SACRAMENTO — Even as his battle with Democrats and their union supporters continues, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing to adopt some of his opponents' most important issues as his own next year, when he will be campaigning for reelection.
Schwarzenegger wants to focus on health insurance for children, homelessness and big building projects that have been the hallmark of some Democratic governors, administration officials and others said -- an effort to craft a less confrontational agenda than this year's.
The Republican governor is also planning a more measured approach to changing the state's pension system for public employees. He aborted a controversial pension overhaul last spring after enraging police and firefighters unions and the Democratic legislators whom they support.
Schwarzenegger has spent months battling unions in a special election campaign that has cost both sides a combined $120 million, with less than four weeks to go before election day. Meanwhile, his popularity among Californians has plummeted.
The 2006 agenda could make him appear conciliatory and force Democrats to debate important policy changes with him as he runs for reelection. Little was achieved in the Legislature to resolve the state's biggest problems this year as the administration and lawmakers bickered over the Nov. 8 special election. Both sides said a less bruising year would be welcome.
"Win, lose or draw in this election, after the nuclear war I am determined not to have a nuclear winter," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), who has met with Schwarzenegger regularly at the governor's Brentwood home and in the Capitol to discuss policy.
Rob Stutzman, the governor's communications director, said that after the bloodbath of the special election campaign, the agenda being forged for next year "gives the Democrats all the opportunities in the world to work in a bipartisan manner toward commonly shared public policy objectives."
The new agenda does not necessarily mean there will be peace between Schwarzenegger and the Legislature. If history repeats, the governor's reelection campaign will probably cloud efforts at cooperation.
Regardless, the governor's aides said the infrastructure plan would be Schwarzenegger's signature proposal next year.
His staff is already working with Democratic leaders on a plan to overhaul California's jammed ports and freeways, and hospitals that need seismic retrofitting. One Democratic proposal would ask voters to approve a bond measure in June for as much as $15 billion to pay for such projects.
