Original article and others posted on the California Progress Report
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/
By Frank D. Russo
Arnold Schwarzenegger has until next Saturday, September 30 to act on the crush of bills sent to him by the legislature at the end of their session. There remain over 700 bills on the Governor's desk. According to his office, in 2006, he has taken action on 458 bills, including ones sent to him earlier in the year. So, in the next 6 days, the pace of announcements will be picking up from here.
Just as the legislature passes and fails to take action on bills during the last week of session and then slips stuff through that does not catch the eye of the press and public (and sometimes even many of the legislators themselves), this week will see a blizzard of press releases and events coming out of the Governor's office announcing, and in many instances touting his action. He will take credit for legislation he has had little or nothing to do in passing and bury vetoes at the end or on Friday's, his choice of a relatively dead time for media coverage. It will take a while for those digging through the paperwork to chronicle exactly what was done and perhaps tell the story of who is responsible for the final results and disappointments of the last two year cycle of the Legislature's deliberations and the Governor's disposition of what has been piled up on his desk.
There is nothing new about this. It's been going on for as long as I can remember.
As anyone who has been following this knows, this election year Arnold Schwarzenegger will be signing many bills that he has previously vetoed or opposed. His taxpayer funded website and press office will be putting out the spin on this that he is signing many Democratic bills and there will continue to be a steady stream of images of him with Democratic legislators.
Hopefully, there will be a bit deeper analysis by the press and blogosphere after the dust has settled. So far, of the 261 vetoes by Governor Schwarzenegger on legislation from the 2005-2006 session, 252 of those bills were by Democratic authors and only 9 were from Republican legislators. This means that only 3.4% of the bills vetoed were authored by Republicans and 96.4% of them were by Democrats. So much for bipartisanship.
If the past media coverage is any guide, this will get lost in the self congratulatory pictures and film of signing ceremonies. Vetoes from the back room office are usually words on paper--press releases. Most of the public, including even the subset of voters will be left with the impression that Arnold Schwarzenegger has accomplished a lot and that he is bipartisan and not a Republican.
We'll see one big example on Wednesday, when he is scheduled to sign AB 32, the landmark global warming bill authored by the Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez and Fran Pavley, both Democrats. There will be little coverage of how the Governor consistently tried to weaken, some say "gut," this legislation and the showdown with Nunez and Pavley in which he threatened to veto the legislation as it was written, and then when his bluff was called, finally caved because of political imperatives.
The Democrats played this masterfully and negotiated the best deal they could get to advance Democratic values and make sure the bill actually did something as opposed to what Schwarzenegger wanted--delayed implementation until way off in the future and watering down at every opportunity in the negotiations.
They did the same with the minimum wage increase, vetoed twice before by the Governor, and stuck to their guns and got the best Democratic deal possible. Not because the Governor wanted to do this--but because he had to-- and the Democrats knew this and used this.
As we wait for the final week of bill signings and vetoes, keep your eye on the ball. Thank your lucky stars we have a Democratic legislature, faults and all, and an election to cause Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign bills he would not otherwise consider and did not play a role in getting passed. Look at the sorry record of the Republican legislators who voted en masse against most of the major bills that advance us as a state. Consider the failure of Arnold Schwarzenegger on many of these bills to get a single Republican Assemblymember or State Senator to vote in favor of them. In some cases, there were Republican votes on the floor for positive changes, but even then in many cases only a handful. The Democrats, including their leadership did the heavy lifting to get these passed.
Finally, when October rolls around, think about what Arnold Schwarzenegger will do with 4 more years--if he doesn't have to run again for Governor. Ask what really happened in this year's session and what will happen next year if he is re-elected.