Opinion: Cal GOP punishment? Yes. Apology? No. Direction?

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California Republicans who gathered over the weekend in Sacramento agreed to punish the six members of the Assembly and Senate who joined with Democrats last week to adopt a budget that includes tax increases.

But it turned out to be a fairly muted punishment, at least for four of the six, and came as delegates tried to come to terms with the perceived defection of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, new taxes, and the next year’s gubernatorial election, in which two moderate Republicans -- Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman -- make the same no-tax pledges that Schwarzenegger did when ousting Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in the 2003 recall.

The three-day session was an exercise in simultaneous venting, finger-pointing, group-hugging, wagon-circling, future-gazing, identity-reasserting and restating of core principles.

Delegates Alex Burrola, Eugene Champagne and Russell Champagne offered a resolution calling on the party to ‘officially extend a heartfelt and sincere apology to former Governor Gray Davis for its role in recalling him from office.’

They weren’t the only ones at the convention to complain of Schwarzenegger’s turnabout on taxes, and to question whether the recall had been the right move....

‘I’m very serious about it,’ Burrola said. ‘I knew I might catch some hell for it, but I don’t care.’

The resolution was not taken up. But the delegates did adopt a motion expressing the party’s intention not to help fund or send mail to assist any of the six get re-elected next year.

Only two -- ousted Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto and Assemblyman Anthony Adams of Hesperia -- are up for re-election next year and will be directly affected. Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield, Assemblyman Roger Niello of Fair Oaks and Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines of Fresno are termed out next year. Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria is termed out in 2012.

In committee on Saturday, delegates discussed whether to extend the punishment to unnamed lawmakers deemed ‘complicit’ in the budget/tax vote by urging their leaders and termed-out colleagues to fall on their swords while accepting political cover.

There was also discussion about whether to junk the motion and avoid the ‘circular firing squad.’ ‘We’ve given a present to the press,’ said surgeon Linda Halderman. ‘We have a chance to do what’s right and that’s to become a majority in the California Legislature.’

The measure passed and on Sunday was adopted on the convention floor.

The motion originally called for censuring any Republican lawmaker who voted for a tax increase. The author, party regional vice chairman Jon Fleischman, said Republicans could regain the majority in the Capitol only by offering Californians a reliable, and truly different, alternative to Democrats.

Many at the convention saw opportunity around the corner. In a matter of months, they said, Californians would see that the new tax revenue will fall short of what’s needed to balance the budget, and Democrats and the governor could ask for another increase -- perhaps in the form of the 12-cent gasoline tax hike that Maldonado had deleted from last week’s package. Many Republicans insisted that taxpayers will be ready for their message.

Los Angeles County is generally seen as a Democratic Party stronghold, but the county plays a major role in the state GOP’s future. At the resolutions committee hearing, Palos Verdes attorney and Republican National Committeeman Shawn Steel revealed that Sen. George Runner, of Lancaster, made the motion to dump Cogdill as Senate minority leader to prevent an agreement that includes taxes. Runner is termed out next year and is running for the state Board of Equalization. Steel’s wife, Michelle Steel, serves on the board -- which plays a crucial state role in setting tax policy.

Poizner and Whitman are being pressured on their right by a possible gubernatorial run by Peter C. Foy, who serves on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors but runs an insurance company in Woodland Hills.

Party hope in the more moderate Poizner and Whitman was tempered by disappointment in Schwarzenegger, who also ran as a no-tax moderate who wanted the Republican Party to make a play for broader appeal.

‘We’re dying at the box office,’ the movie star famously told the California GOP. It didn’t go over well -- and it was (perhaps inadvertently) echoed in her own way Saturday by businesswoman Whitman.

‘We’re losing market share,’ she said.

*Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images