ROSSMOOR - At first glance, this private enclave of 10,000 seniors appears to be isolated from the rest of California. Guarded gates block the entrance and, once inside, a visitor finds a sterilized community that looks like Disneyland for the older set. You or your spouse must be 55 to be a resident, and the average age is said to be about 80.

A quick visual census suggests that ethnic diversity is not a strong suit here. If you don't like Rossmoor, according to the unofficial town slogan, you won't like heaven.

But it turns out that this community, nestled along the edge of Walnut Creek east of San Francisco Bay, does have its share of political diversity. And as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped by last week to promote the first pieces of his fiscal recovery plan - Propositions 57 and 58 - he found that the folks here share the same concerns about his proposals that the governor is finding in the rest of the state.

The unease comes from a general skepticism about borrowing, and a sense that Schwarzenegger isn't confronting head-on a fiscal mess he mostly inherited from his predecessor, Gov. Gray Davis.

And while Republicans and Democrats alike might feel those concerns, they act on them differently, here as elsewhere in California.

Republicans seem more willing to go along with their governor, to trust him to find a way out of the deficits that have plagued the state since the collapse of the dot-com boom. Democrats are not so inclined, though perhaps still open to persuasion.

"Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do," said Pat Huebsch, who lives here with her husband, a financial consultant who increasingly must travel out of the state in search of new business. "I would hope there is some wisdom behind all of this. Maybe it's the only solution. Perhaps it's the only thing to do."

But Richard Cohn, a retired bus driver, said he doesn't like the level of borrowing in Schwarzenegger's plan.

"I'm surprised at the willingness of Republicans to hawk our collective souls," Cohn said.

Thus the Schwarzenegger caravan, a traveling road show starring the governor in the lead role with his favorite Democrats in the supporting cast. State Controller Steve Westly, who signs all of the state's checks, has appeared at Schwarzenegger's side at three of these rallies so far. And Tom Torlakson, the local state senator, implored his constituents at the Rossmoor event to support the governor's plan.

"We need your help," Torlakson said. "Regardless how we got here, we're in a bad place for California right now."

Proposition 57 is Schwarzenegger's $15 billion bond, which refinances and restructures the state's accumulated budget deficit and lowers the annual debt service on proposed borrowing by stretching out the repayment to as long as 15 years. More important, it would make legal, by winning the blessing of the voters, a deficit repayment plan that Davis and legislators gambled would withstand court scrutiny even though it appeared to violate a constitutional provision requiring a vote of the people for long-term borrowing.

Proposition 58 would add a new reserve requirement to the constitution, mandating that eventually, the first 3 percent of each year's revenues go into a rainy day fund until the reserve groww to 5 percent of the general fund budget. The measure also includes a balanced budget amendment, though its language is broad enough that it appears to leave future legislators and governors with plenty of room for the same kind of fiscal mischief that led to the current problem.

Amid the obligatory - and corny - movie jokes and the paeans to bipartisanship, the Schwarzenegger team has refined its message as the brief campaign to pass his measures enters its final month.

There is more emphasis on describing the bonds as refinancing, to drive home the point that most of the borrowing simply repackages the red ink that existed before Schwarzenegger took office. And there are more frequent admissions that the borrowing he is proposing won't fix the problem but only stabilize the situation so Schwarzenegger can attempt to wrest the budget back into balance over the next two or three years.

"This particular thing is not going to solve all the problem," Schwarzenegger said. "It gets us back on our feet. It shows Wall Street that we're back on track, that we are moving in the right direction."

Schwarzenegger's campaign for the two measures also appears to be moving in the right direction, although the outcome is still very much in doubt. Hugh Grey, a retired teacher and president of the Rossmoor Democratic Club, said after the presentation that many of his fellow Democrats are contemplating the potential consequences of a game of fiscal "chicken" that might ensue if voters turn down the bonds.

"If you simply let the state run out of money, there will be short-term pain, but we won't saddle future generations with the interest on this debt for a long period of time," Grey said, echoing the dilemma he said he hears others talk about.

"A lot of Democrats here are up for grabs."