SACRAMENTO — As Democrats try to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a theme is emerging: The governor is a "Bush Republican" bent on opening California's door to far-right friends and a conservative agenda.
State Treasurer Phil Angelides, one of the Democrats vying to unseat Schwarzenegger next year, hardly says the governor's name without linking him to the unpopular president. Actor Warren Beatty, one of the governor's persistent critics, declared recently that "a Schwarzenegger Republican is a Bush Republican who says he is a Schwarzenegger Republican."
Despite efforts to tie him to the conservative Bush, however, Schwarzenegger's record after nearly two years in office is far more nuanced than his foes suggest. He has become a master of varied messages, unaligned philosophies and assorted personalities. At times he is a Hollywood liberal, at others a rock-ribbed conservative. Often he is a mixture of both.
The split was most striking this week when Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage and signed four measures to bolster domestic partnerships.
Randy Thomasson, a lobbyist for religious conservatives, thanked the governor for his veto, then expressed outrage that he signed "other radical sexual agenda bills."
The governor's staff calls it "Arnoldism." Schwarzenegger said he tries to follow a centrist path.
"I have not deviated," he said in an interview in his Capitol office. "I have not moved one inch to the left or one inch to the right.
"I don't want to hear the right-wing side, just one side, or just the left-wing side," Schwarzenegger said. "In the end, I am not representing the Republican Party when I am governor; I represent both parties."
In recent months, he has shown a more conservative bent, presumably to rally his GOP base before November's special election, when he hopes to push through a package of four ballot measures.
In addition to vetoing the same-sex marriage legislation, he has supported parental notification for underage girls' abortions, praised the Minuteman border group, dumped state Reclamation Board members who had offended developers and tried to appoint an industry lobbyist to a key environmental post.
He has also embraced -- to the delight of conservative activists -- Proposition 75, a measure designed to hobble public employee unions by diminishing their political clout.
