{"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