Gov. Relents on Sped-Up Remapping

Lawmakers and political analysts interpreted the move as a sign that the governor would back away from a planned special election this fall on a wide-ranging government overhaul. Schwarzenegger denied this.

For months, he has insisted that California needs to immediately change its method of electing politicians, calling for independent judges -- rather than legislators -- to draw district boundaries. In February, he and his aides said there would be no compromise on the issue.

But at a choreographed "town hall" meeting Wednesday in a Fontana steel mill, where the governor talked with a friendly audience of about 300 steelworkers, business leaders and politicians, he was much less urgent. He said he hoped that negotiations with Democratic lawmakers would "work all this out, all the dates, should it be 2006, should it be 2008, should it be 2010."

"The key thing is not what is the year that we change the system," Schwarzenegger said, "but that it will be changed."

Schwarzenegger's plan to change redistricting is contained in a ballot initiative being circulated on California streets and in a bill before the Legislature. Backers of the measure said that next week they expected to turn in the required 600,000 signatures needed to place the issue before voters.

At a February news conference in Washington, the governor was asked if he might be willing to compromise with members of Congress, who opposed mid-decade redistricting. He cast his plan as "nonnegotiable."

"This package is the way it is," he said at the time. "The way we introduced it, that's the way it's going to be."

Schwarzenegger's entire agenda has been driven by his insistence that the changes he favors are essential and must occur immediately -- like a broken leg that can't wait for a scheduled appointment, he has said repeatedly.

The governor has now backed off or compromised on each of the major proposals he introduced nearly four months ago in a confrontational State of the State address before the Democratic-controlled Legislature. He dubbed 2005 the "Year for Reform" and has traveled the state to hawk his plans in staged events like the Fontana meeting.