Schwarzenegger Tries a New Tack

Arnold Schwarzenegger held his first question-and-answer forum with voters Monday, and promised to go “up and down the state” to hold similar meetings, part of a recent shift in tactics that has had him more directly addressing issues and the electorate.

The pivot by a campaign that once was more inclined to general policy pronouncements and photo opportunities came as an independent poll showed Gov. Gray Davis gaining some ground in his bid to remain in office, and Schwarzenegger straining in his attempt to overtake Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante as the top contender to replace Davis.

Just four weeks from election day, a Field Poll showed that 55% of voters favored removing Davis from office, a slight decline from the 58% who told the same survey in mid-August that they backed the recall. The survey also showed opposition to the recall increasing from 37% to 40%.

In the battle among the 135 candidates for governor, the Field Poll reported that Bustamante was supported by 30% of likely voters, making him the top contender to replace Davis, a fellow Democrat.

Closest in contention were Republican Schwarzenegger at 25% and state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks, another Republican, with backing from 13% of likely voters. The rest of the field remains stuck in single digits: former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth at 5%, columnist Arianna Huffinton with 3% and Green Party candidate Peter Camejo with 2%, the poll found.

The Field Poll results, which were set for release today, were put out Monday night after officials from several campaigns involved in the Oct. 7 recall began discussing them. The survey of 505 likely voters was conducted over the five-day period that ended Sunday, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Several campaign strategists said Schwarzenegger might have trouble overcoming Bustamante, the only prominent Democrat, in part because of the presence of McClintock, who is drawing a substantial share of conservatives.

And, with McClintock insisting again Monday that he will remain in the race, the intraparty squeeze appeared unlikely to change.

Saying he wants to debate Schwarzenegger at this weekend’s state GOP convention, McClintock added: “Let’s have a debate and see who’s the best man for the job. There’s no way I’m getting out of this, period.”

Both the governor and his top Republican challenger appeared before voters Monday in town hall-style meetings.

Schwarzenegger’s appearance before a group of invited guests at Chapman University in Orange underscored the campaign’s new tactics -- eschewing an earlier approach of making few public appearances, scrupulously avoiding political reporters and keeping his policy pronouncements as broad as possible.

At Monday’s forum before an audience of about 200, Schwarzenegger delved into more specifics and appeared to be striving to appeal to conservatives, whom most strategists believe he must win over to take the lead in the race.

He made his strongest statements to date against a bill recently signed by Davis that will allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.

“We are leaving ourselves wide open to terrorism,” Schwarzenegger told the group of voters. “Anyone can go get a driver’s license without a criminal background check.”

McClintock has been a leader in the Senate against the driver’s license law, and earlier Monday said he would support a statewide referendum to repeal the measure.

At the same time, Schwarzenegger tempered his view on immigrants by saying he would support the kind of guest worker program proposed by U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), allowing more migrants into the country but with greater scrutiny of their backgrounds.

Schwarzenegger sounded a theme popular with conservatives: maintaining the current requirement that two-thirds of the Legislature approve the budget each year. He said he opposes moves to drop that threshold to 55% or a simple majority.

And Schwarzenegger attacked the federal government, saying: “For every dollar we pay in federal taxes, we get 81 cents back in services.” He said he would go to Washington to obtain a fairer share for California.

He also made one direct attack on Bustamante, calling the lieutenant governor’s proposal to regulate petroleum prices “ludicrous,” and saying that if Bustamante got his way “there would be [gas] lines like the ‘70s.”

But the candidate’s stances were not all designed to appeal to conservatives. He said he supports the goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 50%, and that Republicans must do more to bring in women voters -- for instance, assuring equal pay for equal work.

The candidate’s tone was in keeping with a shift that began around Labor Day, when the Schwarzenegger campaign began making him available to reporters after each event and allowing one-on-one interviews.

On Monday, Schwarzenegger’s wife, television journalist Maria Shriver, appeared at a Sacramento-area Wal-Mart to register voters, but encountered about 100 union members loudly decrying the recall and the discount chain’s employment policies.

Schwarzenegger’s early appearances were most notable for the liberal use of payoff lines from his action movies.

In recent days, he has sounded wonkish in discussing, for example, the ins and outs of workers’ compensation reform -- seeming at ease sprinkling terms such as “fee and utilization schedules” into his stump speech.

Campaign spokesman Rob Stutzman said the Schwarzenegger camp is pleased with his slight gains in the Field Poll. But campaign officials believe he is doing even better, and are not concerned about being boxed in by McClintock.

The new poll shows “it’s a two-man race” between Schwarzenegger and Bustamante, Stutzman said.

Strategists for Davis, meanwhile, said they were happy about the net 6% gain in the Field Poll, which they said mirrors their internal surveys.

The governor’s advisors attributed his gains to repeated appearances before voters in recent days, including another town hall meeting Monday. They said the sessions have softened the image of Davis, who often is perceived as distant and wooden.

The advisors also said the governor gained ground because of television advertisements featuring popular U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and lackluster campaigning by the candidates to replace Davis.

“We feel very good about the direction things are going. Things are clearly going in our direction,” said Peter Ragone, a spokesman for Davis.

“There is no question about the fact that getting the governor out of traditional venues -- breaking the chains of the podium and mixing it up with real people -- has had a real effect.”

One independent polling expert cautioned against reading too much into Davis’ incremental gain in the Field Poll.

Henry Brady, a political science professor at UC Berkeley, said that although Davis has appeared “personable and caring” in the recall campaign, he still must overcome deep unhappiness with his leadership style. The percentage of people who disapprove of Davis’ performance, Brady said, is “tremendous.”

The governor’s town hall appearance Monday evening at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza shopping mall was his fifth of the recall campaign.

Davis’ campaign strategists said they intentionally sought out a tougher crowd for the meeting to show his willingness to confront difficult issues. They claimed that Schwarzenegger’s forum, in contrast, was staged and open only to those friendly to his candidacy.

True to that theme, the forum before a group of about 30 community activists began with a query from a community newspaper reporter who stated that Davis had “given” Latinos the driver’s license law for illegal immigrants. “What specifically do you intend to give the black community for its support?” the reporter asked. “Maybe giving us a decent racial-profiling bill, like the one that you vetoed?”

Davis signed a law in 2000 reaffirming that police cannot stop motorists because of their race and ethnicity, although he earlier vetoed a stronger bill that would have required all law enforcement agencies to keep statistics on the racial profile of those they stop.

Davis appeared to stiffen at the question, but said he stood strongly against police targeting any group. He said 70% of police departments now compile racial statistics and that he would find a way to help other agencies to pay to compile the data.

Later in the forum, a man told Davis there was a perception in the black community that he had not been accessible.

Davis took exception to that statement, noting that he got his start in politics with Tom Bradley, the five-term African American mayor of Los Angeles. “I have a personal emotional connection to this community,” the governor said, but added a note of contrition: “I have acknowledged that I am going to do things differently if I am allowed to finish my term.”

Davis made his most specific promise to date on the question of his contact with constituents, promising to hold two public forums a month during the remaining three years of his term if voters keep him in office.

Davis seemed slightly off-kilter when the forum started, mispronouncing the name of host Kerman Maddox and misstating the history of the construction of the mall, which is a mainstay for many African American shoppers.

Still, at least one community activist seemed pleased. “He came to our community and answered all our questions,” said Najee Ali of Project Islamic Hope. “That is more than Schwarzenegger or McClintock have done.”

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Times staff writers James Rainey, Gregg Jones, Daryl Kelley and Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.

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Contributions race

These contributions were reported by major candidates on the Oct. 7 ballot who have received sums of at least $100,000 for their gubernatorial campaigns. Totals are for all contributions through Aug. 23 and contributions of $1,000 or more through Monday. Donations of $1,000 or more must be reported within 24 hours of receipt. Candidates may, but are not required to, file reports on weekends.

*--* Contributions Candidate or committee Total reported Reported since Friday Cruz Bustamante $1,210,892 $178,700 201 contributions 35 contributions

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* Anthony A. Batarse, chief executive of Lloyd A. Wise car dealerships, gave $21,200.* Ozzie Silna, chairman of an Ontario embroidering company, gave $21,100; his wife also gave $21,100. Wilkes & McHugh, a personal injury law firm in Tampa, Fla., gave $10,000.

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Contributions Candidate or committee Total reported Reported since Friday Arianna Huffington $484,896 $4,000 2,272 contributions 3 contributions

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* Marc Abraham, producer of several films, including “The Emperor’s Club” and “Spy Game,” contributed $2,000. David Fenton, founder of a public relations firm hired by Huffington, gave $1,000.

*--* Contributions Candidate or committee Total reported Reported since Friday

Tom McClintock $734,372 $36,700 1,181 contributions 14 contributions

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* The Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians contributed $21,200. Bruce Woolpert, president of Graniterock, a California rock and cement company, gave $2,500.

*--* Contributions Candidate or committee Total reported Reported since Friday

Arnold $6,311,018 $458,400 Schwarzenegger 627 contributions 85 contributions

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* Real estate and contracting interests continued to support Schwarzenegger. Mark McMillin, chief executive of the real estate company Corky McMillin; developer Alex Meruelo, owner of Meruelo Enterprises; and the Matich Corp., a large California construction company, each gave $21,200. Patricia Quinn, vice president of the Food 4 Less grocery chain, contributed $21,200; the company made an identical donation last month.

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Contributions Candidate or committee Total reported Reported since Friday Peter V. Ueberroth $3,112,284 281 $32,500 7 contributions contributions *--*

* John Roediger, an executive at the financial firm JP Morgan, gave $5,000. Two executives at Ambassadors Group, a company in which Ueberroth has invested more than $1 million, contributed a total of $4,500.

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Two anti-recall committees, which are not subject to the same contribution limits as candidates, have raised more than $6.5 million to help Gov. Gray Davis.

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Taxpayers Against the Governor’s Recall has reported receiving more than $2.45 million from 180 contributions. Californians Against the Costly Recall of the Governor has reported raising more than $4.1 million, with $536,141 from 16 contributions reported since Friday.

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The Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians gave $250,000 to Californians Against the Costly Recall of the Governor, the first tribe to contribute to the anti-recall effort. Eight firefighter unions gave a total of $180,000 to Davis’ anti-recall effort; among them, the California Professional Firefighters and the International Assn. of Firefighters contributed $50,000 each. The Democratic State Central Committee of California contributed more than $88,000.

Reported by Times staff writers Joel Rubin and Jeffrey L. Rabin and Times

researcher Maloy Moore.

Source: Campaign reports filed with the California secretary of state.

Los Angeles Times

*Contributions to candidates from each outside source are limited to $21,200. There is no cap on the amount candidates can give their own campaigns