Budget hero – or turncoat?

Sen. Abel Maldonado has staked his political future on being the final piece of California's budget jigsaw puzzle.

The $40 billion package to ease the state's budget crisis had been stalled, a single vote short, until the moderate Republican flipped to cast the decisive vote early Thursday morning.

To secure his support for higher taxes, the Santa Maria lawmaker wrung concessions from resistant Democrats that could launch his ascent via a mixture of populism and tilting the political playing field to his advantage.

Those victories, however, came at a political cost. Maldonado had to abandon his own caucus, his own no-taxes pledge and, to some extent, his own political party.

"He's a man without a country now," said Republican strategist Dave Gilliard. "And in politics that's a not a good place to be."

Within hours, conservatives had launched a whisper and Web site campaign to recall Maldonado.

Party activists, meanwhile, are pouring into Sacramento this weekend for their state convention – poor timing for a politician who just openly bucked party orthodoxy. The party will consider formally censuring Maldonado and the five other GOP lawmakers who supported the budget.

Maldonado acknowledged the fierce opposition, joking earlier in the week that "some people are probably going to lynch me," if he voted yes. He cast his decision as that of a statesman.

"I'd like to have seen somebody else vote for this budget," he said. "And it would have been easy for me to cast a 'no' vote. But during difficult times, you need to step up to the plate."

The Legislature's only Latino Republican long has eyed a big political future for himself, nabbing speaking roles at national conventions and already running once, unsuccessfully, for statewide office.

The son of an immigrant field worker, Maldonado became a millionaire farmer who has never shied away from the political spotlight.

In days of negotiations before signing off, he was heavily wooed by the Democratic leadership and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

At Maldonado's behest, lawmakers agreed to place on the ballot a constitutional amendment to create open primaries in state elections, a system that could boost moderates such as Maldonado.

Critics say the current primary system tends to favor the election of extremists from both parties. An open primary would pit the top two vote-getters against each other in the general election, regardless of party.

Both the Democratic and Republican parties historically have opposed open primary systems. "At least in his own party, he smells like garlic," said Gilliard. "He held the budget hostage for days to extract something most Republicans oppose."

Maldonado also pushed successfully for a restructuring of the budget's tax package – including elimination of a proposed 12-cent gas take hike – and for a ballot measure to ban legislative raises in years when the state is in deficit.

Maldonado, whose final term ends in 2012, has polished his image as a critic of legislative dysfunction and greed. He recently attacked state Controller John Chiang for furniture orders made amid the cash crisis, ultimately forcing the funds to be deleted from the budget.

Chiang's office said buying new workstations was necessary to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and save future costs by consolidating staff in one location. "This is a fiscally irresponsible thing to do, but the controller acquiesced in order to get this (budget) vote from this grandstanding politician," Hallye Jordan, Chiang's spokeswoman, said of the cut.

Last year, Maldonado testified against pay raises for lawmakers, and he has refused a raise since entering the Legislature, earning $17,000 less each year than he is eligible to receive. Those issues – especially suspending pay increases – are the type of populist ideas that could play well for Maldonado in future elections.

But the risks of the deal are equally clear. Maldonado previously had signed a national no-new-taxes pledge, yet the budget package he ultimately supported includes $12.8 billion in higher vehicle license fees and temporary sales and personal income tax hikes.

Political fallout from the deal has begun. Senate Republicans, unhappy with the budget negotiated by then-leader Dave Cogdill, ousted him this week, replacing him with the staunchly anti-tax Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth.

Meanwhile, anger is being stoked by a powerful Los Angeles radio station, KFI-AM, which included Maldonado's mugshot perched on a stick in a Web site lineup of those it considers GOP tax turncoats.

Schwarzenegger, in a news conference Thursday, praised Maldonado and the other Republicans who keyed passage of the budget package, but also offered a warning.

"The system itself is such that you get punished sometimes when you do something that is good for the people," he said.

Call Jim Sanders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5538.