SACRAMENTO — Susan Kennedy is a former abortion rights activist and protege of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Steve Schmidt is a political strategist who helped put Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. on the Supreme Court over the protest of Democrats, including Feinstein, who feared he would outlaw abortion.
Now the two, Kennedy and Schmidt, are joined in the common purpose of reelecting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November.
Together, they may be the oddest bedfellows in an administration that seems to have a zig -- personality- and policy-wise -- for every one of Schwarzenegger's zags.
But Democrat Kennedy, the governor's new chief of staff, and Republican Schmidt, his freshly arrived campaign manager, say they are airtight on one thing: Whatever their philosophical differences, Schmidt said, "We're focused on what we both have in common, which is reelecting" Schwarzenegger.
The ultimate wisdom, or folly, of the governor's political mixing and matching won't be known until Nov. 7. In the meantime, skeptics abound, including some in the governor's political orbit. (None of them wished to be quoted for publication, lest they get permanently frozen out.)
The top tier of Schwarzenegger advisors also includes Matthew Dowd, who helped engineer George W. Bush's two presidential wins, and Democrat Daniel Zingale, a longtime gay rights advocate and the chief of staff to First Lady Maria Shriver.
The construction of Team Arnold, in its latest iteration, has been typically confounding.
While Schwarzenegger, a Republican, reached out to hire Kennedy, it is Shriver, a Democrat, who helped lure Schmidt, Dowd and Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's new communications chief, to Sacramento. Mendelsohn is another Republican with close ties to the Bush White House.
Ever since Schwarzenegger's drubbing in the November special election -- which Shriver opposed -- she has been heavily involved in his reelection effort, according to inside accounts. She has canvassed friends in the media and national political circles in search of political talent, and sat in on some conference calls among his new strategists.
"She is in charge of the rescue committee," said one Schwarzenegger advisor, referring to the governor's sagging political fortunes. "Maria has a number of I-told-you-so chits from last year that she is cashing in."
