Posted on 06/22/2006 9:08:36 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Just six months ago it would have been almost inconceivable that the state's powerful prison-guards lobby would back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bid for re-election. The union had just finished spending $2.9 million to torpedo the governor's special-election agenda, lampooned Schwarzenegger's attempts at prison reform and was openly hostile to the state's top prison official, a Schwarzenegger appointee.
"It was awful," says Ray McNally, the long-time political adviser of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA). But the union's icy relations with the Republican governor have slowly thawed.
That's no accident. This year, Schwarzenegger has launched an ambitious election-year outreach effort. The Republican governor is wooing past Democratic foes and making amends with left-leaning potential political adversaries, especially those with the money to spend.
For Schwarzenegger, it has been a meeting-filled, multi-billion-dollar endeavor that has elevated his approval ratings after last year's disastrous special election. From hiring a Democrat for his top staff job to meeting with Indian tribal leaders to courting his chief education-policy critic, it has been an apologetic, and politically rewarding, about-face.
His relations with the CCPOA are a case in point. After two years on the outside looking in, prison-union officials quietly have been meeting with the governor's top staffers and, at least once, the governor himself. Three top prison officials--all antagonists of the CCPOA--have resigned or been fired.
A scathing report released this week cited the "CCPOA's influence with the Governor's Office" for two of those departures and accused Schwarzenegger of "a return to the Davis Administration's practice" of letting CCPOA call shots in the prison system.
With the recent changes, the correctional officers' executive vice-president Chuck Alexander says the union, and its estimated $10 million war chest, is considering staying out of the governor's race altogether--or even backing Schwarzenegger.
"It is a refreshing change from a year ago," said Alexander of the governor's friendlier tone. "We have not decided at this point where or even if we are going to engage in the governor's election this year."
A prison guard union endorsement of Schwarzenegger is now a real possibility. "The governor's actions could very well change our actions," he said, as the union renegotiates a labor contract set to expire July 1.
Observers both in and out of the administration point to the December hiring of Susan Kennedy, a Democrat and one-time top aide to Gov. Gray Davis, as chief of staff as critical to the turnaround. Kennedy's predecessor, Pat Clarey, a protégé of Gov. Pete Wilson, had taken a hard line against many Democratic-leaning interest groups. But Kennedy has orchestrated an elaborate fence-mending operation that has brought the once-estranged groups back to the table.
Kennedy and Schwarzenegger have started with the Democrats' best-funded allies.
In May, the governor met privately with the tribal leaders of all three major Indian gaming associations, two of which he had refused to meet with during his first two and one-half years in office. In the 2003 recall, Indian-gaming tribes were the single largest spenders, shelling out $11 million, all of which went to Schwarzenegger's opponents.
"Pat Clarey was never sympathetic to tribes in any way shape or form," said Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, long a friend of tribal gaming interests. "And I think that Susan Kennedy has a completely different perspective and so does the rest of the senior staff."
In the governor's proposed May budget, Schwarzenegger used one-time budget funds to come to a $5 billion funding settlement with schools. That deal pleased the California Teachers' Association, a powerful union that spent more than $50 million opposing Schwarzenegger's special election and already has sunk $1 million in an independent-expenditure campaign for state Treasurer Phil Angelides, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.
There's more: Schwarzenegger has dropped his demand to change nurse-patient ratios, winning kudos from the nurses' union, which opposed him last year on an array of issues. He has postponed any controversial pension-reform proposals, a detente welcomed by the state's public-employee unions. He has appointed a Democrat, Linda Adams, to head the California Environmental Protection Agency. He reappointed the chairman of the labor coalition that spent $100 million against him last year to the Board of Education. He has embraced a hike in the minimum wage. He will even headline a fund-raiser for Log Cabin Republicans later this month, his first official event with a gay and lesbian group since taking office.
"It doesn't mean we agree on any more issues than last year," says Adam Mendelsohn, Schwarzenegger's communications director, who joined the governor in December. "It means we can sit down and have a discussion with critical groups like the prison guards."
The governor's handlers insist that the election year moves are about governing.
"The governor has decided that his focus for this year, and the coming years if he is re-elected, is the business of the state," said Matthew Dowd, the campaign's chief strategist.
But even those being courted see the political dynamics at play.
"He better be thinking in terms of politics," said McNally, the CCPOA adviser. "The correctional officers kicked his ass once and, at the end of the day, they could do it again."
Some conservatives see the governor's moves as capitulating to the very special interests that Schwarzenegger railed against when he was swept into the governorship in the 2003 recall. Tribes and unions were public enemies No. 1 and No. 2 in that campaign.
"It is just a strategy of shutting everyone up who could spend tens of millions against him," says former GOP spokeswoman and conservative blogger Karen Hanretty. "I don't think capitulating to unions is good policy. I guess it makes good politics in an election year."
Schwarzenegger's tack to the political center has helped him rebound in the polls. In a May Field Poll, Schwarzenegger's favorability among decline-to-state voters had jumped 12 points, from 34 to 46 percent, since February. The same poll showed him leading Democratic challenger Phil Angelides by 7 points.
On the campaign trail, Schwarzenegger burnishes his centrist credentials with ease, especially his environmental record and this year's bipartisan infrastructure package.
In a whistle-stop in Redding, Mayor Ken Murray introduced the governor and exhorted the right-wing crowd to "counteract those idiots in Berkeley" by voting Republican. During the brief event, Schwarzenegger's biggest cheers came from his pledge of support for Jessica's Law and his promise to crack down on sex offenders.
But even in front of this red-meat Republican crowd, Schwarzenegger couldn't help but talk about "carpooling, gas efficiency and the hydrogen highway," which met only tepid applause.
"The people of California really want clean air, clean water and places we can recreate," said Bill Magavern, a senior representative of the Sierra Club. "The smart politicians have figured that out and Schwarzenegger is better than most Republicans at appealing to environmental values and that is why he is more successful than most Republicans."
Schwarzenegger has distanced himself from President Bush and the Republican congressional leadership--both highly unpopular in California--through a series of letters and public comments on issues varying from offshore drilling to the use of National Guard at the border.
When legislative Republicans vowed last week to block the budget because it funded health care for illegal immigrants, Schwarzenegger called a Capitol press conference the next day to announce that he agreed with the Democrats.
"Every child should have the right to some health care," said Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger's new, Democrat-friendly tone has begun to silence some of the his most vocal critics.
In January, Gale Kaufman, a Democratic consultant who spearheaded the anti-Arnold special-election campaign, was skeptical of Schwarzenegger's State of the State address, where the he announced he had "learned my lesson."
"So now we wait and see if he's sincere, or if this is just another 'Hollywood moment,'" said Kaufman in a prepared statement.
But this week, Kaufman suddenly was giving Schwarzenegger the benefit of the doubt. Is she was concerned over Schwarzenegger's lack of campaigning for the housing bond? "He said he will, and there's no reason to believe he won't," she told the Sacramento Bee.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, a Kaufman client who relentlessly criticized Schwarzenegger in 2005, recently introduced the governor at a Sacramento event saying, "California is once again, my friends, on the move, thanks largely to this next man, the governor." Núñez is a co-chair of the Angelides' campaign.
As Schwarzenegger has steered to the political center, he has even co-opted some of Angelides' campaign themes.
Angelides has made his promise of "fully funding education" a pillar of his campaign. But Schwarzenegger has begun using the very same language after unexpected revenues allowed him to pay off debt to California schools. In January, Angelides pledged to double the number of high-school counselors.
In May, Schwarzenegger followed suit, announcing $200 million for counselors.
"Welcome to the bandwagon, Governor," read a recent e-mail from Team Angelides.
Bob Mulholland, a senior Angelides strategist, said the governor's so-called outreach only shows the governor to be inconsistent and untrustworthy.
"Nobody on the Democratic side will forget that the outreach he did the last two years was trying to strangle most of these groups," said Mulholland. "Do you really think the nurses, teachers, police officers and firefighters are going to support this guy? If Schwarzenegger thinks that tea and cookies in 2006 is going to make up for the sledge-hammer tactics he had in 2004 and 2005, he is gravely mistaken."
I know I know,, before all the Guhb' backers pile on,,
Can a CCPOA endorsement for the Gubby be far off?
If you want to get re-elected in California, you have to run as a Dem..
PS.. Someone please remind me why we had a Recall again.
CA: Report slams governor on prisons
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1653274/posts
Well, here in Calif, we get the choice of the Wimpanator and the lunitic fringe Left (aka the Calif Dem Party).
So we will likely vote for the pink Governator over the red Dem.
But it's a case of a bad choice or a terrible choice.
We voted against the Wimpanator in the Primaries, in hopes of getting a politician with guts.
For all his tough guy, he-man roles on the silver screen, the REAL Arnold, turned out to be a puff ball, lacking courage or convictions.
The Terminator is merely an actor who just plays a Republican Governor on tv.
>>PS.. Someone please remind me why we had a Recall again.
So we could have more Democrat La Raza attorneys appointed to judgeships?
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_valley/14875540.htm
Hmmmm,? missed that one, Thanks!
La Raza, huh? Interesting pick, that one, Interesting, Indeed.
I'm sure he is just appointing the best available person and continuing his appointments in the spirit of bipartisanship, I'm sure.
Besides Republicans are nothing but a bunch of snobs immersed in a "Culture of Corruption" unless they're moderates, and Conservatives are just a bunch of right wing extremists.
He did appoint more 'Republicans' in this batch, but since it was exposed that
one did a last-minute party switching maneuver, who's to know for sure.
You gotta wonder about those Republican public-defenders.
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