Governor Has Warm Words for Ex-GOP Rival McClintock

CARPINTERIA, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Sen. Tom McClintock, an odd couple of Republican allies, rallied round the GOP on Thursday as the governor spoke at a polo match fundraiser for his rival in last year’s recall election.

Speaking to reporters, Schwarzenegger praised McClintock -- a maverick who split the Republican vote in October’s recall and a leading critic of the governor’s budget plan -- as an ally whose help he needed to solve the state budget crisis.

“He’s a friend who is helping to make sure we get the budget straightened out,” Schwarzenegger said during a $1,000-a-plate event at hotel magnate Patrick M. Nesbitt’s Bella Vista Ranch near Santa Barbara. “Tom is going to help me in the battle for the budget ... I need a lot of good Republican support.”

Schwarzenegger downplayed any differences with McClintock.

“The Republican Party is united,” said the governor, standing should to shoulder with his former opponent. “That doesn’t mean we all have the same opinions.” McClintock, a favorite for reelection in the heavily Republican 19th Senate District and a potential candidate for state controller or lieutenant governor in 2006, said he appreciated Schwarzenegger’s help in paying off a debt from his narrow loss in the 2002 controller’s race.

“It was very gracious for him to volunteer to do it after the [recall] election,” said the veteran Thousand Oaks lawmaker, “and even more gracious for him to follow through.”

McClintock said the governor was speaking at fundraisers for Republican legislative candidates up and down the state.

“It sure makes life a lot easier having him on my side,” McClintock said as he watched a white Hummer limousine shuttle VIPs to a mansion-like barn where polo ponies are stabled.

The dinner, which followed an afternoon polo match, was easily the most lucrative campaign event McClintock had ever hosted. He said he expected to raise about $400,000.

McClintock, whose back-bench criticisms have angered governors of both major parties for two decades, said he intended to remain a foil of the new governor, especially on budget matters. McClintock wrote the ballot argument against Schwarzenegger’s Proposition 57, which voters passed in March, allowing the state to borrow $15 billion to pay old debts and balance the 2004-05 budget.

Yet, McClintock said, Schwarzenegger was doing much better than his predecessor: “Overall, I believe he’s a huge improvement over Gray Davis and is moving the state in the right direction.”

Despite past criticisms, McClintock said he appreciated Schwarzenegger’s early successes -- workers’ compensation reform, a rollback of the vehicle license tax and the repeal of a law that would have given driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. McClintock backed all three initiatives during the recall campaign.

“He has been much better at working with the Legislature than I would have been,” McClintock said. “He’s a natural leader and a very charming individual. He’s been able to engage the Legislature more than any governor I’ve seen.... A lot of people are rooting for him, and I’m one of them.”

Potentially, Schwarzenegger’s boldest money-saving reform could be the wholesale restructuring of state government that was proposed by McClintock years ago and is now being studied by a special commission in Sacramento, the senator said. The reform plan recommends attacking Medi-Cal fraud, consolidating services such as legal work now spread across dozens of agencies and eliminating more than 100 commissions and boards.

Schwarzenegger is also showing courage, McClintock said, in demanding that the powerful state prison guards union renegotiate a lucrative contract awarded by Davis and the Legislature, with McClintock as the only dissenting vote.

“That’s not a bad record for six months in office,” McClintock said.

While McClintock would not comment on the prospect, aides said Thursday that the senator was being encouraged to run for lieutenant governor in 2006 and that polls showed a Schwarzenegger-McClintock ticket would be hugely popular.

It seemed unlikely last fall that Schwarzenegger and McClintock would end up expressing support for one another.

Indeed, Schwarzenegger backers threatened to run a well-funded Republican moderate against McClintock in his Senate primary if he stayed in the gubernatorial race. They feared he might siphon off enough conservative Republican votes to throw the election to Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.

But after McClintock became the darling of conservatives nationwide and Schwarzenegger easily defeated Bustamante, the governor-elect discouraged a potential McClintock challenger from running, then offered to host a fundraiser for McClintock.

McClintock is opposed in the November general election by Democrat Paul Graber, a high school government and history teacher in the San Fernando Valley. “I’m hoping to raise $50,000 for the general,” Graber said this week. “We’re going to knock on doors and walk precincts. It’s a long shot, but it’s a shot.”

One potential opponent, Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), declined to challenge the incumbent because the realigned 19th District has a 42% to 37% Republican advantage in registered voters.

The district stretches from Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County through much of Ventura County and beyond Lompoc in Santa Barbara County.