 1991, and they're pitching a temporary tax increase on individual Californians earning more than $136,000 a year...
...Also influential is longtime confidante Bonnie Reiss, who serves as the governor's Democratic liaison and his eyes and ears on the State Board of Education...
...Like most governors, Schwarzenegger has two spheres of advisers— one concerned with politics, the other with governance...
...If he chooses sides, the fight may be even fiercer...
...Gray Davis had few friends and a strained relation with the legislature...
...Schwarzenegger pulled out a wad of cash and waved it under the former mayor's nose: "This is what gets Willie's heart going...
...It's probably her influence that explains some surprises, as when Schwarzenegger backed away from a more conservative spending cap, pulling legislators back into his office, and hammering out the compromise spending "limit" that's now on the ballot...
...Sixteen days later, he repealed last year's much-maligned bill that granted drivers' licenses to illegal aliens...
...That was followed by a deal with the legislature to place the $15 billion deficit-bond and spending limit on the ballot...
...otherwise, though, the Governa-tor's tenure has so far been as colorful and quirky as the man himself...
...Then again, anyone covering Schwarzenegger is caught in a tender trap: Even when the governor doesn't have much to say, the image alone is worth a thousand words...
...Schwarzenegger began the effort facing long odds: Initial surveys showed Prop...
...The key to Schwarzenegger's early success begins with personality...
...And he gets an "incomplete" on a couple of other promises...
...It's an unusual approach to politics in these partisan times—defusing the opposition, relying on personal charm to sell the message...
...For now, the new governor's mischievous good humor is undimmed...
...As a newly elected governor who's never held office and is unfamiliar with the nuances of state government, he needs to use his star power to forge relationships with lawmakers that he can leverage into bipartisan deals and progress...
...Schwarzenegger frequently dines at the nearby Esquire Grill— walking through the front door and working the room...
...His campaign sphere, run by Murphy, weighs long-term strategy and the merits of ballot fights...
...Here's how his 100-day report card reads...
...But is it sustainable...
...Bill Whalen is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he follows California and national politics...
...Health Care: Last year's health care mandate on California businesses was supposed to face a referendum test this March...
...And he shot from the lip in offering to intervene in Southern California's grocery strike...
Vol. 9 • February 2004 • No. 23
