Gov.’s Trip to State Fair Gets a Muted Response

With giddy fans and autograph hounds careening toward him, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s surprise visit to the State Fair during the 2003 recall campaign was so unrestrained he appeared to have upended California politics.

Those were the early days of politician Schwarzenegger. He traveled back to the State Fair on Friday as a governor with a record and questions about his fundraising, a power blackout in Los Angeles and months of sliding poll numbers.

“It seems like everyone is ticked off at him now,” said Vicki Knight, 56, a DMV worker from Sacramento who attended the fair. “I am a little bit disappointed in the attitude change.”

Schwarzenegger was nearly crushed in 2003 by a throng of reporters and fairgoers encircling him under a scorching sun. High overhead, a young couple smiled down at him from a trapeze ride.

Dozens had lined up to shake the action star’s hand near the concession stands that day, forming a tunnel of tube tops and jeans shorts. One buff admirer gushed that he had inspired her to become a bodybuilder, and after a long look Schwarzenegger said: “You are still ripped.”

This time about 100 fairgoers who had wandered by stopped to watch Schwarzenegger, producing a smattering of applause. The crowd seemed happy to see him, but they were kept behind a plastic fence as he entered -- surrounded by a phalanx of security guards -- and stood before a plastic pen that kept the media corralled.

“It reminds me a little bit of a combination of the October festival in Bavaria, and Disneyland with all the animals and the beach and seeing the enthusiastic people and the rides,” Schwarzenegger said. “This is really fantastic.”

Schwarzenegger had begun the visit by standing with two bodybuilders and two boxers on a faux beach near an exhibit of whirlpool spas and $7,000 barbecues.

The bodybuilders flexed their muscles and grimaced. The boxers punched the air and grimaced. The governor praised the bodybuilders for being “natural.”

“No drugs, no steroids; none of these things,” said Schwarzenegger, who has been under fire for his connections to makers of nutritional supplements popular among bodybuilders. “It is all natural what you’re seeing here.”

Stopping at a sand sculpture of himself, the governor asked a fair official to get out of the way of the cameras, then pointed at the artwork and smiled.

He greeted a person in a Smokey Bear outfit: “How you doing, Smokey? Such a good guy,” he said, feeling his hairy arm. “Look at those arms.... Turn around. Never turn your back on the press.”

Schwarzenegger came to the fair with a retinue: an official photographer, a videographer, a communications director, a press secretary, a government press aide, a campaign press aide, a personal aide. Two other men helped set up the sound system, along with additional staff members and state fair workers.

During the 2003 fair visit, Schwarzenegger plunged into the crowd without much fuss. But Friday, public and press were kept at bay. “It’s not open to access,” a fair official said to reporters gathering near the governor’s SUV after the event. “Move back or we might have to escort you to the sandcastle.”

The fair was a respite of sorts for the governor this week. A new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California showed that public approval of his administration had slipped to 34%, a 30 percentage point decline since last year. He is more unpopular in California than President Bush, who polled at 38% approval.

Schwarzenegger has been criticized for raising tens of millions of dollars from special interests. Protesters have dogged his events; his staff has been announcing his public appearances, such as the visit to the fair, with only a few hours’ notice. And a power blackout across Southern California on Thursday sent him scrambling to explain the mishap.

Schwarzenegger says he takes the poll numbers in stride, explaining that he is poking a hornet’s nest of special interests, which have run millions of dollars in TV ads attacking him. And some fairgoers were sympathetic.

“I think he is finally hitting the reality of California politics,” said Lauren Carly, 51, of rural Glenn County. “I feel sorry for the guy, because he is still trying to do what people elected him to do. It’s tough. Now we’ll see how really good a governor he is, not just the flash.”