As the Governor travels back from China, and spends the Thanksgiving Holiday with his family, I
am sure that he will do a lot of reflecting on the Special Election results and what they mean for California — and for his own policy and political goals.
In light of this, I have penned an open letter to Governor Schwarzenegger which appears in Capitol Weekly today. The basic premise is this: Empower the GOP caucuses to assist you in dealing with the Democrat-controlled legislature. How would he do this? By announcing that he will not sign any bill that comes across his desk unless it got their with at least a majority vote of the Republicans in both the State Senate and the State Assembly. This would immediate provide relevance to our Republican legislators who have been seemingly relegated to ‘bystander status’ as Perata, Nunes and the Dems have preferred to do work without meaningful input from the Republicans in the legislature.
Here is the beginning of my column:
When you return home from China, you
will find that the same special interests that had a stranglehold on the Legislature before the special election have now tightened their grip. They will be more emboldened than ever. Not only will they maintain the currentdysfunctional status quo, but they will actual have set an aggressive program into play, once again putting their narrow agendas ahead of the best interests of the people of California.
The first thing that I would suggest you do as you re-engage with the Legislature is meet with the full membership of both the state Senate and Assembly Republican Caucuses. They are filled with great, capable and innovative thinkers. Empower them by telling them you will veto any bill that reaches your desk without majority support from each of their caucuses.
This will immediately and significantly empower these dozens of legislators to be able to work with their Democrat colleagues, instead of being relegated to the sidelines. Tell your Republican legislators that you expect great things of them, but that you have two simple rules – you will not allow a tax or fee increase, and you will not allow any increase in spending in one area of state government unless they are accompanied with an
equal or greater decrease in spending in another area. Challenge them to be creative, and responsible.
You can read the whole column here.