The Associated Press has a truly worthwhile piece on Don Perata’s long-running feud with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Perata, the story claims, has single-handedly stood in the way of the governor’s attempt to remake California governance and carve a historic legacy for himself. The two have butted heads on health care reform, the budget, redistricting, water wars, education, and worker’s compensation. According to the AP, Schwarzenegger was used to deploying his outsized charm and gettin’ palsy with Democratic legislative leaders, but Perata almost immediately put him on notice that those days were over. “[Former Senate President] Burton and [Assembly Speaker Fabian] Nunez brought big personalities to the smoking tent erected outside Schwarzenegger’s office, where the governor likes to broker deals,” writes reporter Juliet Williams. “Perata is notoriously moody and vindictive, given to wearing Tony Soprano-like combinations of T-shirts under pinstriped suits.”
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