After Convention Roar, Gov. Clarifies His Positions

As Arnold Schwarzenegger left behind his lofty new balcony on the national political stage and returned home to California on Thursday, the popular governor found himself in an unusual political position: defending his integrity.

Schwarzenegger typically brushes aside personal criticism by ignoring it, joking about it or even praising the critic. But in an interview with a room full of California-based reporters at the Planet Hollywood in Times Square shortly before he flew home from the Republican National Convention, the governor took a different tack. He directly and personally countered claims that political considerations or corporate donors are driving his policies on California issues.

As the Planet Hollywood staff packed up more than a dozen life-size Terminator statues left over from a party by the California delegation, Schwarzenegger even fired a few shots of his own.

He took a dig at one of the state’s best known companies, Southern California Edison, sarcastically noting that it is “doing all kinds of wonderful things for Democrats” and criticizing the firm for helping write an energy bill he intends to veto. (In response, a company statement said that “politics aside,” the governor should sign the bill.)

And the governor stopped just short of calling state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) a liar: Cedillo sponsored a bill Schwarzenegger opposes that would grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

Cedillo has said that he added security provisions to the bill in response to Schwarzenegger’s promise that he would support it with those changes. The governor’s expected veto would break that promise, Cedillo says. The governor suggested that Cedillo is making a political pose to save face with his constituents.

“He has to say certain things. He comes to me always and says, ‘I have to go out and say this, but I understand what you are talking about,’ ” Schwarzenegger said. Asked if he was accusing the state senator of lying, the governor replied: “I’m not saying that he’s lying. I’m just saying that he’s overly enthusiastic when he makes those things. Let’s be kind.”

From Los Angeles, Cedillo said: “It was the governor who was enthusiastic about this. We have complied with everything the governor has asked for. So my expectation is that the governor will be an honorable person, that he will honor his word, and he will come back and sign the bill.”

Schwarzenegger departed New York on Thursday afternoon, shortly after his session with reporters and a stop at a party commemorating the end of Jack Valenti’s 38-year tenure as head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. The governor was to return in time to watch President Bush’s speech to the convention on television at home.

With reporters, Schwarzenegger spoke in the soft voice of a schoolteacher quieting a classroom -- a rare tone for him, and one that belied the forceful, personal defense he was making. Schwarzenegger offered some of the longest and most detailed explanations to date of his fundraising and his view of the immigrant driver’s license issue.

The governor, who said early on in last year’s recall campaign that he would not take money from anyone, has raised more than $13 million from a variety of corporate interests for his all-season political and ballot measure operation. Drug companies, oil firms, entertainment companies, and even a chain restaurant contributed to a California Chamber of Commerce fund to support an estimated $350,000 in costs for events he attended in New York this week. The governor will spend much of September deciding whether to sign or veto bills, including some on which those companies have lobbied.

Schwarzenegger has also received hefty contributions from individuals. A report filed in Sacramento on Thursday, for example, showed that A. Jerrold Perenchio, chairman of the Spanish language Univision television network, donated $250,000 to the governor’s California Recovery Team for initiative campaigns. Perenchio has long been a major political donor to Republicans and Democrats. He gave $250,000 to a Schwarzenegger campaign committee in January, and he and his wife donated $42,400 to the governor’s gubernatorial campaign last year.

Repeating three times that “I cannot be bought,” Schwarzenegger said Thursday that media outlets have misinterpreted his original pledge not to raise money -- and have ignored his repeated efforts to correct that original statement, which he has called a mistake. The governor, who has attended dozens of fundraisers for his ballot measures since taking office, claimed to know little about his contributors other than what he reads in the newspaper.

“As a matter of fact, to be honest with you, I don’t know who is contributing to me. I don’t have the foggiest idea,” he said. “Sometimes when I read something in the papers, I take my newspaper clips and I go to the office and I say, ‘It says here that so-and-so paid our campaign. I think we should give this money back because it doesn’t sound cool.’ ”

Schwarzenegger, an Austrian immigrant, was even more personal on the subject of driver’s licenses. He said he wants all illegal immigrants to “drive legally” and said that could be done if Cedillo would agree to print their driver’s licenses in a different color. Background checks alone are not sufficient because undocumented immigrants have no paper trail, he said. “FBI check on what? Someone says his name is Jose and his name is maybe something else,” he said.

The governor suggested that all immigrants need to overcome obstacles and “go all out.”

“I’ve seen it firsthand -- not only myself, let’s assume I’m an unusual case,” he said. “I’ve seen people in this country coming over here from Israel and a year later, after learning the language, become a personal trainer at World Gym and making $100 an hour -- and another half year later, driving around with a Corvette.”

To a question from a Sacramento Bee columnist about his discussions with Cedillo, he asked: “Do you really believe I said that without ever saying what I meant by it?”

On a number of issues, Schwarzenegger suggested journalists and others were misunderstanding or even fabricating his views. He said the media had conjured the notion that there was some rift between him and President Bush, who he has said needs to do more for California. “There is nothing I’m going to do against the president, like some of the journalists try to make it look like,” he said, pausing dramatically and then saying mockingly: “ ‘Here’s a fight between the governor and the White House!’ ”

At the conclusion of the interview, he walked over to Times columnist George Skelton, who had criticized Schwarzenegger’s use of the term “economic girlie men,” and said, “It’s a great line.... Don’t take it too seriously.”

Schwarzenegger offered a few tidbits of California news. He pledged to “demolish” Proposition 70, one of two initiatives on November’s ballot that relate to Indian gaming. (He also opposes the other, Proposition 68.) He announced a retreat of his cabinet Sept. 11-12 to discuss how to implement recommendations made by the California Performance Review, his government reform commission.

At one point, he said he would threaten to sign bills he has opposed -- they would set up websites to allow Californians to buy Canadian drugs -- in order to force drug companies to lower their prices. “It’s good to have the bill because now I can go to the drug companies and say, ‘Hey, guys, we can sign the bill or you guys come to the table and negotiate,’ ” he said.

Spokesman Rob Stutzman said afterward that the governor wants to lower drug costs but still opposes the bills because drug importation violates federal law.

As he headed home, the governor portrayed himself both as a Republican partisan and a committed bipartisan governor. In a speech to a California delegation party that preceded the news conference, Schwarzenegger said: “We have to be sure now we do everything we can to make President Bush win.”

Yet, with reporters he said he would not campaign for Bush much outside California, though he did allow that he might visit Ohio. California’s Democrats, he said, had voted for him. “And I have to represent them. And I have to fight for them,” he said. “It would be wrong for them to see me every day on the road, going from state to state. That’s not what people voted for. That’s not why they sent me to Sacramento.”

Times staff writer Dan Morain contributed to this report from Sacramento.