Schwarzenegger ignores GOP call to dump top aide

Conservatives wary of policy direction

By Bill Ainsworth

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday he wouldn't fire his top staffer, Democrat Susan Kennedy, to appease Republican activists worried about his move toward the middle.

"I will hire the people I want to hire because they are the best," he said. "I will keep Susan Kennedy exactly where she is."

Schwarzenegger discussed a wide range of issues during his appearance at the Sacramento Press Club, saying voters should decide whether California enacts a physician-assisted suicide law and pledging to release his tax returns for the past 10 years.

During his career before he became governor, Schwarzenegger said, "90 to 100 percent of the people" who worked for him were Democrats.

Schwarzenegger said that even when he was campaigning for Ronald Reagan for president, he had Democrats around his office.

"Later on I married a Democrat," he said, referring to Maria Shriver. "No one revolted. No one ran away and said, 'He's a traitor.' "

Some Republicans want to rescind the GOP's endorsement of Schwarzenegger at the party convention next month because he hired Kennedy, who was deputy chief of staff to former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat. Kennedy once served as the head of the California Abortion Rights Action League and executive director of the California Democratic Party.

Mike Schroeder, a former chairman of the California Republican Party, said conservatives plan to introduce a resolution taking away the Republican Party's endorsement unless Schwarzenegger fires Kennedy by March 15.

He said the resolution was largely a symbolic move, but it would give a voice to conservatives' disappointment.

"They are just frustrated with him. They've had it," he said.

Besides the hiring of Kennedy, Schroeder said, conservatives dislike the governor's call for an increase in the minimum wage and bipartisan approach to appointing judges.

Conservatives also disapprove of his spending policies, saying his proposed budget doesn't erase the deficit and his bond program is too costly.

Schwarzenegger hired Kennedy as his chief of staff after getting to know her while she was a commissioner on the California Public Utilities Commission, where she carved out a pro-business reputation. "After working with her for six weeks, she's spectacular," he said. "She's much better than I thought."

But Schwarzenegger also said discontent among conservatives puts him in a "tough situation" because they aided him so much last year.

Republican activists tried to help him pass measures that would have helped cut state spending, reduce the clout of public employee unions, make teachers wait longer to get tenure and change redistricting. All of them lost.

Still, Schwarzenegger said he wanted to "thank them."