Tough job: Can anyone govern California?

So loathed was California's last governor after electricity bills soared and brownouts rolled across the state that not even allegations of sexual misconduct could slow the coronation of movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger as his successor in a remarkable recall election.

That was two years ago, when Governor Schwarzenegger, a Republican, was toasted as a centrist who could command some sense out of a legislature dominated by extremists on the right and left.

At first the "Terminator" could do no wrong. He smoked cigars and joked with an admiring press. He promised to bring government back to the people and threatened to break the impasse through initiative if the gridlocked legislature stalled. That was then.

Today, the new governor's approval rating among adults - 34 percent - is not much better than the old governor's. Even unions are more popular than he is, according to the latest poll by the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University.

The rapid and dramatic drop has coincided with his call for a November special election - which includes three governor-backed initiatives to toughen teacher tenure laws, impose a state-spending cap, and preclude legislators from drawing their own political boundaries - a move he said was precisely what California residents needed to regain faith in a functional system.

Now, in a place nicknamed the "Golden State," whose narrative has been one of newcomers seeking opportunity and perfection, the dissatisfaction that the governor's special election has spawned has caused many to ponder who, if anybody, is capable of governing California anymore.

"The very fact that we are having [the special election] shows that there is deep trouble, that a San Andreas fault runs right through the middle of our politics," says Kevin Starr, a history professor at the University of Southern California and former state librarian.

Many of the issues that make California so hard to govern are unique to the state: a two-thirds requirement to pass the budget gives the minority party effective veto powers; its sheer size and diversity among nationalities, races, and regions makes its politics resemble those of a single country, not one of 50 states; the legacy of Prop. 13, which in 1978 capped property tax increases, has protected homeowners but has handcuffed the state financially.

Issues that challenge the entire nation often hit California more intensely. Take political polarization. A liberal from Oakland next to a conservative from the Central Valley seem like foreigners, not neighbors.

"The Republican Party in California is very different than the Republican Party in New York," says Bruce Cain, director of the Institute for Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

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