EDITORIAL CALIFORNIA FIRST! BIPARTISAN TEAM ARNOLD GIVES HOPE OF A NEW ERA FOR CALIFORNIA.

GOVERNOR-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger's bipartisan transition team includes some of the state's most-dynamic, civic-minded people, as well as a wealth of experience - a promising start for the ``people's governor'' and his war against ``politics as usual.''

Team Arnold has reached beyond traditional - and polarizing - ideological divisions to bring in those representing the left, the right and the center.

He tapped business people and community activists, professors and policy analysts, former and current mayors - including Los Angeles' own Mayor James Hahn and former Mayor Richard Riordan - political friends and onetime rivals.

This is exactly the kind of team that can take the hopes and promises for a better state and make them real. Only with across-the-aisle cooperation can the new governor hope to come close to achieving his campaign promises.

This is how it begins, but Schwarzenegger must do more than put together a dream team. There must be an open and honest debate among these players - whether in committees or small strategy sessions - that addresses the underlying problems that have brought the state to the unprecedented event of a recall.

Topping the list of team members is Florida budget director Donna Arduin, a crack numbers-cruncher on leave from her permanent job to help the transition in the first few months. Her task is to make good on Schwarzenegger's promise to audit the state's books.

Most likely, she will craft a plan to uncover all the various funding schemes teetering like a house of cards and restructure the debt into a manageable bill.

The first step to getting anything done is bringing the state's budget under control, and Schwarzenegger has wisely cast this as his foremost goal. It also shows that, beyond the facade of the ``Terminator,'' there's some solid planning going on.

With apologies to another Hollywood icon, this could be the beginning of a beautiful era for the Golden State. An era in which leaders put what's best for the state's people before their own political ambitions and private interests - an era when California always comes first.