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Davis Out, Schwarzenegger Wins in Calif.
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LOS ANGELES - Californians banished Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) just 11 months into his second term and elected action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) to replace him Tuesday — a Hollywood ending to one of the most extraordinary political melodramas in the nation's history.
Voters traded a career Democratic politician who became one of the state's most despised chief executives for a moderate Republican megastar who had never before run for office. Davis became the first California governor pried from office and only the second nationwide to be recalled.
Schwarzenegger prevailed despite a flurry of negative publicity in the campaign's final days, surviving allegations that he had groped women and accusations that as a young man he expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler.
The 56-year-old Austrian immigrant — husband of television journalist Maria Shriver — finds himself in charge of the nation's most populated state with an economy surpassed only by those of several countries.
Schwarzenegger promised to return the shine to a Golden State beset by massive budget problems and riven by deep political divisions.
Voters faced two questions — whether to recall Davis, and who among the other candidates should replace him if he was removed. They chose to get rid of the incumbent and put Schwarzenegger in his place.
About seven in 10 voters interviewed in exit polls said they had made up their minds how they would vote on the recall question more than a month before the election.
Long lines were reported at polling places through the day. By late afternoon, Terri Carbaugh, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State, said a turnout of 60 percent appeared likely, higher than the 50.7 percent who voted in last November's gubernatorial election. It would be the highest percentage to vote in a gubernatorial election since 1982.
Re-elected last year with less than 50 percent of the vote, Davis fell victim to a groundswell of discontent in a state that has struggled with its perilous financial condition.
As colorless as his name, Davis was also known as a canny politician with sharp elbows. Once chief of staff to Gov. Jerry Brown, he rose through the political ranks as a state assemblyman, controller and lieutenant governor, before becoming governor in 1999.
By contrast, Schwarzenegger's political inexperience seemed a virtue to many voters.
The actor's improbable rise to political power played out before a rapt international audience. He announced his candidacy in August on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (news - Y! TV)" after aides said it was certain he wouldn't run.
Other major candidates seeking to replace Davis were the Democratic lieutenant governor, Cruz Bustamante (news - web sites), conservative Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock (news - web sites) and Green Party candidate Peter Camejo.
The campaign included a parade of bit players among the 135 candidates, including Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, former child actor Gary Coleman, a publicity-hungry porn actress who wanted to tax breast implants and an artist who dressed in all blue and described his candidacy as the ultimate piece of performance art.
The cast of characters and outsized ballot gave the campaign a carnival-like atmosphere and provided late-night comics with a stream of material.
But to many Californians, it was serious business.
"I'm horrified at the thought that Schwarzenegger can be our governor," said Gretchen Purser, 25, of Berkeley, who voted against recall. "I'm sick of Republicans trying to take over the state."
Ed Troupe, 69, of Thousand Oaks, voted yes for recall and for Schwarzenegger. "As far as I'm concerned," he said, "Gray Davis (news - web sites) is one of the dirtiest politicians I've ever encountered."
Though Schwarzenegger held a commanding lead over his rivals going into the final week, his campaign was shaken by allegations published in the Los Angeles Times just days before the election from six women who said he groped them or made unwanted sexual advances. Allegations continued to surface over the weekend, and by election day a total of 16 women had come forward.
Schwarzenegger also was confronted with reports that he had praised Hitler as a young man — accusations he disputed.
Responding to the sexual misconduct charges, Schwarzenegger acknowledged he had "behaved badly sometimes." But he attacked the newspaper and some of his accusers for what he called a last-minute effort to derail his candidacy.
Also Tuesday, voters considered ballot propositions to prohibit state and local governments from collecting racial data and dedicate money to public works projects.
Davis' plight reverberated across the nation, to the 18 other states that have initiative, referendum or recall provisions. If the state that brought us right-on-red is again a pioneer, perpetual campaigns could become common.
Davis stood to become only the second governor in U.S. history to be recalled, after North Dakota's Lynn Frazier in 1921. The cost of the election to California taxpayers was estimated at $67 million.
The victor will face daunting problems, including an ailing economy, a budget deficit now estimated at $8 billion and a tax-and-spending system many believe needs serious reform.
The recall movement was launched in February by grass-roots activists, angered over a tripling of the state vehicle license fee and a 30 percent to 40 percent increase in student fees at state colleges and universities — measures taken at the start of the year to try to close a whopping $38 billion deficit.
The movement really took off when Darrell Issa, a conservative congressman from San Diego County, poured $1.7 million of his fortune into the campaign to get the measure on the ballot.
Criticism of Davis mounted, with recall proponents claiming he squandered the state's $10 billion surplus in 2000 and lied to voters last fall when he was running for re-election to conceal the dire state of the economy. He also was accused of being slow to respond to the state's energy crisis in 2001 and presiding over a "pay to play" system that rewarded lobbyists and special interests for hefty campaign contributions.
Schwarzenegger cast himself as an outsider — he showed up at the Capitol on Sunday holding a broom to "clean house" — and claimed to be beholden to no special interests, even though he, too, accepted large campaign contributions from developers and major business interests.
Democrats portrayed the recall as part of a nationwide GOP power grab and sought to keep other Democrats off the ballot. But party unity was shattered when Bustamante, a moderate from the agriculture-rich Central Valley with a history of chilly relations with his boss, abandoned his pledge not to run. The first Hispanic elected to statewide office in more than 120 years, Bustamante was seeking to become California's first Hispanic governor since Romualdo Pacheco in 1875.
But it was Schwarzenegger who was the overpowering presence, even without the 22-inch biceps that made him Mr. Universe. Other GOP candidates such as businessman Bill Simon, former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth and Issa dropped out of the race, with Simon and Issa endorsing Schwarzenegger.
Tracked by national and international media, the Austrian immigrant found frenzied crowds wherever he went; flashing an iridescent smile, he tossed campaign T-shirts into adoring throngs. He raised at least $21.5 million for the race, some $10 million of which came from his own pocket (a sum that represented about a third of his salary for the movie "Terminator 3." )
All together, the candidates and the pro- and anti-recall campaigns raised at least $75 million.
The election was nearly derailed last month when a three-judge federal appeals court panel ordered the balloting postponed — perhaps until spring — because some counties planned to use the punch-card ballots that caused the recount mess in Florida in 2000. The court said tens of thousands of votes could go uncounted. But days later, an 11-judge panel of the same court unanimously ruled the election could go forward, saying too much time and money already had been spent on the election to stop it now.
While the field of replacement candidates included such entertaining players as Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and a porn actress who wanted to tax breast implants, to many Californians, it was serious business.
"I think we could be setting a dangerous precedent that other states might follow," said Evelyn Collaco, 63, of San Ramon. She said she was no fan of Davis, but was voting no on recall and for Bustamante.
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