A day after Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in the recall election, a dispute erupted between the governor-elect and the state's most powerful legislator over the tripling of California's car tax.
Schwarzenegger, moving to keep a campaign promise, told state Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) that as governor, he could single-handedly repeal the tax hike. The irascible senator disagreed.
"We have a difference of opinion there," the Republican governor-to-be told reporters in Los Angeles.
Dario Frommer -- With a Thursday Section A article on California legislators, a caption quoting Assemblyman Dario Frommer ran with the wrong photo. The photo was of Craig Missakian, Frommer's opponent in the last election.
Dario Frommer -- A correction in Friday's Section A mistakenly stated that Craig Missakian ran against Assemblyman Dario Frommer in the last election. Missakian ran against Frommer in 2000.
So began Arnold Schwarzenegger's move from Hollywood to Sacramento, where he will face the same deeply divided Legislature that often thwarted the will of outgoing Gov. Gray Davis.
The return of a Republican governor to the Capitol marks a major shift in the balance of power. Schwarzenegger's opening clash over the vehicle license fee could portend friction between him and the Democrats who control both houses of the Legislature. Losing the $4 billion brought in by the increase, for instance, would jeopardize programs dear to many of them, setting a foul tone for budget talks in the months ahead.
"Once you take that oath of office," Burton said, "unless you're a total whack-a-do, reality sets in, and you find out campaign rhetoric can't solve the problems."
The election results Tuesday suggest that Schwarzenegger's political center of gravity is well to the right of the Legislature's.
Schwarzenegger's base of support is heavily white, male, conservative, Republican and Christian, according to a Times poll of voters who cast ballots Tuesday. He ran strongest in the Central Valley and in Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Those regions are home to the most conservative members of the Legislature's Republican minority.
By contrast, Schwarzenegger was relatively unpopular among blacks, Latinos, Asians, liberals, Jews and Democrats, though he still ran stronger than many Republicans among those groups. He ran weakest in San Francisco and the surrounding area, as well as parts of Los Angeles County.
That's the turf of the liberal Democrats who dominate the Legislature and set its agenda.
Democrats have already vowed to send Schwarzenegger piles of legislation on worker protections, abortion and gay rights and other topics that the moderate governor-elect might be inclined to sign -- but at the risk of alienating the conservatives who backed him most fiercely.
- Coming Soon: 'Rise of the Arnold Democrats' Aug 10, 2003
- He should be back Oct 15, 2006
- Let the state pay Oct 25, 2005
