Righting the ship of state

S.J. CAHN

Two certainties seemed to grow ever more solid at the Five Crowns on

Tuesday afternoon: that an Arnold Schwarzenegger-led state government

would be able to right all our wrongs and that Republicans would be

able to build off of his win and become the majority party for years

to come.

Neither is nearly that much of a done deal, of course. But hopes

are officially high across the state, and they certainly were in the

stratosphere during this meeting of the Corona del Mar Chamber of

Commerce.

The man leading the lifting of expectations? Assemblyman John

Campbell, who is running for state Senate and is among

Schwarzenegger’s economic team.

Campbell led off with what, writing from some distance, I realize

is an old political trick: lowering expectations. And did he ever, by

comparing the present state of California’s government to the smoking

ruin of a world seen in Schwarzenegger’s last movie, “Terminator 3.”

Even if only half of the state gets destroyed by machines in the

future, we’ll be better off than now ... . Wait, I’m confusing

reality and Hollywood again. I mean, even if the economy is only

limping along a year from now, that will be a major improvement from

its state of near-death today.

So, to repeat, though not facing a menacing future dominated by

machines, California is in tough times, judging by the picture

Campbell painted.

Among his strokes:

* Most figures show that the state continues to lose jobs while

the rest of the country’s unemployment rate has begun to drop.

* The state government is bloated and wasteful. There are five

times as many jobs in California’s government that pay more than

$100,000 a year than when Gov. Gray Davis took office (and some only

require four hours of work a month, Campbell said).

* The state has the worst worker’s compensation rules in the

country, he stressed, adding that he expects Schwarzenegger -- who

will be sworn in sometime in mid- to late November -- to call a

special legislative session in December to address the problem.

That last item, Campbell said, will be the start of the first, and

a very important job of the next administration: fixing the business

climate.

“The most important thing to bringing business back to California

is worker’s comp,” he said.

“Fixing the economy will fix the budget problems,” he said. More

businesses and more jobs equals more tax revenue without raising

taxes.

But how will Schwarzenegger do it, given that he will be the only

change in Sacramento, while the other 120 elected officials in the

Legislature will be the same?

“I think the answer to this is two-fold,” Campbell said. “Oct. 7

was a message. The margin of victory for both Arnold and the recall

was higher than expected.

“I think that is a message that won’t be lost on legislators in

Sacramento,” he said.

Legislators, Campbell said, will look at their own districts and

see the votes made for Arnold.

The second part is that Schwarzenegger will be able to get his

message out through other types of media than typical politicians. TV

shows such as “Access Hollywood” have big audiences, Campbell noted.

Then, there is a final weapon in Arnold’s arsenal: “He’ll be able

to go to recalcitrant legislator’s districts and put pressure on

them,” Campbell said. (He showed no signs of relief that he isn’t

likely to be one of these.)

The picture is something like this:

Arnold comes to town, draws thousands of people (as he did during

the election) and says something along the lines of: “With the help

of [insert your least favorite legislator], we’ll terminate the car

tax forever.” After that show of support, it will be hard for that

legislator to defy the new governor.

(That’s a version of Arnold’s political power that County

Treasurer John Moorlach mentioned at a talk on election day, which I

wrote about two weeks ago.)

Once the economy ship is righted, Schwarzenegger will be able to

focus on other issues, Campbell said. Among them is driver’s licenses

for immigrants -- which, addressing Newport’s Mayor Steve Bromberg,

Campbell said “is not about immigration, and I know this can be a

sensitive issue in Newport Beach, Mr. Mayor,” in a reference to

Councilman Dick Nichols’ comments about Mexicans on Corona del Mar

State Beach. Others are health care, education, energy contracts and

a spending cap for the government.

Campbell’s talk wasn’t all seriousness. He did give a few tips for

those wanting to get on board the “Join Arnold” brigade and maybe

earn an appointed position.

“You must be able to do 50 one-arm push-ups. You must be able to

spell Schwarzenegger.” (I’m happy to report that, while I can’t do

the former, a short political season of writing our governor elect’s

last name proves I can do the latter. The trick? It’s two g’s, one

n.)

* S.J. CAHN is the managing editor. He can be reached at (949)

574-4233 or by e-mail at [email protected].