Schrag on Schwarzenegger at the Exact Midpoint of His Tenure as Governor--Is Our Action Figure Taking Care of California's Munda

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Peter Schrag

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week reached the exact midpoint of his scheduled seven years and 44 days in office. Not a bad moment to assess a tenure that's been almost as extraordinary, if not bizarre, as the way he achieved it.

For much of the past 18 months, he's gotten marks that have been as good as they were awful at the time of his special election disaster in November 2005. The national press loves him, a housebroken Republican who supports stem cell research, abortion rights, universal health care and, above all, recognizes the danger of global warming.

Last week, New York Times columnist Timothy Egan wrote a piece declaring that they could have used him at the G8 summit. Arnold, he said, has shown the rest of the world "that not all Americans are in the last century on the big issues of the day."

But if he's so today on the global stage, making clean air deals with Canadians and Brits -- "EuroArnold, at home in the pragmatic politics of Tony Blair (and German Chancellor Angela) Merkel," as Egan put it -- the mundane affairs of the state he's supposed to govern and that he vowed to turn upside down look as tawdry as they did in 2003.

The big issues of the moment -- the budget, redistricting reform and term limits changes -- are a house of mirrors in which nothing is quite what it seems. Among the governor's budget solutions is to lease the state lottery to a private operator and sell EdFund, the state's student loan guarantee agency, to a private buyer for a quick billion to help reduce the deficit.

A private operator can run the lottery more efficiently, he argues, and increase per capita sales, which are low compared to most other states -- meaning it will bring more suckers into the tent where they'll drop their money on games rather than buying something useful. That could increase lottery revenues for schools, but since the lottery generates a bare 2 percent of the school budget, no increase means much.