California Insider

A Weblog by
Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub

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December 01, 2003

The Mod Squad

Gov. Schwarzenegger plans a week of campaigning for his fiscal recovery plan in the districts of Democrats he thinks can be persuaded to vote with him. He is scheduled to appear at a San Diego rally on Tuesday (preceded by an appearance today on the Roger Hedgecock radio show) and will make stops later in the week in the Central Valley and the East Bay. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. The odd part about the strategy is that it puts the governor in the position of bashing the very people who are most likely to want to work with him: moderate Democrats. The true leftists aren’t going to respond to his rants and don’t need to. Their districts are so overwhelmingly Democrat that they are probably safe from a challenge. Most of the Republicans will go along with most of what Schwarzenegger is proposing. That leaves the moderate Democrats, who represent a relative handful of members in the Legislature and are known for voting with the Republicans on occasion but rarely in numbers sufficient to change the outcome on a bill. It’s possible that Schwarzenegger’s strategists believe his appearances, if they generate local reaction, might give the mods the political cover they need to vote with him. These members can tell their Democratic colleagues that they were flooded by phone calls and need to respond to save their seats in next year’s elections. But it’s just as likely that a tough vote cast with Schwarzenegger, say, for his $15 billion bond measure, will be used by Republican opponents next year to try to defeat the people the governor is wooing now. Can he promise these members protection from a serious challenge if they become Schwarzenegger Democrats?