Gov.'s New Proposition: Cooperation

In his first public comments since election night, Schwarzenegger said he would rely far less on campaigns and ballot fights as a governing strategy in the coming year, pushing various goals instead through slow, painstaking negotiations with his legislative adversaries if that's what it takes.

So determined is he to adopt a more centrist and inclusive approach, Schwarzenegger said, that he will ask Democrats to help him craft his State of the State speech -- the blueprint for his 2006 policy goals.

It was that speech 10 months ago that set the course for Tuesday's debacle, in which voters rejected all four initiatives that Schwarzenegger had cast as crucial to California's future. Not one of the eight measures on the ballot passed.

In a reference to his famous movie role, he said at a news conference: "If I were to do another Terminator movie, I would have the Terminator travel back in time to tell Arnold not to have a special election."

That got a laugh.

"The buck stops with me," he said. "

The governor began the day meeting privately with the Legislature's four leaders to talk about what comes next. The top two Democrats, who had battled him throughout the special election campaign, emerged to say they appreciated his contrition.

In turn, the Senate Democratic leader said he was prepared to forget the campaign skirmishes and work cooperatively on a state agenda that might include a multibillion-dollar push to improve California's network of highways, ports and levees.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) said in an interview: "The order of the day was for the governor to show California that he has correctly interpreted the results of the election. I think it was a five-star performance, and I don't mean 'performance' in a pejorative way. He needed to rally California back to the capital and back to him. I think he accomplished that. The next thing will be: Was it rhetoric or is it real?"