ARNOLD ON THE HOT SEAT NOW? DEMS WANT TO KNOW ABOUT TERROR FUNDS.

Byline: Steve Geissinger Sacramento Bureau

With one of their own facing a crucial moment Thursday, Democrats counterattacked Tuesday with a probe of the Schwarzenegger administration's use of federal anti-terrorism funds as part of new tactics in an intensifying partisan war, analysts said.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, an embattled San Francisco Democrat, will testify under oath Thursday about whether he improperly used federal voting funds to promote fellow party members and himself.

``It is indeed not a coincidence that Democrats are calling for a probe of how the governor has used federal terrorism dollars just two days before Shelley testifies,'' said David McCuan, a political science professor at California State University, Sonoma.

The legislative hearing will be Shelley's first public appearance to defend himself after a six-month period in which he has been accused of a series of other improprieties, as well.

On Tuesday, Assemblyman Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, and the Senate launched legislative investigations into how the Republican governor's administration has used nearly $300 million in federal bio-terrorism grants.

The speaker's aides said the move stems from concerns that California is lagging in its preparation for a possible bio-terrorist attack. Democrats, calling for additional federal allocations of all sorts to help cope with the state's multibillion-dollar deficit, also want to make sure that previous grants have been properly used, according to the aides.

Democratic lawmakers said the timing was coincidental, not political. It came just before Shelley's testimony and shortly after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger accused the Democratic-dominated Legislature of failing to act on his budget- and government-reform agenda.

But several independent political analysts dismissed Democrats' assertion.

``Wasn't it James Bond who said there's no such thing as a coincidence?'' asked Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies in Sacramento.

Steve Geissinger, [phone]

sgeissinger(at)angnewspapers.com