LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5 -- In his first year as governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger proved his muscle with voters when they validated every major ballot measure he asked them to. He won a landslide victory for a financial recovery plan built on spending cuts and heavy borrowing.
Meanwhile, most measures he opposed were sent to crushing defeat. A rollback of the state's controversial "three strikes" sentencing law? It seemed to be running strong but plunged in the polls almost as soon as he uttered, "Vote no."
 
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So as Schwarzenegger issued a set of demands to legislators in his State of the State address Wednesday -- including a state spending cap and a new system for drawing legislative districts -- it came with a veiled threat: If they won't cooperate, he'll just take his issues to the voters again.
"Last year, we stopped the bleeding. This year, we must heal the patient," he said, declaring a special legislative session to deal with those issues. "We must reform the way government spends its money. And . . . we must reform the way government operates."
Aides to Schwarzenegger said that no decision has been made yet on whether to call a special election, though groups sympathetic to the governor are organizing petition campaigns to get the measures on a ballot later this year.
But some observers said such an effort could prove chancy this time around. By playing hardball with legislators to champion a batch of issues designed to please his party, Schwarzenegger runs the risk of losing the bipartisan appeal that has given him so much sway with Democratic voters. And Democratic leaders have signaled their willingness to use the governor's own tactics to battle him head-on by introducing their own ballot measures.
"If there's going to be a gunfight at the OK Corral, we're not going to go in unarmed," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata told reporters at a news conference Tuesday in Sacramento.
The redistricting push stems from the governor's only major electoral shortcoming last year -- his failure to create a more Arnold-friendly statehouse.
Although voters went his way on ballot issues -- from tort reform to funding for stem cell research to rejection of casino gambling expansion -- his campaigning for several challengers last fall reaped no new seats for the Republican minority.
Schwarzenegger blamed a legislative map designed to protect incumbents. He urged lawmakers Wednesday to surrender the power to draw their own districts and hand the job over to a panel of retired judges. If he succeeds, the governor is also likely to push for a redistricting to happen immediately -- rather than waiting for the results of the 2010 census -- so that he could run for reelection with a slate of legislative candidates.
Schwarzenegger also called for an overhaul of California's budget formulas, which, he noted, currently would compel the state to spend $10 billion more than it is set to receive in revenue this year. His proposed cap would automatically cut spending across the board whenever it exceeds revenue.
On Monday, the governor will deliver his second state budget, which is expected to propose deep cuts in social services to address the state's $8 billion deficit, yet no new taxes.
But Perata, who argued that Schwarzenegger should seek more federal aid for the state, said he believes the governor is wasting his time on ballot issues.
And others suggested that the governor could indeed be venturing into uncharted territory. Bruce Cain, a political science professor at the University of California at Berkeley, noted that despite his successes last year, "Arnold has yet to prove he can get people to vote for something they're not already in favor of." Most of his victories came in the defeat of other people's ballot referendums that, GOP strategist Arnold Steinberg argued, "were on autopilot for defeat" anyway.
And now that the excitement over the 2003 recall election and his unlikely transformation from movie star to governor has died down, Schwarzenegger may face an uphill battle with two such contentious issues, said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick. Other attempts to change the districting system with a ballot measure have been bitter and unsuccessful.
"I don't know that he's going to get away with this as he has before," Carrick said, "using his celebrity to get above the political fray." Others, though, say legislators may prove friendly to the redistricting plan -- if it is tied to a rollback of the state's strict term limits.
In his speech, Schwarzenegger also asked legislators to use the special session to overhaul the state employee pension system and institute merit-based pay for teachers, issues also expected to face sharp opposition.
