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Democratic state convention was long on Arnold bashing, short on solutions to state problems

Democrats had a good ol' time bashing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at their convention in Los Angeles over the weekend, as shown by various news accounts of their meeting. That's to be expected from an opposition party.

Especially instructive were the comments of three front-running candidates to defeat the governor in next year's election. (A fourth potential candidate, First 5 California chairman Rob Reiner, didn't speak.)

Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Controller Steve Westly tried to distance themselves from past support of the governor, even as Treasurer Phil Angelides gloried in his perpetual opposition.

Mr. Lockyer said he's now opposing a governor who "has become excessively partisan and excessively combative." Did he say this with a straight face? From his days in the Senate until today, Mr. Lockyer has been a poster boy of partisanship.

A recent example is the title and summary Mr. Lockyer gave to the governor's state employee pension reform initiative, which said, "Eliminates death, disability benefits for such employees."

The Schwarzenegger administration says that's in dispute. But as Budget Director Tom Campbell told us in an editorial board meeting last Friday, rather than go to court to correct the language, the administration instead will rewrite the initiative and put it on the ballot in 2006.

"It was my office that I think significantly contributed to the activities, the activism of nurses, teachers and others [who helped convince the governor to cancel the initiative] because we were the ones that pointed out that death benefits were going to be denied widows and orphans of firefighters and law enforcement officers," Mr. Lockyer said in his convention speech, as quoted in news accounts. So much for avoiding excessive partisanship - even in a job function that's supposed to be nonpartisan.

Mr. Westly joined the governor a year ago in passing Proposition 57, the $15 billion budget recovery bonds, and Proposition 58, a toothless budget limitation. But at the convention, he said, "It's time to send Mr. Schwarzenegger back to Hollywood to do those B-rated pictures."

He did add, "If we let the Republicans paint us as the party of higher taxes, we're going to lose this budget debate. We must do more than bash Arnold if we want to win."

That's the problem, isn't it? The budget must be balanced without increasing taxes, which would chase businesses from the state. But a Democrat must first win his own party's primary in which special interests - especially the teachers unions - want more spending, not less, and aren't averse to tax increases.

It will be interesting to see what real solutions Mr. Westly comes up with in the course of his campaign - assuming he doesn't drop out of this race and instead run for re-election as controller.

Finally, conventioneers got high-octane Democratic promises from Mr. Angelides. "From the day this governor came into office, I stood up to him, no matter how high his poll numbers, no matter how big his megaphone," Mr. Angelides reminded them. "It's wrong for Democrats to go along just to get along." Angelides favors tax increases to "solve" the budget problem.

Democrats, at least, are sharpening their differences to give voters a choice next year. And no doubt Gov. Schwarzenegger has some tricks up his sleeve.

The next 19 months in California politics look to be just as interesting as the last 24 months.