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  Total recall September 21, 2003 Reporter :Jana Wendt  While the powerhouse of Washington politics usually dominates the news, right now it's the other side of the country that's causing a collective eyebrow to be raised across the US. In California, a peculiar kind of people power is gripping the state. Under its state constitution, Californians can cancel laws already in place or initiate new ones. They can also dump an elected governor if enough of them sign a petition calling for the politician's head. And that's precisely what Democratic Governor Gray Davis is facing right now. Under Davis, the world's fifth-largest economy — just behind France and ahead of China — has degenerated into an economic basket case. With the liquid gold of the IT industry all but dried up and after a disastrous foray into energy privatisation, Californians are looking for a scalp. It will probably belong to Gray Davis. With a budget deficit of $38 billion, Governor Davis has hit the panic button. Car-loving Californians recently saw their licence fees increase by an eye-popping 300 percent. The free-spending governor is hostage to a plethora of special interests, particularly the unions, which have been big campaign contributors. And Davis isn't about to bite the hand that feeds him. But it's the way that Californians deal with being mad as hell that makes their political system unique. Collect enough signatures and you can trigger a vote to recall the governor or any state-wide official. And that's just what happened when senior Republicans decided it was time to write Davis out of California's political picture.  Davis was re-elected in November last year — the move to recall him began just three months later. As San Francisco's Democrat Mayor Willie Brown observes, "Davis had only been sworn in and had one cup of coffee before they started to talk about recalling him."So a constitutional quirk may allow Californians to recall their governor if enough of them sign a petition. But how to get the 900,000 signatures needed? Enter Darrell Issa, a well-to-do Republican who paid a dollar apiece for every signature collected. It cost him $1.7 million. There may be something perverse about paying people to collect signatures, admits Californian political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. "If you have a paid signature gatherer and it is a dollar a signature, they're going to hustle a little bit harder than if they were just doing it as a civic service." So the recall was on and eventually the generous donor, Darrell Issa, also declared himself a contender. "I think it's a great investment," Issa tells Jana Wendt. "Spending $1.7 million to save the state a $38 billion deficit — the kind of suffering they were going through — that's leveraging at the highest level." Asked whether paying for signatures is a distortion of the democratic process, Issa laughs. "My God, you don't have money being spent in Australia on your elections? This is part of California politics." But Californians are a magnanimous bunch. If the recall can open the door to the governor's office for the mainstream parties, then why, says the state's constitution, shouldn't everyone be welcome? Deliver 65 voters' signatures, pay a three-and-a-half thousand dollar fee and you are a contender. In scenes reminiscent of California's goldrush days, would-be governors came from everywhere to chance their luck. Candidates officially registered for the state's highest office include a former child actor who used to be famous, a comedian famous for smashing watermelons and an ageing billboard queen famous only for being famous. And of course, there is Mary Carey, who describes herself as an "adult" actress. Mary's campaign may be unorthodox, but at least she's doing what many of the 135 candidates aren't — declaring how she plans to deal with the urgent issues confronting the state of California. "My ideas are to legalise gay marriage, because by doing this you increase tourism, because all the gay people will come to California to get married," she says. "And have live cameras in the Governor's mansion, because by installing webcams you get money from all over the world — 20 bucks a month!" A whirling dervish of activity, Governor Gray is suddenly everywhere, signing agreements, announcing initiatives, even venturing out in public — unwisely, as it turns out, with one voter telling him angrily, "Just quit!" But aside from the fact that many voters want to see Davis vacate his office, the hangdog governor has a further problem. After first ruling himself out of the job, Davis' deputy, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, decided it was irresistible, after all. Unlikely as it may sound, the man who the polls say has the best chance of taking on the Terminator is a short, balding bureaucrat whose father was a Mexican immigrant barber. A third of California is now Latino. You need only look at the streets of Los Angeles to see where the state gets its cheap labour. And if the polls are right, Cruz Bustamante could be the first governor of Mexican heritage in over 100 years. As for the man who made it all possible, Darryl Issa, his hopes of high office ended when Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on the Jay Leno show to announce his candidacy.  Late-show appearances and invitation-only town-hall-style meetings have been the hallmark of the Schwarzenegger campaign. Interviews are now given only to those who are known to be on-side, following some early embarrassments. Asked early in the campaign for his stand on gay marriage, Schwarzenegger stumbled, "I don't want to get into that now, because as we go on with our campaign we will be addressing all those issues."Schwarzenegger has been running hard on his tough conservative economic views. He needs to convert the right wing of the party, which disapproves of his soft take on social issues like abortion, gay rights and gun control. The only other high-profile Republican candidate left in the race, Senator Tom McClintock, is struggling to make his campaign sparkle. "The pressure I feel is all those supporters who are sending in $25 and $50 cheques — not the country club wing of the party," he says, in a pointed jibe at Schwarzenegger. The seasoned hardline conservative is encyclopaedic on the details of government. And even though his run is being eclipsed by the glitter of a superstar, he's getting enough support to split the Republican vote. In this race the candidate with the most votes wins, and with a field of 135, that means the new governor could be elected with just, say, 12 percent of the vote. But Senator McClintock is not budging. "All the momentum in this campaign is with me," McClintock tells Wendt, pointing to recent opinion polls. "Arnold is mired in the low 20s, while I've gone from an asterisk to 18 in the LA Times poll." But many Republicans, like conservative radio talk show host Al Rantel — who mobilised his audience for the recall — disagree. "We have to win and Schwarzenegger is the only way we can win." The movie star is worth an estimated $300 million, thanks to shrewd deal-making and good investments. No one doubts his business abilities — and he's spending a good part of that fortune on his campaign. But then, this is a candidate who has always been willing to bet on himself. Arnold Schwarzenegger's fairytale story began inauspiciously — born 56 years ago in Austria, the son of a stern police chief who'd been a member of the Nazi party. But little Arnold always had big dreams. "I was always dreaming about very powerful people — dictators and things like that," he said in an early documentary, Pumping Iron. "I was impressed by people who could be remembered for hundreds of years — or, like Jesus, for thousands of years." Franco Colombu has been Arnold Schwarzenegger's best friend for nearly 40 years. The two men have much in common — both immigrants (Colombu from Sardinia), both bodybuilders determined to rise above their origins. But Arnold always had something extra. "Arnold always do psychological warfare," Colombu tells Wendt in a rare interview. In 1975, Schwarzenegger was competing in South Africa for what he was determined would be his sixth Mr Olympia title. He was pitted against the pretender to the throne — the gentle giant who would go on to be TV's Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno. In Pumping Iron, Schwarzenegger unashamedly plotted to psyche-out his young opponent. "I go downstairs and I book us in a room. To help him for tomorrow's contest. I will mix him up. He will come to South Africa so strong, but by next morning he will be ready to lose. I will just talk him into that."  Ferrigno now says he understands Schwarzenegger's drive to succeed. "We had similar childhoods, the same kind of fathers — both retired police captains — that instils a tremendous work ethic. You feel like you're never good enough until you succeed, succeed, like an obsession."On the morning of the 1975 contest, Schwarzenegger was invited to breakfast with Lou Ferrigno and the young bodybuilder's parents. The Ferrignos were clearly anxious for their son, but Schwarzenegger belittled his young opponent. "A month from now would have been perfect for you. Can you imagine the feeling I have — six times Mr Olympia!" "Arnold is very clever, very shrewd", says Ferrigno now, "A tremendous confidence, knowing that you are supreme, that you have to be the best, destroy anything in your way to succeed." In that same contest, in 1975, Franco Columbu won his class, pitting him against Schwarzenegger in the final. But their lifelong friendship wasn't about to stop Arnold. "Franco is a child, and when it comes to the day of the contest, I'm his father", Schwarzenegger boasted to the camera in Pumping Iron. "He comes to me for advice. It's not hard for me to give him the wrong advice." Today, Colombu says he wasn't disappointed by his friend's remarks. "In private, we are always fighting together that way, making fun. I say, 'Oh Arnold, your belly is sticking out, I don't think you'll win the Olympia.' And he would say, 'You're too short, so don't talk about it'." Schwarzenegger was not taking advantage of their friendship, Colombu says. "It was done only to enhance the film." But once again Schwarzenegger triumphed, winning the title. All of Schwarzenegger's drive and cunning were on display in the weeks leading up to his spectacular entry into politics. Arnold the Terminator was selling his latest offering from the movie franchise — but Arnold the politician was playing the media like a master, setting off a guessing game which had reached fever pitch by the time he finally revealed his run. "You know, they're going to say that I'm just an actor, I've got no experience, I'm a womaniser," he told Jay Leno. "All this kind of thing is going to come my way." And of course, he was right. From the early '70s, when Schwarzenegger took up residence in Venice Beach, the hard discipline of bodybuilding met the California lifestyle. He was pictured smoking dope. He was a magnet for attractive women. Austria was a long way away — and California was high on its dream. As the now legendary tale goes, the penniless bodybuilder, newly arrived in the land of opportunity, trained at Gold's Gym in Venice. But years later, as Schwarzenegger's American celebrity reached boiling point with his tilt at the governor's job, something else suddenly surfaced. In a magazine interview dating back 25 years, Schwarzenegger revealed a story of sordid group sex, played out at Gold's. An article in the August, 1977, edition of Oui magazine quoted Schwarzenegger saying, "Body builders party a lot, and once, in Gold's — there was a black girl who came out naked. Everybody jumped on her and took her upstairs, where we all got together." America's most outspoken feminist lawyer, Gloria Allred, plunged into this morass, demanding answers from Schwarzenegger. "I felt it was imperative that he answer certain questions, such as: did you or did you not take part in the gangbang of an African-American girl? A gangbang is generally understood by a lot of people to be a rape." "The truth is nothing happened in Gold's gym", says Schwarzenegger's old friend Franco Colombu. "We were so busy training we couldn't get involved in that way too much because we had to win. You go to America, you better succeed. You're not going to come back to Europe as a loser." Schwarzenegger was never going back. He was out to conquer America, from his first Hollywood role as Hercules — with a dubbed voice — to his marriage into America's most famous political dynasty, the Kennedys. Maria Shriver was only 21 when they first met, 26 years ago. It was always an odd match — the muscleman Republican, trying to overcome poverty and obscurity, and the aristocratic Democrat looking to escape her inherited fame. It is one of Hollywood's few enduring marriages. But Schwarzenegger has been accused of almost serial infidelity, allegedly having affairs with many women, including actresses Gigi Goyette and Brigitte Nielsen. British TV presenter Anna Richardson claims Schwarzenegger grabbed her breasts in public and it's claimed he did the same to his Terminator co-star Linda Hamilton. But when it comes to women, says Franco Colombu, Arnold is just a playful kind of guy. "He never touches women in public. Arnold, he does maybe flirt — 'You are so beautiful' — but he's not an Italian, where he pinches women." Talk show host Al Rantel says he is not surprised that the stories haven't got more traction in the mainstream US media. "I think we were worn out by Bill Clinton's sexual misdemeanours and people have been inoculated to that." As for the party faithful at California's Republican convention, most seemed happy to avert their gaze from Arnold's youthful indiscretions. Shirley Husar, a young Schwarzenegger supporter, spoke for many. "I think the '60s and '70s had a lot of great, wild times and if you digged in everyone's closet you'd be surprised what you'd find. We're dealing with now, not the past." But the issue has been gathering enough momentum for the Schwarzenegger camp to decide it had to act. This week Arnold did what everyone who wants to reach the largest female audience in America does — he talked to Oprah Winfrey. And so did his wife. It was a pretty safe bet. Maria Shriver — as Oprah regularly reminded the audience — is one of her oldest and dearest friends. Of the stories about her husband's womanising, Shriver told Oprah, "I make up my mind about him based on him, not on what other people say, what other people write.'' Referring to the history of womanising in the Kennedy family, Winfrey asked Shriver about suggestions that she had been raised to turn the other cheek to her husband's infidelities. "That ticks me off," Shriver said. "I am my own woman. I have not been, quote, 'bred to look the other way'. I look at the man — straight on, eyes wide open, and I look at him with an open heart and I accept him with all his strengths and all his weaknesses.'' If this audience was indeed the pulse of American womanhood, then the Schwarzenegger campaign appears to have set it racing. Schwarzenegger told Oprah he didn't remember the Oui interview or the "gangbang" incident and that he'd said "the most outrageous things you could" in order to promote the sport of body-building. "At that time I did not think I was going to run for governor," Schwarzenegger said. "So of course I was saying things that were over the top. Now, to think back and to hear some of those things and say — oh, my God, why did I say that? " The race for the governor's mansion is still far too close to call. But come election day, even Schwarzenegger's harshest critics concede that the power of celebrity may simply sweep California off its feet. Feminist lawyer Gloria Allred said it reminded her of a married woman who goes to a party, gets drunk and meets a very exciting, glamorous new guy. She wakes up with him the next morning — but the party's over and she's got to decide, who does she spend the next four years with? "Will it be her husband — or is she so intoxicated with the new lover that she'll risk everything for him?" We'll soon find out. |
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