BATTLING THE IDEOLOGUES ARNOLD ONE OF FEW MODERATES IN SACRAMENTO.

Byline: JILL STEWART  Capitol Punishment

I'M a fiscally conservative Democrat who's pro-choice, pro-environment, anti-gun, and thinks our anti-capitalist, business-hating and increasingly leftist California Democratic Party is a joke. You may find me odd. But history shows that most Californians are pragmatic moderates who vote issue-by-issue.

Yet few nonideologues are seen in the ``news at 11'' tussle over reforms proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's either sold out to Republicans and wants to hurt nurses, or he's about to cave to Democrats. In any case, he's up to no good.

His plan to create 401(k)-style pensions won't affect a single one of California's roughly 325,000 current state workers. You wouldn't know, though, from the almost hysterical media focus on protesters who will ``lose'' their pensions, that the reform won't affect a soul hired before mid-2007, and current pensions aren't touched.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer, Treasurer Phil Angelides and Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell are all over TV accusing Arnold of trying to decimate schools. Yes, I'm sure that's his hope in challenging a fossilized system for employing teachers that keeps California at the bottom in student achievement - right above Mississippi.

If we had some light and a lot less heat, we could discuss which reforms make sense. Yet we get only heat, and here's why: By my count, fewer than 10 moderates exist among California's 120 legislators and six most powerful elected leaders.

Arnold is one. Woo hoo. With fewer than 10 nonideologues, we can't even have the conversation. Only a handful don't genuflect to rigid party orthodoxy, including Democratic Controller Steve Westly, Democratic Assemblymen Joe Canciamilla and Joe Nation, Republican Assemblyman Keith Richman, Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado - and maybe one or two others. The lack of a pragmatic elite in Sacramento means the media have nothing to report but partisan fakery. Yet even as the governor wars with public labor unions, he quietly continues to govern from the center.

By my rough count (not scientific), without fanfare Schwarzenegger is pursuing his bipartisan mission, appointing about one-third Democrats to hundreds of powerful jobs and judgeships.

The last California governors to act in a bipartisan way were Republican Ronald Reagan and Democrat Pat Brown, a generation ago. Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies, says Reagan and Brown shared an attitude ``that you get the best person for the job,'' regardless of party. But later, ugly partisanship spread to statehouses, driven by party hacks in Washington, D.C., like Republican Newt Gingrich and Democrat Barbara Boxer. George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson pushed partisan judgeships; Gray Davis filled Sacramento with party yes-men.

Davis, the worst of them, left the wreckage you might expect. In 2002, Davis' Employment Development Department lost $280 million in fake unemployment claims paid to cheaters - four times more than under Wilson. This complex department was run by Davis crony Michael Bernick, a lawyer and supporter handed a crucial state job.

In 2002 and 2003, respectively, Davis lost $114 million and $64 million - fines levied by the feds for failing to follow food stamp rules. The state's massive welfare department was run by Davis partisan Rita Saenz, who before overseeing 4,600 workers ran a small business that gave seminars.

Schwarzenegger's insistence on bipartisanship goes largely ignored by the media, since it's not hot-headed or controversial. ``What the governor is doing is unusual,'' says Hodson. ``It's indicative of his attitude that one of his highest appointments is David DeLuz, a Democrat and former staff director of the Sacramento NAACP. He's a deputy appointments secretary - probably one of the few times in the last 15 years that you see an appointments secretary from the opposing party.''

Sniping conservatives don't like Schwarzenegger surrounding himself with people who disagree. But Schwarzenegger is a subversive, defying both parties. That's scary for ideologues - and risky for Arnold. The governor faces two looming hurdles. First, the war he launched against spend-it-all public unions on pension reform, teacher pay and budget controls could grow too ugly for rational debate. If that happens - and clearly, the media are making the evening news as overwrought as possible - Schwarzenegger's reforms will lose.

Second is the threat to Schwarzenegger himself. Moderates Davis and Wilson were transformed by the fiery partisan cauldron that melts down centrists, spitting out leaders unrecognizable from those elected. Schwarzenegger, perched upon the rim of the cauldron, may wonder who's left to honestly debate why California's sad public schools and other failing systems are soaking up more money than ever before, yet can show little for it. He may despair the lack of moderate, pragmatic California institutions who can further these critical debates.

As scrappy as he's feeling, he should resist partisan seduction. He needs to speak fairly, and evenly, to the one moderate institution capable of having an honest debate.

We call them voters.

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(color) no caption (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Doug Griswold/San Jose Mercury News