State GOP Gets Same Message Twice

As party leaders strained for a veneer of unity, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom McClintock squared off Saturday at the state Republican convention to deliver identical messages hours apart.

Their pitch: Choose me to give the GOP the best chance to recall the governor and defeat Cruz Bustamante.

“Are we going to be united or are we going to be divided?” Schwarzenegger asked during a luncheon speech to hundreds of delegates gathered in the basement ballroom of an LAX hotel. “Are we going to win in unity with our common fiscal conservative principles, or let the liberals win because we are split?”

A few hours later, appearing at a news conference before a dinner speech to delegates, state Sen. McClintock of Thousand Oaks answered Schwarzenegger’s suggestion by saying that he had no intention of quitting the race and expected it would soon narrow to a contest between himself and Bustamante, the Democratic lieutenant governor.

“This is no time for amateurs,” McClintock said. “We’ve got to have a governor that knows every inch of this government and is ready to act immediately.”

Later, speaking to delegates at dinner, he repeated his refusal to bow out: “You know me. You know that I steer a straight course, and I will stay that course, no matter what the pressure.”

The weekend convention, meant to energize the party’s most loyal activists, instead featured a version of political chicken, each man wanting the other to exit the race and allow a one-on-one contest with Bustamante, the sole major Democrat running in the Oct. 7 election.

Neither is budging, despite pressure on the more conservative McClintock to smooth the way for Schwarzenegger, who leads the GOP contest in money, polls and -- judging from hawkers around the convention hall -- merchandising opportunities.

Despite increased antagonism between backers of the two rivals, party leaders moved to present at least an appearance of unity. There was no endorsement of either candidate -- convention bylaws forbade it -- and the party chairman who presided over the public sessions, Duf Sundheim, kept his remarks focused on removing Gov. Gray Davis and expanding the party’s appeal to women and members of minority groups.

A debate that McClintock had sought failed to come off when Schwarzenegger refused to participate. The actor also declined the convention custom of holding a news conference with reporters covering the campaign.

Despite the efforts at harmony, however, dissent still bubbled to the surface.

Assemblyman Ray Haynes of Murietta, a conservative stalwart, announced his endorsement of Schwarzenegger and took issue with McClintock’s jibe that the actor was an “amateur.” McClintock had made the comment while criticizing his opponent’s refusal to detail specific budget cuts before a post-election audit.

“Government’s not rocket science, to be real blunt,” Haynes said. “It doesn’t take a whole lot of time to figure out what’s going on.” He called McClintock “the North Star” of conservatives, but said the state senator could not win. “Tom is a friend of mind, but Tom is not a consensus builder,” Haynes said.

About three dozen anti-abortion demonstrators picketed outside the convention hotel. Among them were McClintock supporters carrying signs that read “Conan the Coward” -- a reference to an early Schwarzenegger movie role -- and “Oui on recall, no on Arnold” -- a reference to a sexually explicit interview that the actor gave to a men’s magazine in the 1970s.

For his part, the actor-turned-candidate never uttered McClintock’s name during two convention appearances, a morning rally with supporters and his luncheon address. Instead, the actor touted his Republican bona fides by embracing two of the party’s most enduring orthodoxies -- tax cutting and anti-communism.

“I’m a Republican because Milton Friedman is right and Karl Marx is wrong,” Schwarzenegger said. “I’m a conservative because I believe in a balanced budget, not in budget deficits. I’m a conservative because I believe money that people earn is their money, not the government’s money.”

Schwarzenegger also took on Davis’ recent signing of legislation allowing the issuing of driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. “When you look at this driver’s license outrage,” he said, “I’m a conservative because I believe in the rule of law, not in political pandering.”

His first day as governor, Schwarzenegger said, he “will take this Davis driver’s license law and I will terminate it. I’ll go to the Legislature for repeal, and if they refuse to act swiftly, I will take my case to the people and we will overturn it ourselves.”

He also promised to overturn the recent tripling of the vehicle license fee -- or car tax -- but failed to say how he would plug the $4-billion hole that would open in the precariously balanced state budget.

“We are in the economic mess we’re in because the Davis-Bustamante administration cannot say no,” Schwarzenegger said. “They cannot say no to taxing. They cannot say no to spending. They cannot say no to liberal regulation. Well, I can say no. No to Davis! No to Bustamante!”

For his part, McClintock offered delegates a look at his conservative agenda, noting his support for a referendum to overturn the vehicle fee and his support for Proposition 54, a measure on the October ballot that would outlaw state collection of racial data.

“Never has there been a more important time to heed the advice of Ronald Reagan to paint our positions in bold colors and not hide them in pale pastels,” he said.

A Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman denied that the actor’s call for unity had been an attempt to push the actor’s rival from the race. “Mr. McClintock is going to do what Mr. McClintock does,” said press aide Sean Walsh. Indeed, the Schwarzenegger camp seemed to go out of its way to avoid any appearance of publicly pressuring McClintock.

At the morning rally before several hundred supporters -- many of whom had been bused in to build the crowd -- a pair of bedsheet banners urged the state lawmaker to quit the race. The banners were removed, however, as soon as Schwarzenegger took the stage.

Behind the scenes, the actor met Saturday afternoon with county chairmen from around the state, party leaders and selected conservative activists, urging them to unite behind his candidacy.

The reception was mixed. John Olmstead, the GOP chairman of Madera County, said his first pick was McClintock but that he was thinking of backing Schwarzenegger. “I would sooner have 50% of something than 100% of nothing,” Olmstead said.

But Warene Wall, a delegate who supported Bill Simon Jr. before Simon quit the race, said it was unfortunate that so many party leaders in Congress and Sacramento were pressuring McClintock. “I think there are enough votes to go around,” Wall said.

Inside and around the LAX Marriott, the walkways swarmed with the usual vendors selling GOP paraphernalia -- elephant jewelry and the like -- and with anti-abortion activists and other issue advocates handing out materials and recruiting volunteers.

In addition, there were peddlers hoping to capitalize on the novelty of Schwarzenegger’s celebrity candidacy. Among the items for sale were $5 baseball caps with the slogan “Hasta la vista, Davis” and two different T-shirts, at $10 apiece, featuring Schwarzenegger as governor.

Given the passions generally sparked by ideological disputes, it was not surprising that both Schwarzenegger and McClintock were interrupted Saturday by protesters.

As McClintock began speaking at a Long Beach recall rally before his convention news conference, a Schwarzenegger supporter standing near the front of the crowd started shouting “Arnold! Arnold!” Finally, someone in the crowd called out, “Arnold’s a loser!” McClintock did his best to ignore the shouts.

As Schwarzenegger spoke at the lunch, a woman approached the stage. Standing about 20 feet to his left, she unfurled a pink banner with black lettering that read, “Sexual misconduct is not a family value.” The actor never looked her way and continued his speech without acknowledging her presence. The protester, Lynette Kessler, was ejected from the hotel, but not arrested.

Times staff writer Allison Hoffman contributed to this report.