ARNOLD VETOES IRAQ ADVISORY VOTE BILL CALLED FOR IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL.

Byline: STEVEN HARMON

MediaNews Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- In a last-minute veto, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied voters an opportunity at the ballot box to express their views on the war in Iraq - and in doing so continued to keep his own views on the war to himself.

Just before the deadline of midnight Tuesday, the governor rejected Senate Bill 924, which would have allowed voters to call for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Schwarzenegger called the war a federal issue and also cited his opposition to nonbinding advisory legislation. The measure would have appeared on the Feb. 5 ballot with the presidential primaries.

"Placing a nonbinding resolution on Iraq on the same ballot," Schwarzenegger wrote in his veto message, "when it carries no weight or authority, would only further divide voters and shift attention from other critical issues that must be addressed."

The author of the bill, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, scoffed at the notion that Schwarzenegger was worried about further dividing voters on the war.

"It's ironic that the governor's message said that it would be too divisive," Perata said. "He's obviously not paying attention to the effect Iraq is having on this country."

Other critics said Schwarzenegger's veto showed a fear that California's opposition to the war would put him in an awkward position with President George W. Bush.

"It seems like he doesn't want the rest of the country to know how California feels about the war," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of San Francisco-based CodePink, a women's peace organization. "It's a way to hide the sentiment of California residents and to cover up for George Bush."

The veto came on the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks and in the same week that the top U.S. military commander in Iraq and the top U.S. diplomat there presented their appraisals of the war to Congress.

Schwarzenegger had to weigh angering anti-war voters against the risk of further alienating his Republican Party base.

"He's a unique governor who is not afraid to make his own decisions," said Ron Nehring, the chairman of the state Republican Party. "This would have been such a brazenly political and cynical stunt that ... certainly it was a proper decision that recognizes that conducting foreign policy by state initiative is not the way the world's superpower should conduct its foreign affairs and defense policy."

A recent Field Poll showed that 58 percent of Californians supported setting a deadline to begin withdrawing troops. Democrats (75 percent) and independents (68 percent) were far more supportive of a withdrawal than Republicans (30 percent).

sharmon(at)cctimes.com

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