Recognizing a rare liability for the majority party, Republicans have begun more aggressively criticizing Democrats for their management of the crisis. In recent weeks, Republicans have pressed the Brown administration and Democratic lawmakers to approve more water storage facilities, while excoriating Democrats and their environmentalist allies for reduced water deliveries to protect endangered fish.

Senate Republicans publicized a letter to Brown in which they urged the fourth-term governor to expedite bond funding for water projects, and Steve Brandau, a Fresno city councilman, bought space on a billboard on Highway 99 to issue a drought-related attack on Brown’s $68 billion high-speed rail project.

“Governor put our Water BEFORE your Train!” the billboard said.

It is not clear Republicans’ criticisms will resonate outside of Sacramento and Washington – or that voters will come to view the drought in partisan terms.

A severe drought in the 1970s did not hurt Brown’s job-approval rating, said Mark DiCamillo, director of The Field Poll, adding that “as long as the governor is seen as taking some actions – and the party is seen as moving and providing some leadership – I think it doesn’t necessarily work against them.”

But there is precedent for concern. President George W. Bush was stung by his handling of Hurricane Katrina, Gov. Gray Davis by the energy crisis.

“If this is just the tip of the iceberg and the problems become even more severe, I think all bets are off,” DiCamillo said. “Right now, the public isn’t reacting in any discernible way against the majority party because of the drought.”

Brown has labored to draw attention to his handling of the crisis, traveling to a dry meadow in the Sierra Nevada to announce his water reduction order and inviting reporters to observe him meeting with affected industries.

The water bond that Brown championed and voters approved last year includes $2.7 billion for storage projects such as dams and reservoirs, but Republicans have criticized the pace of project approvals.

Brown said in March that “these are big projects, and I’m certainly looking very carefully at how we can get more storage as quickly as possible.”

If the state remains dry over the winter, Republicans expect to feature the drought heavily in campaigns. Republican Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, a vocal critic of Democratic policies on water, complained about an unsuccessful GOP-backed bill designed to streamline environmental review for the Sites Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley and Temperance Flat on the San Joaquin River.

The language was crafted to resemble an effort last year backed by powerful Democrats to speed construction of the Sacramento Kings basketball arena.

“That would make a great mailer,” Grove said. “You could exempt the Kings arena to play basketball from (environmental quality laws), but you can’t exempt water storage? We can live without basketball. But we can’t live without water.”

Dave Gilliard, a Republican who works on congressional and legislative campaigns, said GOP candidates next year will promote the idea that Democrats “are out to punish suburbia and rural California” with their drought-related policies.

Democrats in targeted House and legislative races in the Central Valley and Inland Empire, he said, “are going to be put on the spot to answer for the government leadership they are part of.”
Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist, said the Democratic Party is probably “a year away from real political problems.” Democrats hold such a large advantage in statewide contests that the party is unlikely to suffer broadly, Stutzman said, but the effect could be significant in contested congressional and legislative races.

Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, said it will be hard for Republicans to lay blame on Democrats when the public generally associates the drought not with one political party, but with the lack of rain.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article21247206.html