{"id":617,"date":"2021-06-02T23:39:35","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T23:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/?p=617"},"modified":"2021-06-15T23:40:44","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T23:40:44","slug":"another-arnold-in-this-california-recall-would-it-even-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/another-arnold-in-this-california-recall-would-it-even-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Arnold in this California recall? Would it even matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much of the speculation surrounding the impending recall vote on California Gov.\u00a0Gavin Newsom<\/a><\/span>\u00a0has centered on whether another\u00a0Arnold Schwarzenegger<\/a>-type figure would enter the race and alter the dynamic, as happened in the 2003 recall that ripped Gov.\u00a0Gray Davis<\/a>\u00a0from office.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0Caitlyn Jenner<\/a>\u00a0announced her candidacy, some of the over-hyped coverage suggested she might be the Arnold of this recall. But her\u00a0stumbling start and unforced errors<\/a>\u00a0pretty quickly deflated that notion. And\u00a0recent polling by UC Berkeley<\/a>\u00a0put numbers to Jenner\u2019s plight: only 6 percent of voters indicated they were inclined to vote for her, versus an astonishing 76 percent who said they weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

So, if not Jenner, then who?<\/p>\n

Dwayne (\u201cThe Rock\u201d) Johnson? Vin Diesel? Hulk Hogan? \u201cThe Incredible Hulk,\u201d Lou Ferrigno? Fabio, maybe? I jest with some of these names, but the real question is: Would it even matter if another world-famous actor or athlete got into this race? We need to remember that California\u2019s last action-figure-as-governor act didn\u2019t end well.<\/p>\n

Yes, Schwarzenegger was elected in the 2003 recall, and he was easily reelected in 2006 against an inept, unlikable Democratic opponent. But by the time his seven-year governorship came to an end, Schwarzenegger was widely viewed by Californians as a bullying, blustering, bragging buffoon, a caricature of his Terminator persona, with his\u00a0job approval ratings in the 20s<\/a>. Voters were sick of his name-calling, his cheesy publicity stunts and photo-ops, and wobbling back and forth between being a right-winger and a moderate.<\/p>\n

There were no fond-farewell going-away parties before he turned the reins over to Jerry Brown, except maybe among his own paid staff. The NPR headline the day he left office in 2011 said it all: \u201cNo Hollywood Ending to Schwarzenegger\u2019s Term<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A profile published on January 1, 2011, in Los Angeles magazine, with the sub-head \u201cThe Rise and Fall of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger<\/a>\u201d summed it up nicely:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Arnold Schwarzenegger steps down this month, California voters can only marvel that a leader of such apparent strength is leaving the Golden State such a weakling \u2014 its institutions eroded and its finances more of a mess than when he took over from Gray Davis\u2026[Few] would have dared predict that by his last summer in office, the governor who had entered the statehouse a movie star would bottom out with a 22 percent public approval rating, tying Davis for the lowest recorded approval rating [of any governor] in California history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, that wasn\u2019t even Schwarzenegger\u2019s low. When it was revealed after he left office that he had fathered a son out of wedlock with his family housekeeper, his numbers went into the sub-basement. A\u00a0Field Poll published in June of 2011<\/a>\u00a0under the headline \u201cSchwarzenegger tanks after revelation,\u201d found his approval at just 20 percent, and disapproval at an astronomical 75 percent.<\/p>\n

Of course, there was also the more recent national sequel: a reality TV show host with not a day\u2019s experience in government or governing being elected president of the United States, never reaching 50 percent job approval rating, getting impeached twice, and being thrown out on his ear after just one term.<\/p>\n

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So, while all the musings about \u201cIs there another Arnold out there\u201d are kind of fun, let\u2019s not forget that \u2014 in terminology Schwarzenegger himself would understand \u2014 Californians have seen that movie before, and they didn\u2019t like how it ended.<\/p>\n

Garry South is a California-based Democratic strategist and commentator who managed Gray Davis\u2019s successful campaigns for governor of that state in 1998 and 2002 and was senior political advisor to Gov. Davis.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much of the speculation surrounding the impending recall vote on California Gov.\u00a0Gavin Newsom\u00a0has centered on whether another\u00a0Arnold Schwarzenegger-type figure would enter the race and alter the dynamic, as happened in the 2003 recall that ripped Gov.\u00a0Gray Davis\u00a0from office. When\u00a0Caitlyn Jenner\u00a0announced her candidacy, some of the over-hyped coverage suggested she might be the Arnold of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":618,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions\/618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}