SANTA MARIA-- — Sen. Abel Maldonado crouched to desk level and, with a mischievous smile, enlisted the help of sixth-grader Michelle Grahame to sweat the governor over the state's looming budget cuts.
The 12-year-old was immersed in her computer animation project, an Earth-like blue sphere hovering behind a curiously grown-up message: "Please don't cut Education."
Maldonado, on a tour of Ralph Dunlap Elementary, persuaded her to tweak it to read: "Please don't cut Education Arnold." He left with a printout he promised to deliver to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is hashing over ways to close the state's estimated $2-billion budget gap.
"We're in some challenging times, but I've made a commitment not to cut education," Maldonado, a Republican, told school officials and PTA members after the tour. "We're going to have to get creative."
It was a gentle jab at Schwarzenegger, but Maldonado has crossed the governor and his party leadership before, earning the scorn of conservatives and Republican loyalists. One party official writing on a conservative blog declared that the senator, one of the few Latino Republicans in Sacramento, "is not one of us."
Those same maverick traits, however, have intrigued party moderates who are struggling to make the GOP more appealing to the fastest-growing segments of the California electorate: Latinos and independents.
"I just hope that we can come together as a party in our state," said Maldonado. "Not lose our principles or values but understand that this is a blue state, it is a Democrat state, and we need to come around on some issues to win in California."
Issues such as immigration, he said. Maldonado believes Republicans have committed political suicide by ratcheting up anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric -- alienating Latino voters, who account for an estimated 14% of the California electorate -- and screaming "amnesty!" whenever comprehensive immigration reform is discussed.
"Do they hate Ronald Reagan? Ronald Reagan gave amnesty in 1986 to a lot of foreigners in this country," Maldonado said. The 41-year-old senator said he would crack down on illegal immigrants and secure the border. But he added that the federal immigration system is broken and the country needs a guest worker program to help both immigrants and employers.
