BIG DEAL JUDGE THROWS WRENCH INTO ARNOLD-ANTONIO SUCCESSION SCENARIO.

Byline: THOMAS D. ELIAS

IT was one of the most obvious unspoken agreements in the history of California politics: The charismatic Democratic mayor of Los Angeles would do little for last year's Democratic candidate for governor. In return, the Republican governor would OK a plan for him to take over much of the huge Los Angeles Unified School District.

So Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, by far the most prominent and influential Latino politician in California, sat on his hands through most of the fall campaign, even taking off to China and South Korea for three of the five weeks just before Election Day.

And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation giving Villaraigosa and a token ``council of mayors'' from smaller cities absolute control over 36 poor-performing city schools and veto power over hiring school superintendents for the entire district, the second-largest in America with 650,000 students.

This was part of the image of inevitability Villaraigosa wants to project about his likely candidacy for governor in 2010, when current law will see Schwarzenegger termed out. Since his election in 2005, former Assembly Speaker Villaraigosa had been a golden boy, gracing the covers of national newsmagazines, starring in TV news segments and getting movie-star treatment wherever he goes.

He has overshadowed other possible 2010 Democratic candidates. People like Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and Treasurer Bill Lockyer and former state Controller Steve Westly and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom have seemed intimidated by the Villaraigosa aura, at least.

But the Villaraigosa balloon may have been punctured by the recent decision of a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, who found the mayor's takeover of even part of the school district thoroughly unconstitutional. Not only is there often a conflict of interest between city and school district needs, ruled Judge Dzintra Janavs, but the Legislature and governor have no authority to hand over school districts to anyone, willy-nilly.

Allowing lawmakers to take school districts out of the hands of school boards elected by the public to oversee them is unconstitutional, she found. Letting them do it now might in the future allow them to turn school districts over to Jiffy Lube or any other unrelated outfit their whims favored, she said.

Janavs surely knew how strongly Schwarzenegger supported the mayoral power grab, and that made her move even more meaningful. For Schwarzenegger rescued the judge from oblivion last June after she was defeated for re-election by a bagel-shop owner who invested significant money in exploiting her odd name. No sooner were those election results certified than Schwarzenegger reappointed Janavs to the bench on the basis of her reputation for integrity and top-notch performance.

In a mild slap at her benefactor, Janavs stated the obvious: ``There is substantial evidence that (the Villaraigosa bill's) passage was the result of political compromise.'' With that shorthand, the judge was saying she knew full well this bill keynoted an under-the-table deal neither the mayor nor the governor has been willing to admit.

But this kind of irony did not for a moment cool the hubris of Villaraigosa. After the judge essentially called it a no-brainer to find the mayor's pet law unconstitutional, Villaraigosa immediately said he would appeal. And he added that he had quickly spoken to his protege, current Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, about having the Legislature do a full audit of the LAUSD to find wasted funds.

Never mind how much time and money such an audit itself might waste. The sole purpose of an audit would be political revenge against school officials who had the temerity to challenge the mayor's pet law in court.

If all this doesn't encourage other potential entrants in the 2010 gubernatorial derby, it's hard to say what could. For here we have the early front-runner caught in an obviously unconstitutional deal with a governor he nominally opposed. Voters generally don't like politicians who try to overreach the power that's already theirs, and any skillful opponent can be counted on to use this decision against Villaraigosa.

That probably won't be nearly enough ammunition to fuel a credible attempt to oppose his re-election as mayor in 2009, but it surely ought to be enough to reopen a gubernatorial succession race that previously looked like it was locked up.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) no caption (Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa)

(2 -- color) SCHWARZENEGGER

(3 -- color) VILLARAIGOSA