ARNOLD TO MEET WITH REPS GOVERNOR HEADS TO D.C. TO FIGHT MILITARY BASE CLOSINGS.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - During their first policy session since he was elected, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will meet today with California's congressional delegation, focusing on ways to protect the state's military bases from closure.

Although the Republican governor has traveled to Washington, D.C., in the past and met briefly with lawmakers, they've never officially discussed the future of the Golden State. But the 53-member delegation will sit down this afternoon with the Republican governor for a two-hour get-together in the U.S. Capitol, although Democrats groused Wednesday that Schwarzenegger's trip is more showbiz than real biz.

``The governor will have a canned program,'' predicted Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks. ``Each member's opportunity to talk will be measured in seconds, not minutes.''

Sherman said the base realignment and closure process is important to the state, but not what the delegation needs to discuss today. Democrats had sought a strategy session on making up the $50 billion that a new report says California is shortchanged each year by Washington.

``California is getting screwed out of $50 billion, and we should be dealing with that now,'' Sherman said. ``BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) is way off into the future.''

And in a letter sent this week to Schwarzenegger, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, chairwoman of the California House Democrats, chastised him for ``rejecting'' Democrat recommendations for meeting topics. She also took a jab at the governor's yet-unrealized promise to become the ``Collectinator'' of federal funds.

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson dismissed the criticism as partisan bickering.

``That partisan positioning doesn't foster the sense of cooperation that the delegation needs to advocate effectively for California,'' she said.

Thompson noted that March is the deadline for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to forward his recommendations for military base closures and realignments to the Base Closure Commission.

``It's a crucial time for BRAC, and it is something that truly can unify the delegation'' she said. ``It's absolutely one of the central reasons of timing for being back there right now.''

Former Bill Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta, who is co-chairing Schwarzenegger's 18-member base advisory council, will join the delegation today and recommend strategies for saving as many of California's remaining 62 bases as possible.

The state lost nearly 30 bases in previous rounds of base closures in the 1980s and 1990s, including the Long Beach Naval Station, Naval Shipyard and Naval Hospital; Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino; George Air Force Base in Victorville; and the El Toro and Tustin Marine Corps air stations.

That resulted in the loss of about 82,000 military and civilian jobs in California, or about 70 percent of the nationwide manpower reduction from those rounds of base closings.

``We want to make sure the delegation is unified,'' Panetta said. ``What I have to do is remind them of the lessons of the past. Basically, California was piecemeal, and the state took the largest hit. We just have to learn from that lesson.''

Panetta said that some closures will probably be unavoidable, but the delegation must agree on the high-priority bases that most deserve to be saved. That list, he said, should include the Los Angeles Air Force Base near Los Angeles International Airport.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, whose district includes Los Angeles AFB, agreed.

``I think that the governor and our delegation all need to be on the same page,'' she said. ``We're going to have to make some tough choices, and tomorrow is the start of that.''

The meeting also will touch on Medicaid - President George W. Bush's proposed cuts would slash $500 million in federal funds to California next year - as well as funding for homeland security, immigration and science research.

The meeting will be held in the U.S. Capitol in a committee room that is home turf to a Schwarzenegger ally, Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora.

Lofgren and other Democrats complained that the room is too small for the large delegation and that the two hours Schwarzenegger has set aside for the bipartisan meeting is too short.

Thompson said she thinks Democrats have nothing to worry about.

``It's certainly not going to be the governor giving a polemic discussion,'' she said. ``In order to build a relationship, there has to be a give-and-take.''

Added Panetta, a former California Democratic House member himself, ``I suspect with a delegation as big as ours there's going to be give-and-take whether we like it or not.''

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com