Tony Quinn, a political analyst who works with Hoffenblum on the Target Book, said Schwarzenegger "has a problem with Republican legislators that he may not even care about, but it's there. I think some of the senior Republicans didn't like the fact that he tended to negotiate away everything."
The Republican Party has struggled for years to reconcile its more conservative elements with the need to accept moderate candidates. Schwarzenegger, a moderate who courted Democrats and Republicans with equal vigor during the recall campaign, was elected without having to pass through the fire of a primary dominated by conservatives.
The Republican Party faithful are still figuring out Schwarzenegger. "There is no preexisting relationship between the two. The relationship is still being crafted," said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University, and a former advisor to Wilson.
"Arnold's financial perspective as a business owner and employer is comfortable to an awful lot of people," said conventioneer Barry Hartz, an Apple Valley financial consultant. "His social views are not mine, but really, that is not important at this point. I think Arnold has stood in the gap with the Legislature, who apparently still don't get the fact that it's not their money."
But the difference between other Republicans and Schwarzenegger can be striking.
During the final days of negotiations over the state budget last month, legislative Republicans held up talks because they wanted to protect a tax loophole for those who buy yachts costing more than $400,000.
Schwarzenegger, legislative sources said, immediately knew that allowing the yacht tax to be the signature issue for Republicans was bad public relations for a party often associated with the wealthy. The governor distanced himself from the issue even as he tried to forge a compromise behind closed doors.
Political analysts say Schwarzenegger had backed himself into an ideological corner earlier in the year. He had already compromised with Democrats, and Republicans wanted something with which to declare victory in the budget battle. He gave them a scaled-down version of the yacht tax loophole.
Bob Mulholland, a strategist for Democrats, said the Schwarzenegger effect this year translates into "more money for Republicans but not many votes."
"Schwarzenegger did not go out and make sure a lot of moderate Republicans got nominated," Mulholland said. "He is stuck with the same old baggage. I think Schwarzenegger is more likely to spend his weekends in Idaho than helping legislative candidates."
But Duf Sundheim, chairman of the California Republican Party, said the governor "has a certain point of view; he has a certain constituency he needs to respond to."
Schwarzenegger's positions "are based on who he is," not necessarily a hard-line party platform, Sundheim added, characterizing the governor's place in the GOP as being "accepted in the family."
