`YEAR OF THE DEAL' PRODUCTIVE GOP GOVERNOR, DEM LAWMAKERS COMPROMISED ON ISSUES.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD and STEVE GEISSINGER Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- Despite the threat of election-year politics, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators worked together this year with a rare degree of cooperation, resulting in one of the most productive sessions in years, lawmakers and analysts said.

The collaborative attitude led to deals on a wide range of issues in the Legislature's waning days, including raising the minimum wage, reducing global warming and increasing competition in the cable industry.

Schwarzenegger declared it ``an incredibly productive legislative session, one of the most productive in decades.''

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said Democrats put aside politics.

``We did it by putting progress ahead of politics,'' Nunez said.

``Think about that for a second. In the context of what should have been a tumultuous political year -- where in a Democratic state you have a Republican governor and a Democratic Party eager to take back that top job in California -- we got all these things done.''

The cooperation was so great that some Republican lawmakers left unhappy, feeling that the governor's election-year attitude led him to work more with Democrats than his own party.

``The governor largely agreed to the Democratic agenda,'' said Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills. ``There was very little bipartisan participation. And largely the Republican caucuses (in both houses) were ignored.''

Richman attributed the attitude partly to the fact that it is an election year and the governor needs Democratic votes to get re-elected.

In fact, the Legislature's cooperation with the governor poses a dilemma for some Democrats.

Nunez, for example, is a co-chairman of Democratic candidate Phil Angelides' campaign, but said he intends to campaign with Schwarzenegger to promote the bond package this fall, even as he works to unseat the governor from his job.

A campaign spokesman for Angelides said the damage to his candidacy will be minimal because voters will look beyond this legislative session on Nov. 7.

``At the end of the day, people are not going to cast their vote for governor based on what the Legislature did or did not do,'' Angelides campaign spokesman Nick Papas said. ``This race is about a clear choice between candidates with vastly different values.''

Independent analysts agreed with positive assessments.

``It was the most productive session, I think, in probably 20 years,'' said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at California State University, Sacramento.

``You have a Democratically controlled Legislature and a Republican governor, but I think, for whatever reason, they decided it was actually time to get some work done,'' O'Connor said.

``I think Schwarzenegger did resolve conflicts and broker deals to the point this really was the year of the deal -- much to Phil Angelides' chagrin.''

Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers struck deals on legislation to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming, hike the minimum wage and cut prescription drug costs for the poor.

The Legislature also sent Schwarzenegger a bill that would deregulate cable TV so telecommunications firms can compete and a measure that would require drivers to use hands-free cell-phone devices by 2008, though the governor has not indicated whether he will sign those two measures.

Earlier this year, the Legislature sent the governor an on-time budget and negotiated a $37 billion infrastructure bond package for the November ballot.

There were also some failures. Schwarzenegger was unable to win approval of Indian gaming pacts to add nearly 20,000 slot machines, reform of overcrowded prisons and a measure to revamp political-boundary redistricting.

Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, called it a ``textbook year.''

``This year wasn't much about them and us,'' Perata said at a Capitol news conference. ``This year, we sort of defied the political laws of physics.

``If you were teaching civics, this is what you'd put up on the board and say, This is how the Legislature should work.''

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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