Bonding issues with Arnold

Republican “victory headquarters” to reelect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are popping up all over Orange County.

But even as county GOP activists try to recruit 10,000 volunteers to urge support for Schwarzenegger, they may not be able to deliver votes for his $37.3-billion package of bond issues.

Local Republican groups and officials have panned the four proposals, which would borrow money for statewide transportation, housing, education and flood control improvements, and Orange County’s fiscally conservative voters may need to be convinced they should put the state further in debt.

“I’m going to oppose all four of them,” said Newport Beach Rep. John Campbell, who is close to Schwarzenegger and carried several bills for him as a state legislator. “I think we’ve borrowed too much money.”

Campbell is not alone. State Sen. Tom Harman, who represents a coastal Orange County district that includes Huntington Beach, said last week that he will support only Proposition 1A, an ancillary proposal that would tighten protections on the state gas tax to save the money for transportation.

The Orange County Republican Central Committee on Monday voted to oppose all the bond issues, and the proposals didn’t fare much better with the nonpartisan Orange County Taxpayers’ Assn.

The taxpayers’ group is neutral on 1B — $20 billion in transportation and port security upgrades — because board members were split on its merits, Orange County Taxpayers Assn. President Reed Royalty said. The group opposed the other three bond proposals.

Another problem is that several of the proposals furnish money for major building projects in other parts of the state, but little for Orange County. The local share of funding in Proposition 1B is “about enough to go to lunch at Burger King,” Royalty said.

Campbell said it came out that way because the legislature that designed the proposals is dominated by members from Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“I don’t know why taxpayers in Orange County should pay more to see the money go to Los Angeles and San Francisco,” Campbell said. “We’ve done too much of that.”

Political observers said support for the bond package may be lackluster, but Orange County will help Schwarzen- egger win another term.

Huntington Beach Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said he’s been helping the governor with his reelection campaign, but, “in terms of the bond issues, I’m just going to leave that up to the voters.”

Michael Schroeder, who chairs the Orange County GOP’s endorsement committee, doesn’t see a contradiction in supporting the politician but not his policies.

“At the end of the day, I think most Republicans will hold their nose and vote for the governor,” Schroeder said. “He’s the Republican nominee, and people are regarding him that way, but his policies aren’t Republican, so people don’t feel bound to support them.”

However much they grumble, GOP activists probably will stop short of stumping against the governor’s bond plan, UC Irvine political scientist Mark Petracca said.

Orange County voters have rarely backed Schwarzenegger’s policy initiatives even as their GOP leaders have tried to make hay of his governorship, Petracca said. That’s not unusual right now, he said — for example, President Bush claims to be a fiscal conservative but has greatly enlarged the size of the federal government and its spending.

“We’re living at one of the most politically schizophrenic times in American history,” Petracca said.

He predicted the bonds will pass statewide, and Schroeder expects the election to be close.

An August survey by the Public Policy Institute of California suggests either Petracca or Schroeder could be right — support for each of the bond issues varied between 50% and 57% of voters polled.

But blanket support of all the bond proposals is unlikely. The survey also showed 59% of voters thought the governor’s proposals, when combined with a parks and water bond that’s also on the ballot, added up to too much spending, institute research director Mark Baldassare said.

“You definitely have to make the case to voters who are skeptical about how the state spends money that this is a worthwhile investment, and it’s very hard to explain that investment because the magnitude is so great,” he said.

Newport Beach real estate attorney Paul Watkins is one of those who will need to be convinced.

Watkins has supported the governor in the past, and he hasn’t yet researched the bond issues, he said.

“Generally speaking,” he said, “I would not be in favor of more taxes, more imposition of obligations on our electorate.”