Ballot Items Aimed at Gov.

Advocates hope the tactic could provide leverage for a series of labor and consumer causes defeated through vetoes and ballot measures this year.

But the approach could also increase the Capitol's partisan rancor, and even Democratic leaders say it could provide voters with a fresh signal that the Legislature is becoming irrelevant.

Possible ballot initiatives under discussion by an assortment of liberal groups and Democrats would seek to increase California's minimum wage, make it easier to buy prescription drugs from Canada and arrange for bulk purchases of prescription drugs at lower prices. All those measures passed the Democratic-led Legislature this year but were vetoed by Schwarzenegger.

Various advocacy groups are also talking about using the ballot to win financing for more affordable housing and children's health programs -- ideas that do well in polls but may be difficult for legislators to incorporate into next year's state budget given California's steep fiscal problems.

"We are considering taking a page out of his playbook and going to the ballot, where I think the people of California will agree with the Democratic Legislature that it's time for relief from skyrocketing drug prices," said Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer (D-Los Feliz). "What we're feeling is, with this governor, this is the only way we're going to get relief."

The next scheduled statewide elections will be in June 2006. But Schwarzenegger's top aides have said he was considering calling a special election next fall on his own proposals to reorganize state bureaucracies and curtail the power of the Legislature.

"There's a general sense that the backlight for the entire year will be the special election," said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Alameda). "So people have begun to talk that, if that's going to be the case, we had better put things on the ballot that our voters care about. If it's going to be a shootout at the OK Corral, we want to be armed."

The approach could turn a special election, to which Schwarzenegger has not yet committed, into a free-for-all.