Schwarzenegger Considering Running for Governor

Conan for California governor?

Not to be upstaged by actor Warren Beatty’s flirtation with political office, Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a magazine interview that he is considering running for governor in 2002.

Profiled in the November issue of Talk magazine, Schwarzenegger, who has been active in Republican politics and campaigned for President George Bush in the 1992 presidential race, said he has thought often about running for high office.

“The possibility is there, because I feel it inside,” he told Talk contributing editor Ian Parker. “I feel there are a lot of people in politics that are standing still and not doing enough. And there’s a vacuum. Therefore I can move in.”

Asked if he would be a candidate for governor in three years, Schwarzenegger was quoted in the article as saying he “could be.”

Aides to incumbent California Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat thought likely to run for reelection in 2002, reacted in good humor to the putative Schwarzenegger bid. “That’s fine,” joked one top assistant, “the governor is thinking about starring in ‘Terminator 3.’ ”

On Thursday, Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Catherine Olim said the actor had not read the article and would say only that he is “not a candidate at this time.”

It is not the first time the action hero has been named as a possible candidate. A 1991 article in Variety, the entertainment newspaper, predicted that Schwarzenegger would run for governor in 1994.

In most other states, save possibly Minnesota, such a candidacy would be a lark. But in California, former entertainers Ronald Reagan, George Murphy and Sonny Bono have already been there, riding their Hollywood fame as a B-movie star, a hoofer and a schmaltzy crooner to political careers.

A speech by Beatty in Los Angeles on Wednesday night drew dozens of national political writers and television news reporters anticipating that the actor, star of the political spoof “Bulworth,” would announce his candidacy for president. At the end, in tried-and-true campaign tradition, he left them all guessing on whether he was in or out of the race.

Schwarzenegger, a native of Austria who has lived in Los Angeles since 1968, described himself in the magazine article as a “compassionate conservative.”

He also readily admitted to controlled substance indiscretions that have plagued political candidates in recent years. “I inhaled. Exhaled. Everything,” he said.

Because he was not born in the United States, Schwarzenegger is constitutionally barred from serving as president. But the California Constitution permits a U.S. citizen who has lived in the state for five years to serve as governor.

Schwarzenegger already holds one appointed public office. In 1993 he was named to the Governor’s Council of Physical Fitness and Sport by then-Gov. Pete Wilson.

Davis administration officials said they had no plans to remove him from this post, even if he opposes the Democratic governor in a future race.

“We are delighted to have him as a distinguished, highly valued member of the sports council,” said one Davis aide.