The Very Partisan Pattern to Schwarzenegger Vetoes in 2007

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Democratic Authored Bills Vetoed Over 30% of Time
Republican Bill Veto Rate Under 6%

By Frank D. Russo

For all the talk about post-partisanship, a review of 954 bills that arrived on his desk during the first half of the 2007-08 legislative session shows that he vetoed 197 of the 640 Democratic authored measures that passed and only 13 of the 224 bills presented to him. That means that if you were a Democratic author, you had a 6 times greater likelihood of your bills being vetoed.

Another 90 bills passed to the Governor were "committee bills," authored by neither Democrats or Republicans and in virtually all cases were the product of unanimous committee votes, many of them technical cleanup bills to maintain sections of California law. On those committee bills, Schwarzenegger signed 86 and vetoed 4, for a 4.4% veto record.

The pattern followed by Schwarzenegger showed an increasing veto rate after the session ended in the wee hours of September 12 than before. After they adjourned, Governor Schwarzenegger used 205 of the 214 vetoes he wielded this year.

After the legislature adjourned, he vetoed 190 of the Democratic authored bills (34.8%), 12 of 123 Republican bills (8.9%) and 3 of 54 committee bills or 5.3%.

While the legislature was still in session, he vetoed 7 of 94 Democratic bills (7.4%), 1 of the 89 Republican bills (1.1%), and 1 of the 33 committee bills (3%) for an overall score of 4.2% in vetoes.

All in all, he vetoed a little above 22% of all bills to reach his desk. On the final day he had to take action, September 14, 2007, he signed 81 bills and vetoed 72. All in all 92% of the vetoes used by Schwarzenegger were of Democratic bills and only 6% were applied to Republican measures.

There have been many attempts to describe the pattern of Schwarzenegger vetoes and bill signings. While he signed some bills that were not expected and vetoed others to the surprise of many, it is difficult to feather out and categorize his overall approach in a number of areas.