Schwarzenegger's legacy - What can governor do in his last year?

By Daniel Weintraub

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Gov. Schwarzenegger is one of the least popular governors in California history. His relationships with the Democrats who control the Legislature are lousy, and his rapport with his fellow Republicans is probably worse.

He is under constant attack from interest groups on the left and the right, and his policy agenda has been skunked in two special elections in the past four years.

With only 14 months left in his second and final term, he looks like the lamest of lame ducks, with few allies, little leverage and slim chances of accomplishing much as his political clock ticks down toward zero.

But if Schwarzenegger has the will, there are still ways for him to get things done. The job of California governor is a powerful one, and Schwarzenegger still has assets, including his worldwide celebrity, at his disposal.

He has the power to sign and veto bills, delete individual items from the budget, appoint people to key jobs and change state government through executive orders. Regulators he chooses and can replace still hold sway over vast swaths of state policy and the economy.

And while he has to deal with a Democrat- dominated Legislature, Schwarzenegger could find a warmer reception there than other outgoing governors because, as a naturalized citizen, he cannot run for president, and he seems almost certain not to seek any other office. He therefore poses little threat to Democrats as a potential competitor.

Schwarzenegger hasn't said yet what he hopes to accomplish in his final year in office. But conversations with aides suggest that he will use those last months as a way to try to nail down many of the policy initiatives he began earlier in his tenure. On the environment, education, prisons, infrastructure and political reform, the governor has no shortage of unfinished business.

If Schwarzenegger does go out with a flourish, there would be precedent for it. The last time California had a lame duck governor, Republican Pete Wilson in 1998, he wielded his powers aggressively to the end. Wilson placed measures on the ballot that passed after he left office. And he used his line-item veto to blue-pencil $1.5 billion from his final budget, then offered to restore some of the money if legislators would help him achieve some of his priorities. John Burton, the Senate leader at the time, called it "extortion." But Wilson did get some of what he wanted.

"A governor's power over the budget does not go away in his final year in office," says Joe Rodota, who was Wilson's deputy chief of staff. "He always has that."

Rodota advised Wilson on how to maximize his executive powers, and when Schwarzenegger took office six years ago, the aide prepared a primer on the powers of the position for the rookie politician. That notebook might come in handy now that Schwarzenegger is looking for every opportunity to make the most of his weak hand. A recent Field Poll showed that only 27 percent of registered voters approve of the job he is doing. That's a record of futility surpassed only by Schwarzenegger's immediate predecessor, Gray Davis, just before the Austrian-born actor ousted Davis in a 2003 recall election.

Schwarzenegger took a major step last week that could set the stage for greater cooperation with the Legislature in the weeks ahead. He and bipartisan majorities in the Assembly and Senate agreed on a historic water deal that is designed to ensure the state's supply into the future while restoring and preserving the fragile and threatened Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The agreement includes $11 billion in bonds to help pay for water recycling, drought relief, new storage and wastewater treatment.