SACRAMENTO — They seemed unlikely allies -- California's new Republican governor and the chief political strategist for the state's powerful, and generally Democratic, teachers union.
Yet in a series of meetings starting shortly after his Nov. 17 inauguration, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Hein of the California Teachers Assn. struck a deal.
The plan, formally unveiled Thursday, gave the governor $2 billion toward reducing next year's budget deficit and greatly undermined the leverage that Democratic legislative leaders have in opposing him.
For the union, the deal preserved a guarantee of money for schools that might otherwise have been at risk in this year's budget battles.
The agreement served as another indication of Schwarzenegger's inclination and ability to strike out on his own and negotiate with interest groups outside his Republican base.
It began with a telephone call.
The governor had worked together with Hein in 2002 when the CTA political director helped in the campaign for Proposition 49, the ballot measure that Schwarzenegger sponsored to increase funds for after-school programs. The two had remained friendly.
As the new governor began to grapple with the budget dilemma he had inherited, he reached out to Hein.
According to a knowledgeable education official, Schwarzenegger "called John and said, 'I need $2 billion. Can you help me get it? What would that look like?' "
"The governor told us he was the one who called the CTA, because he has a relationship with John Hein," the official said.
At the time, the union had reason to worry about Schwarzenegger.
When he became governor, Hein agreed to serve on a transition advisory team. But he resigned abruptly when the governor ignored the CTA's recommendation that the position of education secretary be abolished.
Instead Schwarzenegger filled the job with a man whom CTA officials were known to dislike -- former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who had fought with the Los Angeles teachers union over control of the Los Angeles Unified School District board.
That move could have permanently soured relations between the union and the governor.
Then, on Dec. 9, the governor alarmed leaders of education groups with a comment in a CNN interview. Schwarzenegger suggested that the state might need to suspend Proposition 98, the constitutional guarantee of a stable source of funds for schools and community colleges.
