The George W. Bush Years

In late October 2003 I was sent to California to cover a recall election. Democratic Governor Gray Davis was fighting to hold onto his office and being challenged by celebrity action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since Schwarzenegger was such a high profile star, and the political post so important, media interest in the story was intense.

There was a low bar to participate in the election. Candidates only needed to collect 65 signatures from their own party and pay a $3,500 fee to enter the race. (They could collect 10,000 signatures in lieu of paying the fee). The contest attracted an odd field of 135 candidates. Among some of the more well-known participants were Peter Ueberroth, who brought the ’84 Olympics to Los Angeles, (he dropped out early); Arianna Huffington, a political commentator, (she also dropped out and endorsed Davis); Larry Flynt, a famous pornographer (he finished 7th); Gary Coleman, a sitcom actor on the show Different Strokes, (he finished 8th); and Mary “Mary Carey” Cook, a porn star who wanted to make lap dances tax deductible, (she finished 10th).

Large crowds came to see Schwarzenegger, who was surging in the polls in the final week of the campaign. Then media reports appeared, detailing claims that the candidate had groped and sexually harassed at least fifteen women over the previous three decades. As the story broke, Schwarzenegger addressed the situation at his next rally. He told the crowd he “behaved badly sometimes”. He asked the voters for a chance to show that he had changed. Apparently it was enough. He defeated Gray Davis and the rest of the candidates, scoring a plurality of the votes, (48.6%). Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as Governor on November 17, 2003. He was re-elected in 2006.

In 2016 Schwarzenegger endorsed John Kasich for the office of President of the United States. When Trump became the Republican Party standard bearer, Arnold did not vote for him. When Trump left Celebrity Apprentice as President Elect, he was replaced by Schwarzenegger. There was a drop in the show’s ratings, and Trump used his Twitter account to blame Arnold for the drop. The action movie star tweeted back that he thought the two men should switch jobs!