The easy version of events today was that Governor Schwarzenegger and Democrats were giving up on negotiating, and finally declaring political war.

But away from the (as always) carefully choreographed events, a closer look showed a much more nuanced set of circumstances.

* For starters, while the governor gave the news cameras ample footage of him submitting signatures on the teacher tenure reform measure, neither he nor his allies submitted all 600,000 signatures today. In fact, a spokesperson for Citizens To Save California said it may take another couple of days to get them all in. No one is saying so, but that might leave a little more time for negotiating. As we know, signatures must be turned in to individual county elections officials. And while the governor made a big show of dropping off some signatures in Sacramento County, a few observers noted that when signatures are submitted in Los Angeles County– home to a lot of the state’s voters– then it’ll be more of a reality.

* Both Schwarzenegger and Democrats confirmed the existence of at least some form of negotiations on his reform agenda. How serious they are isn’t exactly known… but some sources say the talks have been VERY quietly going on for as long as the last three weeks, although not with Schwarzenegger himself.

* Almost just as quiet was today’s closed-door meeting on the issue of prescription drugs. Both the drug industry and health-care advocates have enough signatures for competing versions of this to be on the ballot. The gathering, which was being held in a conference room at the California Teachers Association HQ on 10th Street, was confirmed when I ended up speaking to Jan Faiks, VP of government relations for the powerful Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Research of America (PhRMA). Failks had flown from Washington, DC late Tuesday specifically for the meeting. She expressed optimism, though admitted that there could be as little as 48 hours left to head off a ballot showdown. And don’t forget– PhRMA has a war chest for an initiative battle that totals about $11 million.

The campaign finance reports released late Monday are chock full of information about how ballot measure committees spend their cash. And so far this year, it’s been a banner season for signature gatherers, consultants, and pollsters.

True, it’s no real surprise that the interest groups readying themselves for a possible November special election would have focused on these three essential categories. But what the documents really reinforce is how lucrative the mechanics of campaigning have become in California politics.

First up: the Schwarzenegger allies Citizens To Save California, who reported total contributions between January 1 and March 31 of almost $8.3 million. Some quick work on the calculator shows that of that amount, CSC reports spending some $3.3 million on petition circulation and a little more than $2.3 million on political consultants. The committee also spent about $430,000 on polling.

Now to the other side, the Alliance For A Better California, which is the current political arm of labor unions, Democrats, and others fighting the governor’s proposals. Much of their money for the reporting period (which totaled, by the way, about $3.4 million) was spent on the same activities, but in different amounts. ABC reportedly spent more on polling ($1.27 million) and less on political consultants ($194,750) than the Schwarzenegger allies. They also appear to have spent about half as much on signature gathering, with a total of about $1.6 million.

By the way, most of the signature gathering payments on both sides went to large companies around the state and nation that specialize in this kind of work. But there were also individuals paid out by the committees collecting signatures– checks that were sometimes in the six figures… for less than 3 months of work.

You could call it a different kind of campaign finance reform: force the leaders of some of the state’s most powerful interest groups to get permission before making political contributions.

That’s the goal of two proposed ballot initiatives: the “Public Employees Right To Approve Use of Union Dues for Political Campaign Purposes Act” and the “Shareholder Protection Act“. One goes after the deep pockets of labor unions, while the other attacks the political spending habits of big business.

We’re taking a look at both proposals on the Monday morning edition of The California Report (air times/online later in the day). But in addition to my broadcast report, there’s an interesting backstory of political gamesmanship.

While the official proponent of the union dues initiative is anti-tax crusader Lew Uhler, the financial backers are a little less clear. Campaign finance records show the only donations for Uhler’s committee (some $300,000) have come from the Small Business Action Committee, an organization run by Schwarzenegger ally Joel Fox. The committee is organized as a general purpose committee, which means it doesn’t have to disclose its financial backers until mid-summer.

But Democrats have filed a formal complaint that indicates they think the campaign is really being funded by the more prominent organization co-chaired by Fox: the pro-Schwarzenegger Citizens To Save California (CSC). The CSC has not endorsed Uhler’s initiative, but does mention it on its website. And they argue that the public has a right to know who’s behind initiatives now, not after they’ve qualified for the ballot.

During my taped interview with Uhler in late March, he indeed said that CSC is “helping with the financial side.” Again, there are no records that show CSC money being used. In a subsequent conversation, however, Uhler told me that he had misspoken, and that he had meant to say Fox’s other group, the Small Business Action Committee.

So what’s the big deal? Opponents of the initiative, like Democratic campaign consultant Gale Kaufman, say it’s a shell game being played to distance the hot-button issue from Governor Schwarzenegger.

And UC-Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain thinks that’s exactly what Democrats hope to change– by connecting the dots between Schwarzenegger and some long-time conservative causes.

“I think the name of the game is to push him so far to the right that he loses support from Democrats and independents,” says Cain.

Meantime, Republicans are helping stir the fire with a website that criticizes a proposed dues increase for members of the California Teachers Association. The CTA has told its members it needs extra cash to do political battle with the governor this year, and Republicans say there are some teachers who don’t want to pay.