Schwarzenegger blinked: California's movie star governor has taken a bipartisan tack that has surprised both parties.

• Author: Weintrub, Daniel

Arnold Schwarzenegger faced a crucial turning point early in his young administration as governor of California. It was the first Friday in December, three weeks after the world-famous actor had taken office, and the Legislature had just rejected his call for a strict new constitutional limit on future government spending. The rookie governor dearly wanted the spending limit as a companion to a $15 billion bond measure he was pushing to stabilize the state's shaky finances. And he had vowed to take his agenda directly to the people, via an initiative, if the Legislature wouldn't place his measures on the ballot for him.

BACK TO THE TABLE

But rather than follow through with his bold threat, Schwarzenegger blinked. After a weekend of deliberation with his closest advisers, including his wife, Maria Shriver, the Republican governor returned to the negotiating table. Within days he agreed to a modified proposal drafted by Democrats that did not limit spending, but created a budget reserve and some modest new limits on borrowing. He called it his "balanced budget amendment" and cheerily declared victory, not only for himself but for the spirit of bipartisanship that had long been absent from the California Capitol.

The turnaround left Republican lawmakers grumbling. Hoping that Schwarzenegger would ride the momentum of the historic recall election into a fundamental realignment of California politics, many thought he had lost that opportunity by agreeing so readily with the legislative majority he had just spent the entire campaign attacking.

"If he had gone to the ballot he would have got the spending limit, and the Democrats wouldn't have been happy," said Assemblyman Ray Haynes, a Republican from Riverside County who is generally a fan of the governor. "Politics is not about loving each other. The essence of politics is win or lose. It's not business, where in order to make a deal both sides have to win."

But it was exactly that winner-take-all mentality that had led California government into a deeply partisan, ideological standoff. And it was that attitude that Schwarzenegger decided he wanted to change.

BIPARTISAN BUDGETING

With his newfound allies from the other side of the aisle, Schwarzenegger launched a bipartisan campaign for voter approval of the two pieces of what he called his economic recovery plan: the balanced budget amendment and the far more important bond measure that would pay off the state's existing debt and provide a cushion to help close the budget shortfall in the summer of 2004. He scheduled rallies throughout the state, appearing with...