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Monday, October 20, 2003
The "Terminator" as collaborative leader?
Neal Peirce
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The recall of California's Gov. Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger may lead to positive outcomes that few political commentators anticipated when the recall "circus" got rolling last spring.
First, the political demise of Gray Davis. The coldly calculating political operative we first saw operating as Gov. Jerry Brown's chief of staff back in the 70's proved a master of raising political money, vilifying opponents and pandering to special interests.
But Davis never evidenced vision, never fought for the broad-scaled reforms that cry out for leadership in infrastructure starved, immigrant-heavy and still Proposition 13-paralyzed California.
Ironically, the two big issues that the opponents hung around Davis neck -- a gargantuan budget deficit and the state's energy crisis -- were largely beyond his control (the budget because of the dot.com bust, recession and 9/11, the energy crisis because of price manipulation by Enron and its ilk).
Yet clearly Davis defeat was a stinging rebuke to the politics of manipulation and payoff he practiced, even symbolized.
The second positive surprise is that Schwarzenegger got elected with the kind of broad coalition -- disenchanted youth to Lincoln Club Republican conservatives, Maria Shriver-camp Kennedy liberals to mainstream business voices -- that prevailing wisdom says is just impossible these days. Suddenly, in a contest for the governorship of massive, trend-setting California, the politics of the middle ground makes a refreshing reappearance.
Quickly, skeptics will say only a charismatic and known figure, unwounded by past political battles, could gallop onto the scene, catch opponents off balance and pull off such a coalition and electoral coup.
There's no doubt that Schwarzenegger campaigned with multiple identities. Alternately, he was anti-tax crusader, friend of schools, enemy of big government, pro-choice, pro-gay rights. He never really said how he'd deal with a budget deficit expected to exceed $8 billion -- especially if he makes it $4 billion worse by fulfilling his oft-repeated promise to repeal the increase in the much-hated state vehicle tax.
Predictions of irreconcilable conflicts with Democratic legislators -- fearful of devastating cuts in budgets of social, education and health care programs they prize -- arose even as the votes were being counted. Schwarzenegger has talked of going over the heads of legislators, pushing initiatives directly to the people on such issues as the car tax. He clearly longs to be an admired, even historic leader. Could this man easily embrace give-and-take representative government?
Yet Schwarzenegger, since election day, has struck an exceptionally conciliatory note. He's reached out to Democrats by appointing several to his transition team. "We think bipartisanship is not only possible, but highly likely -- a whole new era of governance," according to Sean Walsh, his chief spokesman.
If that's what Schwarzenegger really wants, former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg laid out the formula in an early October article addressed to whichever candidate -- Davis or Schwarzenegger -- won October 7. Build on the unprecedented interest in state politics sparked by the recall, Hertzberg advised. Keep the public informed and engaged, relating problems and successes: "Don't pretend to have all the answers and dont shade the truth. Be frank with the people and earn their trust."
And, said the former speaker, "develop the rapport you will need to bridge the gap between parties by meeting with legislators, Democrats and Republicans alike, sitting in their offices, meeting with them as human beings, learning to work with them" to advance common goals.
One wonders: can a celebrity governor bring himself to lead collaboratively? It may seem doubtful. Yet what would be more welcome with a public fatigued by partisan and special interest group wrangling?
Hertzberg also suggests that the new governor focus on Proposition 13's most disabling legacy -- local governments loss of revenue-raising capacity. Prop 13, he asserts, turned cities and counties into virtual wards of the government in Sacramento -- "confederacies of paupers" unable to make their own decisions on issues ranging from schools to police and fire to alcohol and drug rehabilitation.
The vehicle tax is ensnared in the same net, since its revenues, though collected by Sacramento, go directly to city and county governments which use it to pay for police and fire, libraries and health services -- all now imperiled if the tax is reduced.
Add in the need for major new infrastructure as California braces for yet more millions of immigrants and its obvious that small fixes, minor adjustments wont do for long. What the times demand is courageous leadership, based not on narrow ideology or partisanship but rebuilding the California dream through broad consensus.
Could the fabled "Terminator" do it? Again, it seems unlikely. But the current Washington, D.C. model -- campaigning as a "compassionate conservative" only, once elected, to embrace rigid ideology, antagonize opponents, run roughshod over the fiscal interests of "lower" governments -- doesnt produce very happy results.
Who'll prove he can lead better, George Bush or Arnold Schwarzenegger? Amazingly, suddenly, it's a serious question.
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