Gov. Steals Spotlight in Washington

They stood side by side before a bank of cameras outside the White House, a handful of governors poised to talk about their morning meeting with President Bush.

The first question went to the governor of California. So did the second. And the third. Sensing a trend, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger interrupted the barrage to observe that the states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Utah and Kentucky were being ignored.

“I would like to say also that other governors are here,” he said.

“You’re the star,” a reporter replied.

“Let me tell you something. Each one of these other governors is the star because they all have responsibilities to run their state. And they’re the stars.”

Not this day.

In town for a conference, the governor who today marks his first 100 days in office has effortlessly upstaged the nation’s political elite: cabinet secretaries and committee chairs, senators and members of Congress.

He has been perpetually in demand since arriving Saturday night on a private plane, his schedule a blitz of power lunches and high-level briefings.

The governor’s companion for lunch Monday was Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, a longtime friend who, during the first Gulf War, helped Schwarzenegger send fitness equipment to troops overseas. At a fundraising dinner later that night hosted by the Republican Governors Assn., two people were asked to pose for pictures with donors: One was the president of the United States; the other, Schwarzenegger.

On Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson personally gave the governor a tour of the department’s high-tech command center, built to respond to terrorist attacks. Customizing the tour for the visitor from California, department officials displayed a graphic showing a swath of Hollywood that would be contaminated if a radiological bomb were detonated at the Academy Awards.

Then the secretary sat down at the conference table in his office to hear Schwarzenegger’s pitch for regulatory changes in Medi-Cal that might save California as much as $400 million. After the meeting, Thompson told reporters the state had mounted a persuasive argument.

“We Indian-wrestled, and I lost, so whatever he wants, they get,” Thompson said, a reference to the governor’s fabled physique, now softened by time.

Skipping most of the seminars put on by the National Governors Assn. (Schwarzenegger left a telecommunications meeting after 20 minutes, without asking a question), the governor is instead using his time to network with colleagues and press for more federal money for a cash-hungry state government.

Accompanying him to meetings were aides steeped in such matters as Medicaid regulations and prison reimbursement policy. But the governor is bringing to the talks a native optimism and easy charm.

He met privately with the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who wields great influence over federal spending, and emerged to say he was confident the state would get the money it needs. (Stevens stayed in his office.)

The Bush administration is proposing to give California no reimbursement for imprisoning undocumented inmates. California anticipates that it will spend about $711 million to incarcerate more than 20,000 such prisoners in 2004-05. Schwarzenegger is coaxing Congress to cover at least some of the cost, as the federal government has done in past years.

Given that many other governors are asking for extra help, and that the federal government is facing a financial crisis of its own, the governor was asked how much aid he could reasonably expect.

“I expect to get a lot of it,” he said. “Simply because I’m very persuasive. I’m like a tick that hangs on and will not let go until I get what I want.... I will be back here, and I will be complaining, and I will be asking for the money until we get as much as we can.”

In addition to help on Medi-Cal and prisons, Schwarzenegger has been seeking an agreement by the federal government to purchase drilling leases off the California shore currently held by oil companies, as the Bush administration has done in Florida. He is also demanding more reimbursement for antiterrorism costs.

And he is pushing for a bigger share of the money from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s road-construction program. The state gets less than 10% of the money the department spends nationwide, and Schwarzenegger wants a share “that more appropriately reflects California’s contribution to the economy.”

Schwarzenegger is due to leave Washington this afternoon after meeting with members of the state’s congressional delegation and attending a fundraising event expected to take in $300,000. Then he goes to New York City, where he will meet with Wall Street investors and attend two more fundraising events -- one for his own campaign account, which will take in about $500,000.

In his first visit to the nation’s capital as governor, Schwarzenegger has left an impression.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was about to give the invocation at a Republican Governors Assn. fundraising event Monday night when his cellphone rang. Huckabee answered and began a mock conversation with God.

After mentioning that the president was at the event, Huckabee looked at Schwarzenegger, standing on the stage with the other GOP governors, and said: “Yes, he’s here, too.

“You say you need an autograph?”