Campaign Goes Into High Gear

L.A. Times Archives

Sept. 7, 2003 12 AM PT

Monday

* Candidates appeared at Labor Day events throughout the state.

Gov. Gray Davis offered contrite words and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante took an aggressive stance toward his Republican rivals. Although the two men crossed paths, they rather conspicuously did not appear together -- underlining the continuing tension between their overlapping campaigns. “I know many Californians are angry,” Davis said. “And trust me, this recall is a humbling experience. I would not wish it on my worst enemy. But if the good people of this state decide that they will allow me to finish the term to which they elected me, I promise you I will do some things differently.” Bustamante told a union rally that voters should oppose the recall but vote for him as a Democratic fallback in case Davis loses. “We’ll beat ‘em on both sides,” he said. “And we should make sure that we have a strategy that, no matter which way this goes, that we’re going to win. We will not capitulate on that second question,” he added, referring to the part of the recall ballot on which voters get to choose a replacement for Davis in case he loses the recall.

* Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared at the state fair in Sacramento, where he worked at a voter registration table and blamed Davis for the state’s loss of jobs. Schwarzenegger lamented that nearly 22,000 Californians were laid off in July. He cited high taxes, overregulation and the costly workers’ compensation system as among the state’s economic woes, and accused Davis of being “in the pockets” of special interests. “These people didn’t just lose their jobs,” Schwarzenegger said. “These people witnessed firsthand the American dream slipping away from them.”

* Peter V. Ueberroth held a news conference to criticize Schwarzenegger for turning down a debate scheduled for Wednesday. The actor and his aides said they would participate in only one debate, sponsored by the California Broadcasters Assn. for later this month. State Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” said he didn’t believe he was a spoiler who would drain votes from Schwarzenegger.

Tuesday

* A California Indian tribe announced its intention to pump $2 million into Bustamante’s campaign. The statement followed more than $800,000 in gifts last week from two other tribes. The Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, which has major gambling interests in San Diego County, planned to give $21,200 -- the maximum that Proposition 34 allows to be donated directly to a candidate -- to Bustamante’s campaign for governor. But $1.5 million of its gift would go to a committee he formed to support his campaign for reelection last year to the lieutenant governorship. Bustamante’s campaign officials said he would spend the $1.5 million on his run for the governor’s office.

* Schwarzenegger sat for interviews with half a dozen radio and TV programs. In one interview, Schwarzenegger said he had made up some of the statements in his 1977 interview with a men’s magazine about engaging in group sex and taking drugs. “I made statements that were crazy, statements that -- a lot of them were not true and just exaggerated situations,” he told NBC’s Channel 4. “I knew they would get headlines. We were promoting bodybuilding, we were promoting ‘Pumping Iron’ ” -- a 1976 documentary on body-building. That explanation differed somewhat from Schwarzenegger’s earlier statements about the interview in Oui magazine. When the article resurfaced two weeks ago, Schwarzenegger said he had been outrageous in his youth and called the statements ludicrous but did not say they were untrue. The next day, at a campaign event in Fresno, Schwarzenegger said: “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m here to push my economic agenda.”

* The U.S. Justice Department approved the California secretary of state’s request to include Propositions 53 and 54 on the recall ballot, clearing one more legal obstacle to the election. Proposition 53 would require that as much as 3% of the state budget be spent on public works projects. Proposition 54 would prevent public agencies from collecting and using many kinds of racial data. Also, the department indicated in a letter to Kings County that it had no objections to changes in that county’s election plan for Oct. 7.

* In two new political ads, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) denounced the recall campaign as a danger to the state’s well-being and urged Californians to vote against it. Although Feinstein’s ad criticized the recall campaign as unfair to the current governor, no images of Gray Davis were shown and he was never mentioned by name. He was simply “the governor.”

Wednesday

* The first debate in the recall election took place in Walnut Creek. All the major candidates except Schwarzenegger attended. They differed over taxes, the death penalty and campaign spending in a spirited debate that offered voters a widely varied set of solutions to the most contentious issues facing California. For voters, the presence of a wide range of candidates -- from Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock on the right to Arianna Huffington, the commentator, and Peter Camejo of the Green Party on the left -- provided views often missing from debates that include only two major party candidates. McClintock advocated dismantling the state’s regulation of coastal development, while Camejo called for abandoning the state’s three-strikes sentencing law and Huffington suggested scrapping plans to build a new state prison in Delano. Bustamante emphasized the role government must play in upholding the “social contract” with its citizens and in regulating business.

* The forum began with Davis appearing separately from the candidates seeking to replace him. He vigorously condemned the effort to drive him from office, alternately sounding notes of frustration and contrition. If given the chance, Davis said, he would do a better job of reaching out to Californians in the last three years of his term by holding town hall meetings across the state. “The biggest thing I would change is to stay connected to the people of this state,” he said.

* Schwarzenegger’s refusal to participate in the debate fit his pattern of shunning traditional campaign venues in favor of carefully scripted appearances he can control. His advisors painted it as a strategic move that capitalized on his star power, rather than a decision to avoid situations that could expose him to risk. “He has the capacity to talk directly to voters and not have to filter his message,” said Schwarzenegger’s strategist, Mike Murphy.

Thursday

* Schwarzenegger said he had made a mistake in suggesting that he would not accept contributions in his bid for governor. Schwarzenegger said he had misspoken in declaring early in his campaign that he was “not taking money from anyone.” He said that it had always been his intention to raise campaign funds, but that he wanted to avoid taking money from special interests. He also announced the return of a $2,500 donation from the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs because his campaign had a policy of not accepting union money. “It was my mistake because I was not articulate enough to explain that,” he said of his fund-raising policy. Schwarzenegger struggled to explain what makes unions and Indian tribes -- from which he pledges not to accept funds -- different from the real estate, Hollywood and other business interests that have donated to his campaign. “I don’t want to accept any money from people I potentially would be negotiating with” as governor, he answered. Speaking in Riverside, Schwarzenegger laid out the skeleton of a plan to reform the workers’ compensation system, proposed a rainy day fund for the state budget, and warned that California could again face power shortages by 2006 if more power plants are not built.

* The early consensus appeared to be that McClintock gained the most from the debate and Schwarzenegger -- who didn’t participate -- was the biggest loser. “The real effect of the debate will be borne out after the third or fourth day,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism in Washington. “The echo of poll results, the clips playing on TV, the pundits talking -- the secondhand perceptions form, and a conventional wisdom sets in about who won and who lost.” Viewership for the debate was high by the standards of such events, especially in the state’s two biggest media markets, the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas. Overnight Nielsen ratings showed that a healthy 11% of all TV viewers in Los Angeles -- more than 700,000 people -- were watching the debate by its final half-hour, and an even larger 18% in the Bay Area.

* A state labor union has donated $700,000 to Bustamante’s effort to replace Davis. The Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians gave $21,200 to McClintock.

Friday

* Schwarzenegger came under criticism from a rival for his stance on accepting campaign donations. The actor has labeled unions and Indian tribes that operate casinos as “special interests” and rejected their campaign money. But last year, as Schwarzenegger was raising money for a ballot initiative he was promoting, he accepted $530,000 from the California Teachers Assn., perhaps the most powerful public employees union in the state. And he held a fund-raising brunch for Indian tribes in San Diego, three of which gave a combined $62,000. The donations helped Schwarzenegger’s successful effort to finance Proposition 49, the measure to fund after-school programs in public schools. McClintock chastised the movie star for what he characterized as a lack of consistency. “One wonders why contributions that are not special-interest money one day become special-interest donations the next, and vice-versa,” McClintock said. Schwarzenegger campaign aide Sean Walsh said there was a major difference between fund-raising for Proposition 49 and the candidate’s decision to turn down donations from some groups as he runs for governor. Schwarzenegger “was not in a position during Proposition 49 to affect public policy as it directly related to these organizations,” Walsh noted.

* Schwarzenegger got the endorsement of the California Chamber of Commerce after a speech promising to make reform of workers’ compensation his first item of business if he became governor.

In a brief question-and-answer session with reporters, Schwarzenegger argued against Senate Bill 2, which would require employers to provide health insurance to workers. He said he would like to give more people health insurance, but he didn’t think the business community had the money to support such a measure now.

* California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, a Democrat who seriously contemplated entering the recall race, criticized Bustamante for accepting campaign donations far in excess of newly imposed contribution caps.

“It will be a political problem for him -- one that is more serious than the value of the money contributed,” Garamendi said.