Schwarzenegger May Ride Surfer Dude Wave
Actor's Bid to Be California Governor Piques Interest of Young Men Who Don't Usually Vote
By Rene Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 30, 2003; Page A03
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 29 -- Keep an eye on Eddie Castillo. In California's recall election, he and voters like him could play a decisive role -- if they decide, for once, to show up at the polls.
Castillo was among a throng of young men in surfer shorts and sunglasses following actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's every move when he campaigned in a beach town near here recently. They had come for the sand and the waves, not gubernatorial politics. But their talk changed after the "Terminator" star arrived.
Dude, they said, this time we might vote.
"I've never voted," said Castillo, 23. "But this is kind of really motivating me."
Few campaigns ever lose much sleep worrying about young voters, for good reason. Distracted, or disenchanted with traditional politics, they rarely turn out in force for elections. But not much is normal about California's Oct. 7 recall vote.
It is an election that resembles an extreme sport, fast-paced with dizzying rules, and the margin of victory could be very thin. That makes every constituency important: soccer moms and Latinos, anti-tax zealots and union members. The newest campaign targets here are young men, energized by a campaign that features a mega-celebrity running as a political outsider with action-hero appeal.
"That's the group to watch," said Mark Baldassare, polling director for the Public Policy Institute of California. "The wild card in this election is the independent voter without strong party identification, and those voters tend to be young and male. If they vote in large numbers, they could make the difference in the election."
It has happened before. Five years ago, former professional wrestler and one-time Schwarzenegger co-star Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota partly because his maverick candidacy attracted an extraordinary number of young men who went to the polls. Some of that support came because Minnesota, unlike California, allows residents to register to vote on the day of elections. Ventura's young fans did not have to remember to meet a hardly publicized deadline weeks before the vote, as is the case for the California recall.
But there are signs that a similar phenomenon may be emerging here for Schwarzenegger. His campaign intends to use his celebrity power -- and his celebrity friends, such as actor Rob Lowe -- to try to captivate young adults and register many more of them to vote. Schwarzenegger is planning to visit college campuses next month.
"We think there's a whole new voter available to this candidate that's unique," said Rob Stutzman, a spokesman for the actor's campaign.
When Schwarzenegger appeared in Huntington Beach last week, young fans mobbed him. Some even frantically dialed their cell phones and told friends to rush to the scene.
Afterward, some said they definitely plan to vote for Schwarzenegger even though they did not know much, if anything, about his politics.
"You can tell he's a people person," Castillo said. "Just his personality makes you feel like he's going to do his best."
Joshua Zydzik, 22, who is registered to vote, said, "The trust level is there. Educationally-wise, I think he's going to be able to handle the job. I don't think you . . . really need that much experience. You've got people with 20 years' experience in there now, and they can't do it."
Schwarzenegger, who is running as a Republican, may need their votes, badly. Some polls suggest he is trailing the lone major Democrat on the recall ballot, Lt. Gov. Cruz M. Bustamante -- who could attract many young Latino voters intrigued with the prospect of having someone with their ethnic background leading California for the first time in more than a century. There are also two other prominent GOP candidates in the recall race luring Republican voters away from Schwarzenegger.
On the two-part recall ballot, voters first will be asked whether Gov. Gray Davis (D) should be removed from office. If he is ousted, the voters' top choice among the 135 candidates becomes Davis's successor.
Some political analysts say Schwarzenegger may have difficulty rallying the legions of new or unlikely voters he may need to win the race in the short time that is left before the election, despite the enthusiasm many young men appear to have for his candidacy. Less than half of the adults younger than 25 in California are registered to vote. The deadline for voter registration for the recall is Sept. 22. "There's a great potential there, but no one has figured out a way to mobilize it," said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which has an office in Los Angeles. "A charismatic candidate can do it, but it's unclear how charismatic Arnold is going to be. Much of what he's saying now is conservative Republican stuff."
Schwarzenegger struck a more liberal pose this week, telling nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity in an interview that he believes the medical use of marijuana should be legal, supports a ban on oil drilling off the California coast, and generally favors abortion rights, gun control and domestic partnerships for gay couples. In recent days, he also campaigned in California's Central Valley, home to many of the state's Latino residents.
Still, Gonzalez said that some young Latinos who like Schwarzenegger as a film star are thinking twice about supporting him as a politician in part because his campaign disclosed that he voted a decade ago for Proposition 187, a California ballot measure that sought to deny government services to undocumented immigrants.
"The average 19-year-old Latino guy in California is the son of an immigrant," Gonzalez said.
At this point, pollsters concede that much about the recall race remains unpredictable. It is capturing far more public attention than most elections in the state ever do. Polls suggest that more than 80 percent of voters are following the one-of-a-kind campaign closely. Some political strategists are forecasting a record turnout.
Voter registration is also rising around the state. Over the past month, election officials in Southern California's Orange County have received nearly 15,000 applications to vote, significantly more than in any other month this year. Officials there have not compiled statistics on who those new voters are.
Some young voters are reacting to the recall race with the same apathy or disdain they have shown toward other elections. "I registered to give myself the option of voting, but I don't ever really make it to the polls," Mark Navarro, 23, said one evening this week in downtown Pasadena. "I'm not really up on current events."
But other young voters say they have never been more focused on an election, and are eager to vote. Henry Gradiz, 19, said that he is planning to support Bustamante because it is time for a Latino governor.
"We should start voting for that Latin guy," he said. "I'm Latin; he's Latin. So why not?"
Ryan Kaiser, 23, has other plans. "I've been thinking about voting for Ahh-nold," he said, mimicking the actor's Austrian accent as he waited for friends at a bar. He said most of his friends intend to vote for Schwarzenegger because, "He just loves California, and he wants to do what's best for the people who live here."
Kaiser still has to register to vote -- but promised he will. The recall, he said, is too good to miss.
"I think it's just amazing that we have had to come to this point," he said. "But I think people should have the right to call for a recall. We don't just have to sit there and do nothing. We can actually do something about it."
Special correspondent Kimberly Edds contributed to this report.
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