Call renewed to pare down the GOP field
Schwarzenegger suggests 2 rivals should quit race
By John Marelius
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 26, 2003
Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday sought to nudge two high-profile Republican candidates out the recall door, saying their withdrawal from the race to replace Gov. Gray Davis would be "better for the party."
Hitting the conservative talk radio circuit for the first time as a candidate for governor, Schwarzenegger also sought to arrest the momentum of Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, calling him a virtual clone of Davis, who faces removal from office in the Oct. 7 special election.
"It's like one newspaper pointed out, Bustamante is Gray Davis with a receding hairline and with a mustache. But it's the same person, the same philosophy," Schwarzenegger said on the Roger Hedgecock show on San Diego radio station KOGO.
A Los Angeles Times Poll published over the weekend showed Bustamante, the only prominent Democrat among the replacement candidates, running 13 percentage points ahead of Schwarzenegger in the race to replace Davis if he is removed.
Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon, the 2002 Republican nominee for governor, dropped out of the recall contest Saturday, saying there were too many Republicans in the race.
Schwarzenegger yesterday suggested state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks and former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth follow Simon's lead.
"I think mathematically speaking, it will be much better if they drop out. That's clear," he said.
"It's something that they have to decide for themselves, but it would definitely be better for the party," he added.
McClintock, appearing separately on the Hedgecock show, was asked if he would be the next to go.
"Oh, no. On the contrary, we've gone from an asterisk to double digits in the span of just a few weeks," he said. "And if Bill Simon's supporters rally to my campaign, we're in a statistical dead heat with Arnold.
"Arnold, despite unprecedented media attention, has been dead in the water since he entered the race. He has been in the low 20s in all the polls that have been published."
In Sacramento, Ueberroth, a registered Republican who is campaigning as an independent, said he isn't going anywhere either.
"The polls today won't be the polls at the time of the election," said Ueberroth, who was chief organizer for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
"There will be enough people who will understand the depth of the problems for this state and then they will go into the voting booth and make a decision (on) who is the person who can best get us out of this problem. I think enough of them are going to say I'm the candidate."
Schwarzenegger, who had said he would not attack fellow candidates, made the case yesterday that Bustamante was no better equipped to deal with the state's fiscal crisis than Davis.
"When you think of Gray Davis, you have to also think at the same time Bustamante," he said. "Because it's one team. One cannot say, 'Well, I had nothing to do with that mess,' because they both are together."
McClintock agreed. "I cannot imagine the people of California are going to vote to recall this governor for policies that have bankrupted our state and then turn right around and elect another Democrat to carry on precisely those same policies," he said. "That's just not rational behavior."
The governor and lieutenant governor, unlike the nation's president and vice president, are elected independently and do not run as a team.
Bustamante consultant Richie Ross said Schwarzenegger was "not being fair or completely honest."
"He chose Pete Wilson to chair his campaign. Does that mean that he agrees with all of the former governor's policy positions, including signing the largest tax increases in the history of California?" Ross told The Associated Press.
McClintock took a similar tack when he assailed Schwarzenegger as being vague on issues and refusing to take an ironclad "no-new-taxes" pledge.
"It does disturb me that Arnold's posture on taxes is identical to what Pete Wilson postured in 1990," he said. Republican Wilson sponsored what was then the state's largest tax increase to balance the budget during the recession of the early 1990s.
Schwarzenegger reiterated yesterday that while he opposes raising taxes, he wouldn't rule it out in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.
Ueberroth said he would call the Legislature back into session as soon as he takes office to begin work on a long-term solution to the state's financial troubles.
"Democrats and Republicans tell us the current budget is balanced, but already analysts are forecasting an $8 billion to $10 billion deficit by the end of the next fiscal year," Ueberroth said. "We think it could be worse and we can't afford to wait."
He called on the Legislature to place a spending cap proposal on the March ballot so it could be in place in time for the next state budget. Ueberroth also said he will ask legislators to forgo fund-raising during the special session, and in subsequent years until after a budget is approved.
"This recall is a mandate for change," he said. "Accepting these fund-raising limitations is a chance for legislators to show the voters they've heard the message."
Also yesterday, the 25 state Senate Democrats, who previously had simply opposed the recall, voted unanimously to expand their position to include a "yes" vote for Bustamante in case Davis is voted out.
"We feel that from the standpoint of Democrats, and from the standpoint of what we care about, having two bites of the apple is infinitely better than having one," said Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton, D-San Francisco.
The original Democratic strategy of protecting Davis by clearing the recall field of credible Democratic candidates was shattered by Bustamante's late entry into the race. Democratic solidarity has further eroded as some elected officials and interest groups have endorsed Bustamante as an insurance policy in case Davis is ousted.
Several labor unions, including the powerful California Teachers Association, have endorsed Bustamante along with opposing the recall. The California Labor Federation, the state's umbrella labor organization, will meet today in Manhattan Beach to decide whether to endorse Bustamante or stick with its original anti-recall game plan.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of former elected officials and two think tanks urged whoever emerges as governor after the Oct. 7 election to adopt a seven-point state budget reform. The group called for a two-year budget, a constitutional limit on spending and revenue, tax reform to ease revenue swings and aid local planning, performance reviews, procurement reforms, and "job-friendly" reforms of workers compensation and other programs.
The panel also said the governor and legislative leaders should appoint a 10-member commission to make politically sensitive decisions, much like a federal commission that recommends military base closures. |
