I've spent the past 24 hours in Sacramento. The main piece of scuttlebut, from several sources: that Gov. Schwarzenegger, as part of the special election he's expected to call next year (likely fall), will pursue an initiative that would put in place the health care compromise he reached with then-Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez in late 2006.

This raises all kinds of questions. One is a practical question: how to turn massive legislation into an initiative short enough that signature gatherers won't hurt their backs carrying it around California? Others are: 1. how the initiative might be structured to reduce the budget impact, given the international economic crisis and the state's budget woes. 2. And what kind of counter-initiatives might liberal groups such as the California Nurses Assn. (advocates of single payer) or more conservative groups (who don't like the fees or the mandates in Schwarzenegger's plan) pursue on the same ballot?

For those of you who read an earlier post this week about an exchange between an aide to California Speaker Fabian Nunez and two officials of the California Nurses Assn., you will want to check out this excellent story by Shane Goldmacher in the Sacramento Bee. It shows that the divide in the national labor movement between Change to Win (the seven breakaway unions, including the largest, SEIU) and AFL-CIO (which the nurses joined two years ago) is a hot war, not a cold one. And it oculd hurt state and county labor federations, which have member unions from both sides. Nearly two years ago, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, arguably the most powerful voice for labor in the state, narrowly averted a rift over AFL-CIO complaints that the federation's top officials were both from Change to Win affiliates.

It's also worth watching Sal Rosselli, president of an SEIU union, United Healthcare Workers-West. He is in open rebellion against the SEIU president, Andy Stern, who is the best known and possibly the most powerful labor official in America today. Union politics are typically opaque and get little attention. But Rosselli is angry and talking. Political observers are about to get a labor education, as a result.

This blog item -- and the angry responses to it -- are worth reading if you want to understand California and its labor politics. Those who remember the 2005 special election, where the state's leading unions achieved enough unity to deal a crushing defeat to Gov. Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives, will recognize the players. The blog post is by Steve Maviglio, a Democratic strategist who works for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and helped run the campaign against Schwarzenegger's measures. And the responses come from Shum Preston and Chuck Idelson of the California Nurses Assn., which showed an incredible talent for organizing its members to confront the governor at appearances around the state. As a journalist, I've had extensive dealings with all three men, and have found all three to be knowledgable, thoughtful, and professional.