September 25, 2007

How conservative is your governor?

The conservative Web site FlashReport.org has posted another list of 20 bills it says the governor should veto. Last year, Schwarzenegger rejected 14 of the 20 bills on the Web site's hit list.

FlashReport breaks down this year's list of 20 into four categories: nanny government bills, overreaching environmental bills, tax dollars for illegal immigrants bills and a catch-all "other" category.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say I think Schwarzenegger will veto at least 15 of the 20 bills this year, and perhaps as many as 18. I think the bills he is most likely to sign are two flood control bills (AB 162 and SB 5) and possibly one gun bill (AB 1471), which would require semi-automatic handguns to use technology that would microstamp an identifiable code onto the spent cartridge when the gun is fired.

This year's tally by FlashReport, though, is rigged a little bit, because the site is excluding from its count three bills they hate but which the governor has already said he would veto: the Democrats' health care bill (AB 8), Perata's anti-war ballot measure (SB 924) and Mark Leno's gay marriage bill (AB 43). It's funny that these are probably the three bills passed this year that are at the top of any conservative veto list, and the guv will veto them, but FlashReport will exclude that from its evaluation of his full performance. That's a great example of how the Republican right wing devalues Schwarzenegger's centrism: they take for granted the right-leaning stuff he does that they like while focusing tons of venom on the left-leaning actions he takes that they hate.

Given everything that has been said and written about Schwarzenegger's leftward tilt, it will be interesting to see how this turns out. He could very well veto 19 of these 20 bills, and 21 of the 23 top targets of the most conservative Republican web site in California. At the least he is almost certain to veto more than half of the bills. That must say something about where Schwarzenegger really stands, about how far to the left the Democrats in the Legislature are, or both.

Posted by dweintraub on September 25, 2007 2:26 PM