Hard times ahead for Schwarzenegger

LOS ANGELES -- A week ago, then-candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger laid out a plan for his first 100 days that was long on ambition but short on details. Now he is going to have to deliver.\nThe action hero has promised to fix California's ailing economy without raising taxes and while preserving education funding, which accounts for 40 percent of the state budget.\nBut his proposals will have to go through a legislature controlled by Democrats angry over what some of them consider a hostile takeover of the state's top political job. And he will have to quickly deliver a budget that can close a deficit of at least $8 billion.\nThe Republican actor planned to discuss some of his policy goals and the transfer of power at a Wednesday afternoon news conference, the day after snatching power from Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. He will be sworn in by mid-November.\nIt is an unusually fast transition, particularly for a political neophyte who declared his candidacy just two months ago.\n"The last 60 days has been pretty difficult as well, but I would say there's probably never been a governor-elect who's stepped into a situation with the challenges he'll be confronting here in California. But that's why he wanted the job," spokesman Rob Stutzman said.\nSchwarzenegger's transition team is being headed by Republican Rep. David Dreier.\nSchwarzenegger takes office as the Republican Party's lone statewide officeholder in a state where the congressional delegation and both houses of the legislature are heavily Democratic.\nAnd while the voters gave Schwarzenegger a resounding victory, they lean Democratic, too -- 44 percent to 35 percent Republican.\n"I think he's in for a rude awakening to the fact that he won't be able to get done all the things he has said because politics just doesn't work that way," said Fresno resident Don Lesher, 71, a registered Democrat who voted yes on the recall and for Republican Tom McClintock. "Unfortunately, everybody is voting along party lines, rather than what's best for the state."\nStill, more voters supported Schwarzenegger, 3.6 million, than voted against recalling Davis, 3.5 million -- an outcome Schwarzenegger aides touted as a mandate after weeks of predictions from Democrats that the winner might triumph with a small percentage of the vote.\n"The fact that he got more votes than Gray Davis puts him in a position of strength," said Allan Hoffenblum, a GOP consultant. "There are going to be some Democrats up there who are going to want to play ball reasonably with Arnold Schwarzenegger."\nWith 99 percent of precincts reporting, Schwarzenegger had 3,675,317 votes, compared with 2,415,098 for Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. On the recall question, 4,332,808 voters, or 55.1 percent, were in favor of ousting Davis, while 3,531,091, or 44.9 percent were opposed.\nBustamante, Schwarzenegger's only major Democratic opponent on the recall ballot, and other Democratic officeholders were quick to say they would work with the new governor. But they also said he needed to get to work on his plans.\n"With the campaign now behind him, Gov.-elect Schwarzenegger has the obligation and responsibility to lay out how he will put our fiscal house in order and repair the economy, and it's going to be a tall order," state Treasurer Phil Angelides said, while pledging to do his "level best" to work with Schwarzenegger.\nBut even if lawmakers and voters grant him a honeymoon period, Schwarzenegger's toughest challenges may loom in the form of his own campaign-trail promises.\nIn glowing stump speeches and high-octane rallies, Schwarzenegger told voters fed up with years in which they endured the energy crisis, budget deficits, rising fees and partisan gridlock that he would clean up Sacramento, bring back jobs and restore luster to the capitol.\n"For the first time, we'll have somebody who will probably listen to the people and figure out what it is that has to be done, not the same old thing the way politics goes," said Jim Hall, 62, as he worked out at a health club in Camarillo. "Bring on Arnold. He'll fix it. Gray Davis is history."\nSchwarzenegger's toughest and first challenge: the looming, $8 billion deficit. It will grow by $4 billion if Schwarzenegger makes good on his promise to immediately repeal this year's tripling of the car tax. He has said he will not raise taxes except in case of emergency. He also promised not to cut education. But he never specified what he would cut.\nMuch of California's budget is committed to specific programs by law, leaving the new governor potentially little room to maneuver.\n"He's got to tackle a budget crisis that if it could have been fixed by people far more familiar with the state budget than he is, it would have been fixed," said Darry Sragow, a Democratic strategist. "We're raising too little revenue for the amount of money we spend. He's going to have to raise taxes and/or cut programs.\n"He's got a very, very difficult task in front of him, and he's never had any experience that's remotely like it"