FRESNO -- In a rare move, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went on the offensive Monday against a group of legislators from his own party, making clear that there could be political costs if they continue to block passage of the state budget.
The governor dropped into the districts of two Republican state senators -- one a holdout and the other the only one to vote with Democrats for the budget, based on Schwarzenegger's spending blueprint, that the Assembly passed in July.
The governor's visits were a shift in strategy: Until this week, he mostly had sought to appease GOP senators at the negotiating table amid accusations that he was too willing to cut deals with Democrats on the budget and other legislative business.
But on Monday, with the budget standoff threatening to sink his plans to bring healthcare to all Californians and overhaul the state's water infrastructure, Schwarzenegger took his private jet to the district of state Sen. Dave Cogdill of Fresno, a leader of the holdouts, and toured a health clinic that may have to close as a result of the impasse.
Earlier in the day, Schwarzenegger traveled to Santa Maria, hometown of Sen. Abel Maldonado, whom he called "an extraordinary leader," praising the senator for breaking with the GOP caucus to cast a vote for the budget.
The only kind words Schwarzenegger had for Senate Republicans on Monday were those lauding Maldonado. The other Republicans he scolded.
"It is embarrassing," Schwarzenegger said in Fresno, referring to the Senate's failure to pass a budget 44 days into the fiscal year. He accused GOP lawmakers of continuing to withhold their votes, even after all their demands related to the budget had been met, in hopes of extracting other policy concessions.
"All of a sudden, now we've got to work on this, we've got to work on that," Schwarzenegger said. "So they are adding things. We say today, don't keep adding things. You are hurting people. People in California are suffering. Lay off. Pass the budget."
Though Schwarzenegger didn't mention Cogdill by name, he did single out Cogdill's fellow GOP holdout, Sen. Jeff Denham, a Republican whose district includes nearby Merced. Denham, a political moderate who hails from a "swing" voting district and has broken with his party on issues in the past, is under substantial pressure to do so now.
