SAN DIEGO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ended the suspense over his political future Friday and declared at a town-hall meeting here that he will seek a second term.
It wasn’t easy, however. The governor ran a half hour late. The business-friendly crowd of 200 peppered him with questions but not the one that he for weeks had hinted he would answer.
Finally, as his campaign team waved at Schwarzenegger to wrap up the 90-minute meeting in a small, darkened theater downtown, he blurted out what some political observers joked had been the worst-kept secret in the state.
“I wanted to let you all know, I’ve been asked several times last week will I run again or not,” he said. “As I said, I’m a follow-through guy.
“I’m not in there for three years, I’m in there for seven years, and yes, I will run for the office of governor again,” he declared. The crowd rose and cheered and Schwarzenegger smiled.
Supporters of Schwarzenegger hope his declaration to run in 2006 will embolden donors and persuade voters to turn out for this year’s Nov. 8 special election. He is touting three initiatives: Extending teachers’ probationary period to five years from two, imposing a state spending cap and giving judges, rather than lawmakers, the power to draw their political boundaries. He hinted again Friday that he may endorse an initiative limiting public-employee unions’ power to spend dues on politics.
A coalition of unions has launched a flurry of advertisements to discredit the ballot measures, and polls show none with majority support.
But it’s equally clear that Schwarzenegger will have to mend fences with a majority of Californians in this second gubernatorial campaign, given that polls show nearly two-thirds of them disapprove of the job he’s been doing.
Tim Kostner, 48, a registered Republican in Huntington Beach who voted for Schwarzenegger in 2003, said he’s disappointed in the governor.
Kostner said he voted for Arnold in the recall because “I thought anything would be better than Gray Davis.” These days, his impression of Arnold, is “if he got enough money, he’d build a casino in his mother’s back yard.”
Observers say his waning popularity is part of why Friday’s hurried kickoff lacked the Hollywood glitz and adrenalin of his first announcement two years earlier, when he declared his intentions to an enthusiastic audience on the Tonight Show.
By comparison, Schwarzenegger has limited his recent campaigning on the special election to pre-selected audiences in Republican strongholds.
“Two years ago he was a celebrity interested in politics, now he’s a governor who once happened to be a movie star,” said Republican strategist Dan Schnur, who agrees with the approach the governor is taking. “It’s not like he can sit down with Jay Leno and discuss redistricting reform.”
And passing ballot measures is vital, not just to California, but to the governor’s political future, Schnur said.
Some supporters, like Roberta McMillan of Huntington Beach, were nevertheless disappointed Schwarzenegger didn’t launch his bid with more of a bang.
“It definitely was anti-climactic,” said McMillan, an actress who played an FBI agent in Schwarzenegger’s film “True Lies” and a Democrat who volunteered full-time on his first gubernatorial campaign. While she remains an ardent supporter of Schwarzenegger, McMillan said she hoped his administration would work harder at advertising his accomplishments and to a more diverse crowd.
Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at Cal State Sacramento, agreed.
“The governor would do well and take his lead from the Reagan playbook: Take a bullhorn and go out and confront protesters,” she said. “Protecting him and putting him only in sheltered events doesn’t play to his strengths and doesn’t solve his problems.”
“He clearly has leadership skills and certainly has fire in his belly and he’ll have more money than God.”
Friday’s announcement came as Republicans gathered in Anaheim for their state convention, which Schwarzenegger will address at noon today.
Schwarzenegger’s top campaign strategist, Mike Murphy, said the re-election announcement was timed so voters see the initiatives campaign as part of a long-term plan to overhaul state government.
“We want to bring a little clarity to the political debate,” Murphy said. “We want to focus this year on the governor’s plan to reform, so next year we can rebuild. The speculation about whether he’s running or not gets in the way.”
Schwarzenegger’s opponents are not just in Sacramento, however. Hours before the town-hall meeting, about 250 protesters picketed, many of them teachers, nurses and firefighters whom Schwarzenegger has alienated in Sacramento as he tried to change the public-employee pension system and fight new rules lowering mandatory nurse-patient staffing ratios.
An uphill battle does not mean Schwarzenegger should be written off, his supporters say.
“Our governor doesn’t run away from a fight,” said Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, who co-chaired Schwarzenegger’s first gubernatorial campaign.
THEN AND NOW
There’s a world of difference between now and the time Arnold Schwarzenegger announced on “The Tonight Show” on Aug. 6, 2003, that he would run for governor.
|August 2003||September 2005|
|Schwarzenegger||Actor in “Terminator III”||Governor for nearly two years|
|State budget||$38 billion deficit forecast||Structural deficit of $7 billion|
|State’s bond rating||BBB, the worst in the nation||A; while an improvement, still the worst in the nation|
|Taxes||Davis had raised annual tax on autos.||Schwarzenegger has rescinded the tax hike and no new tax increases have been imposed.|
|Governor approval ratings||Incumbent Gray Davis was at 23 percent.||Schwarzenegger is at 36 percent.|
|Unplanned election||Voters asked to recall Davis just months after he started his second term and consider 135 potential replacements. The election generates worldwide attention.||Schwarzenegger calls special election to put his “Year for Reform” measures on the ballot. The election, which could cost $50 million, is not popular in the polls.|
Compiled by Register staff writers John Gittelsohn and Hanh Kim Quach
Contact the writer: (916) 449-6687 or firstname.lastname@example.org