EDITORIAL FINDING COMMON GROUND.

GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger took to the road last week to sell the people on his special election in November. His message: We must reform the state government, and this is how we have to do it because Democrats stand in the way of compromise.

The Democratic leadership in the state Legislature and their political allies, the unions, have stepped up their campaign against the governor, and anything he does. Their message: It's the governor who stands in the way of compromise.

But even as they publicly draw the lines in what is being portrayed as battle royal for California's future, both sides claim they still are open to negotiating a deal. In fact, last week they met in private to see if there's a chance for a bipartisan initiative that both Republicans and Democrats can present to the people in November.

``I think a deal on the whole enchilada can still be worked out,'' Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuez told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday.

``It's still doable,'' Arnold said Friday during an editorial board meeting with the Daily News.

That's good news. California has a host of larger issues - from health care to housing, transportation and education - that it must deal with. But until some procedural matters are decided, that will never happen.

None of Schwarzenegger's three measures on the November special election should be odious to his Democrat colleagues in principle: The Legislature has endorsed a plan for an independent panel to redraw legislative districts. The two sides only quibble over what's a more realistic target date, 2006 or 2010. The governor has already given up on merit pay for teachers; his initiative now only would make them wait longer for tenure. And his budget reform plan would merely restrict spending to an average of the three previous years' revenue increases.

These aren't issues that ought to polarize the leadership of the state at such a crucial time. This is a partisan power struggle that's surely going to result in hundreds of millions of dollars in a blitz of advertising.

But it's not too late for a compromise. Schwarzenegger and legislators have until August to put aside their theatrics and hammer out an agreement that both sides can get behind and sell to the public. That would help restore everyone's reputation as public servants.