Politics

SACRAMENTO (AP) ― The summer's been a bummer for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Although he still likes to say being governor of California is the best job he's ever had, Schwarzenegger has faced near-constant criticism from all sides in the state's drawn-out fiscal crisis.

It's the same type of crisis he promised to lead the state out of when he jumped from Hollywood into politics five years ago, replacing former Gov. Gray Davis and promising to "blow up the boxes" of state government.

Forget the GOP national stage for the moment: Schwarzenegger put off any plans to appear on the campaign trail with John McCain, a good friend, and gave up a prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention last week.

And his hopes of putting a ballot measure before voters in November to shore up the state's water supply are all but doomed, just like last year's vision for sweeping health care reform.

After saying repeatedly he wouldn't raise taxes, Schwarzenegger proposed a 1 cent increase in the state sales tax for three years to help close the state's $15.2 billion budget deficit. That prompted a furious backlash from lawmakers in his own party and even a rebuke from former Gov. Pete Wilson, a fellow Republican who has been one of Schwarzenegger's political confidants.

And this week, Schwarzenegger's short but lively political career came full circle when the state prison guards union took the formal steps to begin a recall campaign against him, citing "catastrophic leadership failings and inept management."

The union's attempt is almost entirely one of self-interest— its leadership is upset that Schwarzenegger has refused to give its members a huge raise, as Davis did—and its campaign will be a long-shot.

Yet the start of the recall attempt generated wide publicity and was an unwelcome reminder that Schwarzenegger has failed to accomplish his main objective: ending the state's seemingly endless budget crises.

Schwarzenegger and others blame the impasse on a failed system that sends extremist and uncompromising politicians from both parties to the Capitol and allows unchecked spending year after year.

His frustration has bubbled over at times. Last week, he became agitated as he lamented the perennial gridlock—chastising lawmakers by saying they should give up their vacations and per diems until they pass a budget.

"Here we are again, two-and-a-half months late, and the legislators are arguing and fighting," he said during a news conference. "And I say to them, 'Get out of your ideological corners and go and make decisions not based on ideology, not based on what is best for your party, but make decisions (based on) what is best for the people of California."'

The governor wanted his changes to California's budget system to go before voters this November, including boosting a rainy day fund to help ease the state's boom-and-bust cycles and giving him unilateral authority to impose cuts during the middle of the fiscal year.

With the deadline passed for placing measures on the ballot, the parties trying to negotiate a budget compromise seem further apart than ever.

The dark mood in Sacramento matches that throughout the state, which has been pummeled by the housing and mortgage crises and has its highest unemployment rate in 12 years. Schwarzenegger's approval rating has dropped to 40 percent, down from 60 percent last December.

His relationship with lawmakers of his own party is even worse.

He recently criticized Republican lawmakers for proposing a budget that used borrowing as a way to address the deficit: "They call themselves fiscally conservative and fiscally responsible. I don't call it that. ... This is just a quick fix."

Such attacks haven't helped, said Sen. Dave Cox, a Republican from the Sacramento suburb of Fair Oaks.

The veteran lawmaker fired off a rare press release attacking the governor's comments after the news conference, noting that Schwarzenegger promised to reform state government during the 2003 recall election.

"The reality is, that didn't get done," Cox said Thursday. "It's my personal belief that the governor should have met numerous times with individuals as well as the Assembly and Senate caucuses to talk about where he was going."

While Schwarzenegger has held talks with legislative leaders for weeks, he finally started meeting with the full Republican delegations this week.

Before a meeting with Assembly Republicans, Minority Leader Mike Villines said sarcastically that many of his caucus members were looking forward to meeting Schwarzenegger "for the first time." Several wore name tags to their closed-door meeting.

The governor—a centrist who has never warmed to the GOP's hard-core faithful—may have made things worse when he again slammed members of his own party. In comments to the German magazine Der Spiegel, Schwarzenegger said he has "almost no contact" with California's Republican leaders "because they're just so out there."

Even if this summer's record-length budget stalemate is a symptom of California's partisan gridlock, Schwarzenegger bears some of the blame, said Leon Panetta, a former Democratic congressman and chief of staff in the Clinton administration who is heading a bipartisan group studying California government.

With the July 1 start of the fiscal year long since passed, it's time for Schwarzenegger to knock heads and come up with a budget deal, Panetta said.

"I think the governor has to put them in a room, and he's got to basically keep them there until this damn thing is done," Panetta said. "He's tried sweet-talking, he's tried urging the press to focus on it, he's tried urging the public to do the same. He may ultimately have to act like a Terminator."

Panetta's group, California Forward, posted a series of articles on its Web site under the heading "Past Governors Managed Budgets Better."

Schwarzenegger hasn't helped his own standing after a series of political flip-flops, including his reversal on taxes (although he says his plan would drop the state sales tax rate below its current level after three years).

Before February's presidential primary, Schwarzenegger endorsed a failed measure that would have extended the term limits of several sitting lawmakers after first saying he would not. This summer, to much fanfare, he declared he would veto any bills lawmakers sent to him until they had passed a budget, then later reversed course and signed one he supported related to a high-speed rail project.

The governor's communications director, Matt David, said Schwarzenegger warned about a prolonged budget stalemate in January, when he urged legislators to start negotiations early. Now he's prepared to wait them out until he gets the long-term budget reforms he's been after, David said.

"He's not going to settle for Band-Aid solutions and politics as usual, which is exactly what the Legislature wants," he said.

David said Schwarzenegger is unbowed by the criticism and low public approval ratings, and the governor himself said he would not be intimidated by the prison guards' recall effort.

"When you're a reformer and you try to govern from the middle, you're going to be attacked from the left and you're going to be attacked form the right," David said. "He is a public servant, not a party servant, and he will always do what is right for Californians."

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