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August 2004 Strange Bedfellows
by Steve Westly, MBA '83 The Democratic state controller describes his partnership with the Republican governor.The rough and tumble of California politics captivated the world last fall as we experienced a takeover even merger-and-acquisition folks would envy. The recall was not about Gray Davis or Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a call for change, an end to politics as usual. And the voters got what they demanded. I ran for public office to reform and make government more effective. As chief financial officer of the state, my top priority is putting our financial house in order. Each day, I use the lessons I learned and taught at Stanford Business School. With Governor Schwarzenegger, I recently cochaired a bipartisan initiative to fix California's budget problems. Propositions 57 and 58 refinance the state's debt at low interest rates and require the legislature to pass a balanced budget without deficit financing. We won a resounding victory at the polls in March. Here are a few commonsense strategies from the campaign that produced positive results for California. COMPROMISE At the beginning, being a statewide Democratic officer allied with the Republican "Governator" was lonely. But I didn't make the decision to fight for these reforms because it was popular. I wasn't about to let California run out of money because of petty partisan bickering. The two propositions were the only solutions to ensure that operations would not shut down on June 16 when our bills came due. The governor and I will not agree on every issue. A positive future for California's economy is one on which we are able to see eye-to-eye. COMMUNICATE SIMPLY During the campaign, the governor and I explained that Propositions 57 and 58 do for California what any family dealing with mounting debt should do: Consolidate at a lower interest rate and tear up the credit cards. I described how, without 57 and 58, cuts to education, health care, and law enforcement would be even greater than already necessary to balance the budget. Propositions 57 and 58 are common sense, plain and simple. We communicated this message in an effective way. As a result, we earned support from across the political spectrum. WORK AS A TEAM The governor and I weren't the only political odd couple involved. A myriad of unlikely allies came together to make this happen: the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, the Farm Bureau and the United Farm Workers, the state Republican and Democratic parties. Ending partisan gridlock to solve our problems is what California and the country want. These days, common cause matters more than party lines. Despite all our differences, there are problems that we can agree need solving: education, job growth, health care. The time has come to build teams willing to stop working against each other and start working toward universal goals. In business and in politics, the principles of success are unchanging: compromise, effective communication, and teamwork. Just the other day the governor and I disagreed. We decided to compromise and arm wrestle, best two out of three. Maybe next time he wins. Steve Westly, MBA '83, is California State Controller. A former senior vice president of eBay, he also was a lecturer at the Business School from 1990-1994, when he taught Politics and Management at the State and Local Level. |
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