LOS ANGELES (AP) Many times in California's history, the
state's top two elected officials have served together while also
representing different political parties. But never before have the
governor and lieutenant governor been forced to work together so
quickly after being rivals for the same job.
Voters in Tuesday's unprecedented recall election catapulted
Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger into the governor's office,
replacing Democrat Gray Davis, while his primary Democratic rival,
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante who finished second among replacement
candidates will remain in his present job for the next three
years.
Bustamante said Tuesday that while the recall campaign was
sometimes a bruising one, he was prepared to move on as long as
Schwarzenegger was willing too.
``You meet on the battlefield and fight your battles but when
the battle is done you have to be able to work for the people of
California,'' Bustamante said.
Experts say that unlike the president and the vice president,
the duties of California's governor and lieutenant governor rarely
overlap. The lieutenant governor's role is to fill in for the
governor if he is unable to serve or is out of state. Most of the
time, the lieutenant governor just baby-sits during the chief
executive's absences.
One exception, however, came in the late 1970s and early 80s
when Republican Mike Curb served as lieutenant governor during Gov.
Jerry Brown's administration. Curb exercised some gubernatorial
prerogatives, such as making policy proclamations and a judicial
appointment, during Brown's frequent absences while was campaigning
for the Democratic presidential nomination.
``Curb thought he was really the governor and there were a
couple of situations that really caused some trouble,'' said Larry
Berg, founding director of the Jesse Unruh Institute of Politics at
the University of Southern California. But Berg said such conflicts
are rare.
California has had a governor and a lieutenant governor of
different parties 20 of the past 25 years, including the four years
that Davis was lieutenant governor under Republican Gov. Pete
Wilson.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)