ARNOLD CAN'T SWAY TWO SENATORS GOP NOT BUDGING ON BUDGET PLAN.

Byline: MIKE ZAPLER

MediaNews Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- He's graced the covers of Time and Newsweek, and is a frequent guest on political TV shows. His appearance at a fundraiser this month brought in $1.6 million for the Florida GOP.

But back in California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can't persuade just two senators in his own party to vote for a state budget that is nearly four weeks overdue. Far from him being treated like a celebrity, Schwarzenegger's popularity among Republican legislators and activists seems to have ebbed to a new low.

Both Schwarzenegger and GOP senators insist their differences are philosophical, not personal. Still, the 15 Republican holdouts have concluded that they have more to gain by defying the governor than by siding with him.

"There's been an alienation between Arnold and the Republican caucus," said Allan Hoffenblum, a GOP analyst and publisher of the California Target Book, which handicaps state and federal legislative races. "His moderate positions on the environment and other things have alienated the hard-core right."

After a politically damaging campaign in 2005, when he pushed for a slate of conservative initiatives that was rebuffed by voters, Schwarzenegger veered hard to the left. He cut deals with Democrats to dramatically curb greenhouse-gas emissions and raise the minimum wage.

While the governor's shift ensured his re-election and thrust him back in the national media spotlight, it also tarnished his standing among Republican lawmakers and activists.

"With the party base, I think there's a bit of chagrin that we elected a fiscal conservative who got into office and completely changed," said conservative blogger Jon Fleischman.

The budget standoff, of course, isn't only about Schwarzenegger. While Democrats hold a simple majority in both houses of the Legislature, Republicans have unusual power over the budget because it requires a two-thirds majority vote -- six GOP votes in the Assembly and those two elusive Republican votes in the Senate.

The governor's own aides say his situation is nothing new. Schwarzenegger's predecessors, Gray Davis and Pete Wilson, both at times clashed with legislators from their own parties.

"This is not unique to Arnold Schwarzenegger," said the governor's communications director, Adam Mendelsohn.

Dan Schnur, a longtime Republican observer who was an aide to Wilson, agreed.

"The biggest difference is not the political dynamic but the size of the platform," Schnur said. Before, the issues on which governors split with their parties "never got them on the cover of national magazines."

Still, some of Schwarzenegger's problem with the party might be self-inflicted. Fleischman, whose blog has served as a forum for GOP senators to put their resistance to the budget in writing, said there's a sense that the governor only comes to Republicans when he needs them.

As estranged as Schwarzenegger might seem to be from GOP senators, he is not without leverage. He remains hugely popular among registered Republicans -- a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California pegged his approval rating within the party at 75 percent -- and is by far the party's most prolific fundraiser. Losing his money-raising abilities could be devastating to the GOP, which is reportedly millions of dollars in debt.

Schwarzenegger also could help decide the fate of transportation and water projects that Republican legislators covet.

mzapler(at)mercurynews.com

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