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Schwarzenegger opens at No. 1, poll shows
By Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — If California's recall election were held today, Democrat Gray Davis would be swept out as governor and Republican political rookie Arnold Schwarzenegger would be swept in.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver greet supporters Saturday in Norwalk, Calif.
By Hector Mata, AFP
That's the finding of a CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of registered voters at the start of an eight-week campaign that shapes up as one of the wildest in U.S. history. (Related link: Poll results)
Davis, criticized for his handling of California's budget and energy crises, has a lot of explaining to do if he is to win back voters before the recall election Oct. 7. In the survey of 801 California registered voters taken Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 64% — including 40% of Democrats — say Davis should be removed from office. Only 29% say he should serve the remaining 39 months of his second four-year term. If Californians reject Davis, he will become the first U.S. governor to be recalled since North Dakota's Lynn Frazier in 1921.
Schwarzenegger muscled into a big early lead on the motley list of candidates to step into Davis' job if he is recalled. A near-majority of the voters surveyed — 42% — say there's a very good or good chance they will go for the Hollywood leading man.
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only well-known Democrat running, stands a distant second. He is followed by two GOP conservatives, state Sen. Tom McClintock and businessman Bill Simon, who lost to Davis last November.
Trailing them in the poll: former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, a Republican campaigning as an independent; columnist-author Arianna Huffington; Peter Camejo of the Green Party; Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, and former sitcom star Gary Coleman. The poll has a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points.
Californians will face two questions on the ballot. The first will ask whether Davis should be recalled. The second will give voters, regardless of how they vote on the first question, a choice of potential replacements if Davis fails to persuade 50% to keep him. The list will be daunting. Election officials say that 158 people filed to run. In a carnival atmosphere at county registrar offices Saturday, last-minute candidates included a porn star, a TV comedy writer and a 100-year-old woman whose filing fee was paid by the 99-Cent Stores. Officials will announce Wednesday how many actually qualified. It takes as few as 65 validated voters' signatures and a $3,500 check.
With the field of credible hopefuls now known, the campaigns are devising strategies. Davis, 60, is all alone on his part of the ballot, but well-financed recall committees and most of the succession candidates will zing him. He'll have to decide how personal his counterattacks will get. Right now, he's stressing the election's zaniness and $70 million cost — and the possibility that an inexperienced newcomer such as Schwarzenegger could take over in Sacramento by getting only about 15% of the vote.
Davis, McClintock and Simon already have gibed at Schwarzenegger's modest political record. Election officials say the actor has voted in only two of the past eight statewide elections. He sponsored a successful ballot initiative last November to increase spending on after-school programs for kids.
Schwarzenegger has endorsed Republican candidates in past elections. He campaigned for the first President Bush in 1992, giving the current President Bush warm feelings toward him, a White House official says. That might account for Bush's statement to reporters at his Texas ranch Friday that he thinks Schwarzenegger "would be a good governor." White House officials say Bush won't campaign for any Republican in the recall election.
Schwarzenegger, 56, has dominated news accounts of the recall since he made his surprise announcement that he would run to NBC's Jay Leno on Wednesday. Now he's on the cover of Time and Newsweek. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, a former California governor and a Democrat, told CNN on Sunday that Schwarzenegger "is on top. It's his to lose."
Schwarzenegger, who has yet to specify how he would handle California's budget, housing and education problems, appeals to voters of all ages and ideologies, the CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows. Even among Democrats, he trails Bustamante by only 6 points.
Building his own base of Democrats, GOP moderates and younger, first-time voters is crucial for Schwarzenegger. He can't count on the conservative core of California's Republican Party. Simon and McClintock will remind conservatives of Schwarzenegger's liberal views on abortion rights, gun control and environmental regulation.
Davis' strategy of keeping other Democrats off the ballot collapsed after Schwarzenegger entered the race. Though the popular Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., decided not to run, Bustamante and state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi jumped in. Organized-labor leaders and other Democratic Party insiders pressured Garamendi to withdraw Saturday so the party could unite behind a single backup candidate.
On NBC's Meet the Press, Feinstein hinted Sunday for a second time that she could decide to run as a write-in candidate. The deadline for filing for such a candidacy is Sept. 23.
Bustamante, 50, has to make a tricky dual argument to voters. He must urge Democrats to vote for him but at the same time portray himself as a loyal Democrat who is urging a "no" on dumping Davis. Many Hispanic Democrats may vote against Davis because they welcome the prospect of Bustamante becoming California's first Hispanic governor since 1875.
Ueberroth, 65, competes with Bustamante and Schwarzenegger for independents and moderates. Ueberroth, Time Man of the Year in 1984, organized that year's Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, then ran baseball for five years. He is positioning himself as a serious-minded reformer with bipartisan appeal. He'll use his Olympic cachet without stint. Dan Schnur, his campaign strategist, promises: "You'll see more references to gold medals and passing torches than you ever thought possible."
Contributing: John Ritter in San Francisco; Laurence McQuillan in Crawford, Texas; and Judy Keen in Washington
Here is the link.
By Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — If California's recall election were held today, Democrat Gray Davis would be swept out as governor and Republican political rookie Arnold Schwarzenegger would be swept in.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver greet supporters Saturday in Norwalk, Calif.
By Hector Mata, AFP
That's the finding of a CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of registered voters at the start of an eight-week campaign that shapes up as one of the wildest in U.S. history. (Related link: Poll results)
Davis, criticized for his handling of California's budget and energy crises, has a lot of explaining to do if he is to win back voters before the recall election Oct. 7. In the survey of 801 California registered voters taken Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 64% — including 40% of Democrats — say Davis should be removed from office. Only 29% say he should serve the remaining 39 months of his second four-year term. If Californians reject Davis, he will become the first U.S. governor to be recalled since North Dakota's Lynn Frazier in 1921.
Schwarzenegger muscled into a big early lead on the motley list of candidates to step into Davis' job if he is recalled. A near-majority of the voters surveyed — 42% — say there's a very good or good chance they will go for the Hollywood leading man.
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only well-known Democrat running, stands a distant second. He is followed by two GOP conservatives, state Sen. Tom McClintock and businessman Bill Simon, who lost to Davis last November.
Trailing them in the poll: former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, a Republican campaigning as an independent; columnist-author Arianna Huffington; Peter Camejo of the Green Party; Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, and former sitcom star Gary Coleman. The poll has a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points.
Californians will face two questions on the ballot. The first will ask whether Davis should be recalled. The second will give voters, regardless of how they vote on the first question, a choice of potential replacements if Davis fails to persuade 50% to keep him. The list will be daunting. Election officials say that 158 people filed to run. In a carnival atmosphere at county registrar offices Saturday, last-minute candidates included a porn star, a TV comedy writer and a 100-year-old woman whose filing fee was paid by the 99-Cent Stores. Officials will announce Wednesday how many actually qualified. It takes as few as 65 validated voters' signatures and a $3,500 check.
With the field of credible hopefuls now known, the campaigns are devising strategies. Davis, 60, is all alone on his part of the ballot, but well-financed recall committees and most of the succession candidates will zing him. He'll have to decide how personal his counterattacks will get. Right now, he's stressing the election's zaniness and $70 million cost — and the possibility that an inexperienced newcomer such as Schwarzenegger could take over in Sacramento by getting only about 15% of the vote.
Davis, McClintock and Simon already have gibed at Schwarzenegger's modest political record. Election officials say the actor has voted in only two of the past eight statewide elections. He sponsored a successful ballot initiative last November to increase spending on after-school programs for kids.
Schwarzenegger has endorsed Republican candidates in past elections. He campaigned for the first President Bush in 1992, giving the current President Bush warm feelings toward him, a White House official says. That might account for Bush's statement to reporters at his Texas ranch Friday that he thinks Schwarzenegger "would be a good governor." White House officials say Bush won't campaign for any Republican in the recall election.
Schwarzenegger, 56, has dominated news accounts of the recall since he made his surprise announcement that he would run to NBC's Jay Leno on Wednesday. Now he's on the cover of Time and Newsweek. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, a former California governor and a Democrat, told CNN on Sunday that Schwarzenegger "is on top. It's his to lose."
Schwarzenegger, who has yet to specify how he would handle California's budget, housing and education problems, appeals to voters of all ages and ideologies, the CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows. Even among Democrats, he trails Bustamante by only 6 points.
Building his own base of Democrats, GOP moderates and younger, first-time voters is crucial for Schwarzenegger. He can't count on the conservative core of California's Republican Party. Simon and McClintock will remind conservatives of Schwarzenegger's liberal views on abortion rights, gun control and environmental regulation.
Davis' strategy of keeping other Democrats off the ballot collapsed after Schwarzenegger entered the race. Though the popular Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., decided not to run, Bustamante and state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi jumped in. Organized-labor leaders and other Democratic Party insiders pressured Garamendi to withdraw Saturday so the party could unite behind a single backup candidate.
On NBC's Meet the Press, Feinstein hinted Sunday for a second time that she could decide to run as a write-in candidate. The deadline for filing for such a candidacy is Sept. 23.
Bustamante, 50, has to make a tricky dual argument to voters. He must urge Democrats to vote for him but at the same time portray himself as a loyal Democrat who is urging a "no" on dumping Davis. Many Hispanic Democrats may vote against Davis because they welcome the prospect of Bustamante becoming California's first Hispanic governor since 1875.
Ueberroth, 65, competes with Bustamante and Schwarzenegger for independents and moderates. Ueberroth, Time Man of the Year in 1984, organized that year's Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, then ran baseball for five years. He is positioning himself as a serious-minded reformer with bipartisan appeal. He'll use his Olympic cachet without stint. Dan Schnur, his campaign strategist, promises: "You'll see more references to gold medals and passing torches than you ever thought possible."
Contributing: John Ritter in San Francisco; Laurence McQuillan in Crawford, Texas; and Judy Keen in Washington
Here is the link.
(of course Arnold looks goofy too - couldn't be any bias at all on the part of the selection by the photo editor 
)