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Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (German pronunciation (IPA): ) (born July 30, 1947 in Thal bei Graz, Steiermark, Austria) is an Austrian-born bodybuilder, actor and Republican politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. He was elected on October 7, 2003 in a special recall election to replace then-Governor Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger was sworn in on November 17, 2003, to serve the remainder of Davis' term, which lasts until January 8, 2007. On September 16, 2005 he officially announced that he will seek re-election to a full term in California's 2006 gubernatorial election. Nicknamed "The Austrian Oak" in his body-building days, and more recently "The Governator" (a portmanteau of Governor and Terminator, after the blockbuster film roles), Schwarzenegger as a young man gained widespread attention as a highly successful bodybuilder, and later gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action film star. Perhaps his most famous film is The Terminator, with other famous movies including Predator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, True Lies, Kindergarten Cop, Total Recall, Junior, Jingle All The Way, and his Hollywood breakthrough film Conan the Barbarian.
Personal background Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria, a town bordering the Styrian capital, Graz, and christened Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger. His parents were the local police chief Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907-1972), and his wife, the former Aurelia Jadrny (1922-1998), who had been married on October 20, 1945, when he was 38 and she was a 23-year-old widow. Arnold had a good relationship with his mother and kept in touch with her until her death. Gustav was a strict and demanding father, who generally favored the elder of his two sons, Meinhard. Meinhard died in a car accident in 1971, and Gustav died the following year. In Pumping Iron, Schwarzenegger claimed his reason for not attending his father's funeral was that he was training for a bodybuilding contest, although both he and the film's producer later stated that this story was taken from another bodybuilder, for the purpose of showing the extremes that some would go to for their sport. As a boy, Schwarzenegger played many sports, but discovered his passion for bodybuilding when in his mid-teens, his soccer coach took the team for weight training. He attended a gym in Graz, where he also frequented the local cinemas, viewing his idols such as musclemen Reg Park, Steve Reeves, and Johnny Weissmuller on the big screen. He was so dedicated as a youngster that he was known to break into his local gym so that he could train on weekends when it was usually closed. Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian army in 1965, to fulfill the one-year service requirement expected at the time of all 18 year old Austrian males. During this year he snuck off the base to compete in his first bodybuilding competition, the Mr. Junior Europe, where he won first place. He was punished for sneaking off, but the respect he gained from his superiors was obvious: his drill sergeant once yelled at a group of soldiers, "Why don't you be more like Schwarzenegger!" Schwarzenegger made his first plane trip in 1966, attending the NABBA Mr. Universe competition being held in London. He arrived in the United Kingdom knowing little English, and it was here he first started being referred to as The Austrian Oak (or The Styrian Oak), due to his large build and the story of him performing chin ups from the limb of an Oak tree on the banks of the river Thalersee, the lake of his hometown. He would come in second in the competition, but would win the title the next year, becoming the youngest ever Mr. Universe (at age 20). Schwarzenegger moved to the United States in September of 1968, with little money or knowledge of the English language, and trained at Gold's Gym in Santa Monica under the patronage of Joe Weider. It is here where Schwarzenegger became good friends with professional wrestler, "Superstar" Billy Graham. During this time, his 1977 autobiography Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder was published. Also in 1977, Arnold Schwarzenegger declared, "Milk is for babies" in Pumping Iron, the documentary about bodybuilders that launched the Austrian’s superstar career (see*). He earned a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where he graduated with degrees in international marketing of fitness and business administration in 1979. Schwarzenegger became a U.S. citizen in 1983, although he also retains his Austrian citizenship. In 1986, Schwarzenegger married TV journalist Maria Shriver, niece of the late President of the United States John F. Kennedy. The couple have four children: daughters Katherine (born December 13, 1989) and Christina (b. July 23, 1991), and sons Patrick (b.September 18, 1993) and Christopher (b. September 27, 1997). Bodybuilding career The 6'2" Schwarzenegger first gained fame as a bodybuilder. One of the first competitions he won was Junior Mr. Europe in 1965. He would go on to compete in and win many bodybuilding (as well as some powerlifting) contests, including 4 NABBA Mr. Universe wins and 7 Mr. Olympia wins, a record which would remain until Lee Haney won his eighth straight Mr. Olympia title in 1991. In 1967 Schwarzenegger won the Munich stone lifting contest in which a stone weighing 508 German pounds, approximately 560 English pounds, is lifted between the legs while standing on two foot rests. Arnold broke the existing record, winning the contest. Schwarzenegger's goal was to become the greatest bodybuilder in the world, which meant becoming Mr. Olympia. His first attempt was in 1969 where he lost to three-time champion Sergio Oliva. However Schwarzenegger came back in 1970 and convincingly won the competition. Schwarzenegger continued his winning streak in the 1971, 1972, and 1973 competitions. In 1974, Schwarzenegger was once again in top form and won the title for the fifth consecutive time, besting Lou Ferrigno. After the 1974 Olympia, Schwarzenegger announced his retirement from professional bodybuilding. However, George Butler and Charles Gaines convinced him to compete one more time so they could make the bodybuilding documentary called Pumping Iron. Schwarzenegger had only three months to prepare for the competition after losing significant weight to appear in the film Stay Hungry with Jeff Bridges. Ferrigno proved not to be a threat, and a lighter than usual Schwarzenegger convincingly won the 1975 Olympia. After being declared Mr. Olympia for a sixth consecutive time Schwarzenegger once again retired from competition. Schwarzenegger came out of retirement once more to compete in the 1980 Mr. Olympia. Schwarzenegger was a late entry and won with only eight weeks of preparation. At the time, this lead to some controversy, some claiming that the Olympia had become a "popularity contest" rather than an objectively judged competition. Schwarzenegger is considered among the most important figures in the history of bodybuilding, and his legacy is commemorated in the Arnold Classic annual bodybuilding competition. Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent face in the bodybuilding sport long after his retirement, in part due to his ownership of gyms and fitness magazines. He has presided over numerous contests and awards shows. For many years he wrote a monthly column for the bodybuilding magazines Muscle & Fitness and Flex. Shortly after being elected Governor, he was appointed executive editor of both magazines in a largely symbolic capacity. The magazines agreed to donate $250,000 a year to the Governor's various physical fitness initiatives. The magazine MuscleMag International has a monthly two page article on him and refers to him as "The King". It has been claimed that Schwarzenegger won his first of seven Mr. Olympia titles in 1970 with the help of Dianabol (see *). He has admitted to using performance-enhancing anabolic steroids while they were legal, writing in 1977 that "steroids were helpful to me in maintaining muscle size while on a strict diet in preparation for a contest. I did not use them for muscle growth, but rather for muscle maintenance when cutting up." However, some bodybuilders who used the same steroid cocktails as Schwarzenegger in the 1970s dispute the notion that they were used merely for "muscle maintenance". Even Schwarzenegger has called the drugs "tissue building." As recently as 2005, Schwarzenegger has been accused of tacit endorsement of steroid use, because the Arnold Classic competition to which he lends his name does not require testing of contestants. Most if not all contestants in the bodybuilding portion of the Arnold Classic display muscle mass that is virtually impossible without chemical assistance. In 1999, Schwarzenegger sued Dr. Willi Heepe, a German doctor who publicly predicted an early death for the bodybuilder based on a link between steroid use and later heart problems. Because the doctor had never examined him personally, Schwarzenegger collected a DM 20,000 ($12,000 USD) libel judgment against him in a German court. In 1999 Schwarzenegger also sued and settled with Globe Magazine, a U.S. tabloid which had made similar predictions about the bodybuilder's future health. As late as 1996, a year before open heart surgery to replace an aortic valve, Schwarzenegger publicly defended his use of anabolic steroids during his bodybuilding career. Schwarzenegger was born with a bicuspid aortic valve; a normal aorta has three leaflets. According to a spokesman, Schwarzenegger has not used anabolic steroids since 1990 when they were made illegal. Bodybuilding contests See Achievements of Arnold Schwarzenegger Business/Investment career By the age of 30, Schwarzenegger was a millionaire, well before his career in Hollywood. His financial independence came from a series of successful business ventures and investments: In 1968, Schwarzenegger and fellow bodybuilder Franco Columbu started a bricklaying business. The business flourished both because of the pair's marketing savvy and increased demand following a major Los Angeles earthquake in 1971. Schwarzenegger and Columbu used profits from their bricklaying venture to start a mail order business, selling bodybuilding and fitness-related equipment and instructional tapes. Schwarzenegger rolled profits from the mail order business and his bodybuilding competition winnings into his first real estate venture: an apartment building he purchased for $10,000. He would go on to invest in a number of real estate holding companies. Roles
Filmography See Achievements of Arnold Schwarzenegger Planet Hollywood Arnold Schwarzenegger was a founding "celebrity investor" in the Planet Hollywood chain of international theme restaurants (modeled after the Hard Rock Cafe) along with Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Demi Moore. Schwarzenegger severed his financial ties with the business in 2000. Political career
Political affiliation
Venturing into politics Schwarzenegger was appointed Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in the administration of George H. W. Bush from 1990 to 1993. During that time, Schwarzenegger traveled across the U.S. promoting physical fitness to kids and lobbying all 50 governors in support of school fitness programs. "He would hit sometimes two or three governors in a day in his own airplane, at his own expense, somewhere around $4,000 an hour," said George Otott, his chief of staff at the time. "When he walked in, it wasn't about the governor, it was about Arnold," said Otott, a retired Marine. "He has what we in the military call a command presence. He becomes the number one attention-getter." He later served as Chairman for the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under Governor Pete Wilson. Schwarzenegger scored his first real political success on November 5, 2002, when Californians approved his personally crafted and sponsored Proposition 49, the "After School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002," an initiative to make state grants available for after-school programs. 2003 California Recall Election For years, Schwarzenegger had discussed with friends, potential donors, advisors and political allies a possible run for high political office. On April 10, 2003 at the Los Angeles Peninsula Hotel, for example, he met with Republican political operative Karl Rove to discuss a future campaign. Seized emails from Enron show that Schwarzenegger also met with Ken Lay on May 17 2001 at the Peninsula Hotel where Lay lobbied business leaders and future gubernatorial candidates such as Richard Riordan and Bill Simon to support a solution to the California energy crisis that included an end to "countless investigations into allegations that suppliers manipulated power prices." In March of 2001, Schwarzenegger was asked to run for governor by the California Republican Party. In the months leading to the recall election, Schwarzenegger was widely rumored to be considering a run at becoming Governor of California. In the July 2003 issue of Esquire Magazine, he said, "Yes, I would love to be governor of California ... If the state needs me, and if there's no one I think is better, then I will run." When a petition to recall Democratic governor Gray Davis qualified for the ballot on July 24, Schwarzenegger left many wondering whether he would jump into the contest. Schwarzenegger was just wrapping up a promotional tour for Terminator 3 and said he would announce his decision on whether to run on August 6 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In the days and even hours leading up to the show's taping, political experts and insiders concluded that Schwarzenegger was leaning against running in California's October 7 recall election. Even his closest advisors said he was probably not going to run. Rumors leading up to the announcement said that his wife, Maria Shriver, a Kennedy family Democrat, was against his running, and he wanted her approval in order to run. When announcing his candidacy on the Tonight Show, he joked, "It's the most difficult decision I've made in my entire life, except the one I made in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax". Ultimately, Shriver said she would support Schwarzenegger no matter what he chose, so he decided to run. Schwarzenegger told Leno, "The politicians are fiddling, fumbling and failing. The man that is failing the people more than anyone is Gray Davis. He is failing them terribly, and this is why he needs to be recalled and this is why I am going to run for governor of the state of California." As a candidate in the recall election, Schwarzenegger had the most name recognition in a crowded field of candidates, but he had never held public office and his political views were unknown to most Californians. His candidacy was immediate national and international news, with media outlets dubbing him the "Governator" (referring to The Terminator movies, see above) and "The Running Man" (the name of another of his movies), and calling the recall election "Total Recall" (ditto) and "Terminator 4: Rise of the Candidate" (referring to his movie Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines). Schwarzenegger was quick to make use of his well-known one-liners, promising to "pump up Sacramento, California" (the state capital) and tell Gray Davis hasta la vista. At the end of his first press conference, he told the audience "I'll be back." Schwarzenegger looked to follow in the footsteps of former California governor and one-time movie star Ronald Reagan. However, due to his status as a naturalized citizen, he will never be eligible to seek the Presidency unless the Constitution were to be amended, which is highly unlikely (as proposed in 2000 by Congressman Barney Frank (Democratic - Massachusetts), and in July 2003 (the Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment) by Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican-Utah)). (In yet another filmic foreshadowing, in the Stallone film Demolition Man, there is reference made to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Presidential Library, implying that in the future, the naturalization issue was settled, leading to Arnold becoming President.) Among his campaign team were Democratic actor Rob Lowe, billionaire Democrat Warren Buffett, and moderate Republican George Shultz (former Nixon and Reagan aide) implying that Schwarzenegger's desire for the presidency is better kept on film than in reality. Allegations of sexual and personal misconduct It is worth noting that Schwarzenegger was never indicted, let alone charged or convicted of any sexual or personal miscounduct. However, during the campaign, allegations of sexual and personal misconduct were raised against Schwarzenegger (see Gropegate). Within the last five days before the election, news reports appeared in the Los Angeles Times recounting allegations of sexual misconduct from several individual women, sixteen of whom eventually came forward with their personal stories. Chronologically, they ranged from Elaine Stockton, who claimed that Schwarzenegger groped her breast at a Gold's Gym in 1975 (she was 19 at the time), to a 51 year old woman who said that he pinned her to his chest and spanked her shortly after she met him in connection with production of his film, The Sixth Day, in 2000. Schwarzenegger admitted that he has "behaved badly sometimes" and apologized, but also stated that "a lot of (what) you see in the stories is not true". This came after an interview in adult magazine Oui from 1977 surfaced, in which Schwarzenegger discussed attending sexual orgies and indulging in drugs like marijuana. Schwarzenegger is shown smoking a marijuana cigarette after winning Mr. Olympia in the 1977 documentary film Pumping Iron. Former television personality Anna Richardson settled a libel lawsuit in August 2006 against Schwarzenegger and two of his top aides, Sean Walsh and publicist Sheryl Main. Richardson alleges that the California governor had groped her breast during a 2000 interview in London, England, to promote The Sixth Day, in which he had starred as an actor. Although, during his 2003 election campaign, Schwarzenegger had promised to respond to the allegations of sexual harassment by Richardson and several other women, he failed to do so after being elected. The groping followed Richardson's remark to Schwarzenegger that her breasts were "real," rather than the results of surgical breast augmentation. Main recalls the incident somewhat differently, claiming that she cupped one of her breasts and asked the actor-become-governor what he thought about them. According to information that Schwarzenegger has publicized, he has spent $600,000 in his legal defenses of himself and his aides against libel. *. Allegations of Nazi admiration and support of Kurt Waldheim Allegations printed on the front page of The Los Angeles Times, based on selective quotation, which Schwarzenegger claimed not to recall, were also made that he at one time admired Adolf Hitler and had praised him as a great propagandist. However, the full text of the statement from which the quotation was taken significantly reduces the credibility of the allegations. Although Schwarzenegger's father was in fact a member of the Nazi party (specifically a member of the Sturmabteilung), Schwarzenegger has been a strong supporter of various Jewish groups, and has denounced the principles of the fascist German regime, saying "I have always despised everything that Hitler stands for". In the uncut version of the documentary film Pumping Iron, Arnold was said to have given a Nazi salute and also to have said that he admired Hitler. A March 1992 Spy Magazine article mentions a story confirmed by "a businessman and longtime friend of Schwarzenegger's" -- that in the '70s Arnold "enjoyed playing and giving away records of Hitler's speeches" Schwarzenegger supported the campaign of his friend, Kurt Waldheim, former UN chief and a former Austrian politician who was accused of war crimes during World War II in Yugoslavia, which resulted in both Waldheim, and his wife, Elisabeth, both of whom belonged to the Nazi Party, being excluded from entering the United States. Schwarzenegger's name remained on Waldheim's campaign posters, even after allegations of Waldheim's war crimes were brought to light. Waldheim was also invited to Arnold's wedding with Maria Shriver, but declined. These allegations were brought up mainly in the context of his campaign, but they continue to be occasionally used by some critics. Garry Trudeau, the cartoonist behind the comic strip Doonesbury, combined the allegations by nicknaming Schwarzenegger "Herr Gröpenführer" (after the early paramilitary Nazi rank Gruppenführer) and depicting Schwarzenegger as a huge, groping hand in his artwork (Trudeau has a tradition of depicting prominent real-world politicians using symbolism, such as showing President George H.W. Bush as nothing, Vice President Dan Quayle as a feather, and President Bill Clinton as a waffle). Recall election On October 7, 2003, the recall election resulted in Governor Gray Davis being removed from office with 55.4% of the Yes vote in favor of a recall. Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California under the second question on the ballot with 48.6% of the vote to choose a successor to Davis. Schwarzenegger defeated Democrat Cruz Bustamante, fellow Republican Tom McClintock, and others. In total, Schwarzenegger won the election by about 1.3 million votes. Under the regulations of the California Constitution, no runoff election was required. Schwarznegger was sworn into office on November 17, 2003. Schwarzenegger's inauguration was opened by Vanessa Lynn Williams, his co-star from Eraser, singing the National Anthem. Hollywood attendees included Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Dennis Miller and Rob Lowe (only Miller is a Republican). The Schwarzenegger children joined others in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, then Maria Shriver spoke and held the Bible while Schwarzenegger was sworn into the office of Governor. He spoke briefly: "Today is a new day in California. I did not seek this office to do things the way they've always been done. What I care about is restoring your confidence in your government... This election was not about replacing one man. It was not replacing one party. It was about changing the entire political climate of our state." Governorship In his first few hours in office Schwarzenegger fulfilled his campaign promise to repeal an unpopular 200% increase in vehicle license fees undertaken to fund the state's budget. The increase was a restoration to 1998 levels. On his first full day in office, Schwarzenegger proposed a three-point plan to address the budget woes. First, Schwarzenegger proposed floating $15,000,000,000 (USD) in bonds. Second, he urged voters to pass a constitutional amendment to limit state spending. Third, he sought an overhaul of workers' compensation. Schwarzenegger also called the state legislature into a special session and said that spending cuts would also be necessary. He initiated the cuts by agreeing to serve as governor with no salary, a saving of $175,000 (USD) per year. To fulfill the first two points, he urged California voters to pass Proposition 57 and Proposition 58 in the March 2, 2004, election, which authorized the sale of $15 billion in bonds and mandated balanced budgets, respectively. Despite initially tepid support from the public, the combination of heavy campaigning by Schwarzenegger, endorsements from a number of leading Democrats, and warnings about the dire consequences should the propositions fail to pass, led to majority votes in favor of the two propositions. Prop. 57 passed with 63.3% of the votes in favor and Prop. 58 passed with 71.0% in favor. He accomplished the third point when he signed a workers' compensation reform bill on April 19, 2004. Schwarzenegger convinced the Democratic-controlled state legislature to approve the package by threatening to take the issue directly to state voters in a November ballot initiative if the legislature did not act. The economic moves had the effect of up-grading the International Bond Market's projections for the California market at least three points. Before, during the Gray Davis Administration, the State of California had the bond-grading of Bulgaria or Lithuania. After Governor Schwarzenegger addressed the finances, the bond-rating went up three points and saved the State of California over $20 Billion dollars in bond-rated interest over ten years. Schwarzenegger was later criticized for reneging on his campaign pledges not to take money from special interests and for failing to answer directly the sexual harassment allegations raised by the Los Angeles Times immediately preceding the recall election. However, Schwarzenegger made a point shortly after becoming governor of voluntarily attending a training course conducted by the state Attorney General's office on preventing sexual harassment (along with several members of his senior staff). Schwarzenegger continues to collect campaign contributions from private interests (see *) at a greater rate than any politician in California history, including Gray Davis, whom he criticized on that very issue. In February 2004 when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, ordered a change in the certificate application documents to allow for same-sex marriages, Governor Schwarzenegger opposed the move as being beyond the powers of the mayor but also said that he supports gay rights and has expressed support for a law to grant civil unions to gay couples. In 2005 when he vetoed a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriages he defended his actions by saying that California voters had passed an initiative banning such recognition and that he supports that state's domestic partnership law that gives same-sex couples many of the same rights as a heterosexual married couple. Still, critics have observed that there is no federal requirement that other states recognize a state-granted domestic partnership, as is the case with marriages under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution. Also in February 2004, he declined amnesty to convicted murderer Kevin Cooper who had asked him for clemency in his death penalty sentence. Cooper's planned execution was stayed by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pending a revisiting of evidence. The first execution under his administration was that of Donald Beardslee. An Austrian Green Party spokesman, Peter Pilz, later called for Schwarzenegger to be stripped of his Austrian citizenship. Pilz claimed that Austrian law forbids any Austrian citizen from taking part in or ordering executions, although there is little chance of Schwarzenegger losing his Austrian citizenship. The governor has granted clemency to a number of convicted felons – more than Democratic predecessor Gray Davis, who presided over numerous executions. The power of clemency is often controversial. After a longer period of consideration than is usual, on December 12, 2005, Schwarzenegger denied clemency to quadruple murderer Stanley Tookie Williams, who was executed on December 13. In a statement Schwarzenegger argued not on the grounds that Williams' actions were beyond atonement: instead he appeared to acknowledge that atonement was possible, but Williams had not done so, Schwarzenegger stating that "the one thing (apologizing for the four murders he committed) that would be the clearest indication of complete remorse and full redemption is the one thing Williams will not do." Despite expectations that Schwarzenegger would be vulnerable to opposition critics once taking office, his early governorship showed some successes. He has dealt successfully with California politicians as diverse as John Burton on the left to Tom McClintock on the right. At the end of May, 2004, the Field poll put his popularity at 65%, the highest for a California governor in 45 years, including 41% of Democrats, party adherents of his opposition. By comparison, former United States President Ronald Reagan, known as "the Great Communicator," never hit 60% approval while serving as California governor. In March, 2004 libertarian policy research foundation, The Cato Institute, rated him 1st in their 2004 fiscal policy report card (see *) of the tax and spending policies of the nation's governors. In July 2004, however, Schwarzenegger and the state legislature deadlocked, failing to approve the state budget on time. Trying to rouse public support for his position, he compared lawmakers to kindergarteners who need a "timeout," and in a rally of supporters called his budget opponents "girlie men" (a reference to a long-running Saturday Night Live skit parodying Schwarzenegger). He said about the legislators: "They are part of a bureaucracy that is out of shape, that is out of date, that is out of touch and that is definitely out of control in Sacramento. They cannot have the guts to come out there in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you. I want to represent those special interests: the unions, the trial lawyers.' ... if they don’t have the guts, I call them girlie-men. They should get back to the table and they should finish the budget". The remark became national news and was not received well by his opponents, including gay advocacy and feminist groups who labeled it homophobic and sexist, in spite of his earlier support for gay rights (see the Gavin Newsom incident above), not to mention the legislators themselves. Others however, were quick to claim that the critics were expressing a sentiment of latent homophobia themselves because they automatically connected the phrase "girlie-men" with homosexuals. The term "girlie-man" was arguably the Governor taking a bit of a pot-shot at himself, as the phrase is derived from the popular Saturday Night Live sketch "Pumping Up With Hanz and Franz" where two Austrian bodybuilders chastise those not sufficiently bulked up as "girlie men." His supporters made "girly men" T-shirts and the Governor continued to use the term, including when he addressed the Republican National Convention in NYC, calling critics of the current U.S. economic situation "economic girlie men". Despite what some viewed as political snags during the summer, the Field polls released in August and October 2004 showed that Schwarzenegger's approval rating remained at 65%. Additionally, in October, for the first time in four years a plurality of Californians felt the state was "on the right track". However, when asked if they would support Schwarzenegger if he could run for president, 50% said they would oppose, while only 26% said they would support the governor in a presidential bid. Spring 2005 In the spring of 2005, polls began showing Schwarzenegger's approval ratings had dropped to between 40-49%. On June 13, 2005, Schwarzenegger called a statewide special election for November 8, 2005, to vote on a series of reform measures he initially proposed in his 2005 State of the State address. A non-partisan Field Poll poll released a week later showed his support had dropped to 37%, one of the lowest approval ratings for any California governor and barely above the support of recalled former Governor, Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger's spokesman responded that Schwarzenegger had not yet had enough time to explain his proposals to voters. The Legislature also shared low approval ratings, with just 24% of voters saying they approve of the job lawmakers have been doing. That represents a drop of 10% since February. The governor has responded that the poll sends a "very clear message to us. They are saying they want us to work together." He has also responded "I know popularity goes up and down... as soon as you start making decisions and strong decisions, sometimes they're not popular decisions". Republicans have claimed that the drop in popularity was due to a multi-million dollar ad campaign by various groups such as unions for nurses, police and firefighters, who opposed his plans for the state pension and his administration's lawsuit to delay implementation of a nurse-to-patient staffing ratio plan. In late June 2005, another non-partisan Field Poll had similar numbers as the earlier one, finding that 57% of California voters are not inclined to elect Schwarzenegger to a second term as Governor in 2006. When asked about the lessons of the poll, Schwarzenegger has responded "People make mistakes sometimes, and I think that we learn. ... These are very clear messages that we must work together, and so I am looking forward to that." To some degree, Governor Schwarzenegger's unpopularity has had to do with his confrontations with three popular labor groups: nurses, teachers, and firefighters. Some unions and activists reacted with anger. Accusation of conflict of interest While governor, Schwarzenegger continued to hold a position of executive editor of two American Media magazines. He announced in March 2004 that his $250,000 a year salary would be donated to charity. Schwarzenegger has an extensive history with the magazines and was frequently their star in his body-building days. As executive editor, he produces monthly columns based on his body-building history. Schwarzenegger drew fire when a second contract, a consulting position, was subsequently discovered in SEC filings, by the L.A. Times. This second contract would net him an estimated $8,000,000 (USD) over the next five years. His consulting duties are not clear, except that the job allegedly "takes up little time". The New York Times further reported (on July 15) that under the five-year November 2003 contract, signed two days before his inauguration as Governor, Oak Productions, Mr. Schwarzenegger's company, is to receive 1% of the net print advertising revenues of Weider Publications. But the payment must be at least $1,000,000 (USD) per year. Mr. Schwarzenegger has also been granted phantom equity, a way of sharing in the growth of the value of the company. The equity could become worth 1% of the company's value, which was stated at the time of the contract as $520,000,000 (USD)". This contract was seen as a conflict of interest by critics, who note that the magazines receive much of their revenue from advertisements for dietary supplements, a government-regulated industry affected by Schwarzenegger's veto (September 2004) of a bill that would ban schools from accepting sponsorships from firms that make performance-enhancing dietary supplements. In Schwarzenegger's reason for his veto, he drew a distinction between performance-enhancing dietary supplements and steroid usage, which he says is what needs to be prevented in high school students. Supporters point out that he didn't sign into law a bill that prohibited companies from selling the supplements to minors. Following the accusation, Schwarzenegger responded he would end the contracts with the magazines. In August 2005, the Washington Post reported that American Media had paid former TV actress Gigi Goyette, $20,000 (USD) to keep silent about a seven-year affair Schwarzenegger had with her beginning in 1975, when Goyette was 16 years old. Because the age of consent in California is 18 years, Schwarzenegger may have committed statutory rape. In addition, American Media's knowledge of the Goyette affair put it in a position of being able to blackmail Schwarzenegger, providing further reason for Schwarzenegger to align his interests with theirs. Also in August, the Los Angeles Times reported that five non-profit organizations had collected $3,000,000 (USD), chiefly from large businesses, in order to help defray Schwarzenegger's personal and political expenses, including the rent on the $6,000-a-month hotel suite that Schwarzenegger uses when in Sacramento. The governor's spokesman subsequently reported that Schwarzenegger had directed the disclosure of the contributors to the "residence fund". Autumn (Fall) 2005 On September 29, 2005, Schwarzenegger vetoed the California gay marriage bill after it had passed both houses of the legislature. He stated that he vetoed the bill because he felt that it was in opposition to the will of the voters as expressed by Proposition 22, which had passed in 2000 with 61.4% of the vote. Proposition 22 stated that only marriages between a man and a woman would be recognized in the state of California. On September 16, 2005, Schwarzenegger announced that he would seek a second term as governor. Despite his initially high approval ratings, a Field Poll conducted the week before indicated that only 36% of California voters were inclined to reelect him. Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 469 (Bowen) on October 7, 2005. It would have required people circulating petitions to say whether the signature gatherers are volunteers or are being paid to collect signatures. Running up to the November special election, Schwarzenegger campaigned heavily throughout the state for his slate of propositions. Through an organization called "Join Arnold," tens of millions of dollars were funneled into the state, mostly from corporate interests, to fund the campaign. Schwarzenegger even reportedly spent 7,000,000 (USD) of his own money. Schwarzenegger characterized the four propositions as being key to his reform agenda. State unions and other groups opposed to the measures spent large sums of money opposing Schwarzenegger. Total spending by both sides leading up to the election was estimated at $300,000,000 (USD). In the November 8, 2005 special election, California voters dealt a devastating blow to Schwarzenegger by soundly rejecting all four ballot initiatives that Schwarzenegger had proposed to reform the state government. All propositions were defeated by a margin of at least 7 percentage points. The two propositions most key to Schwarzenegger's agenda, propositions 76 and 77, were defeated by 24 and 19 points respectively. The defeat left Schwarzenegger significantly weakened politically, depriving him of the one source of leverage he had against the Democratic legislature. Some opponents took to calling him "the One-terminator," a play on his popular role as "the Terminator" in films, implying that his chances of winning re-election had been diminished. In the aftermath of the election, Schwarzenegger has moved back to the center. He has hired a former aide of Gray Davis as his chief of staff, and is working with California State Senate Majority Leader, Don Perata, for development of a bond, estimated in the billions of dollars, to accelerate construction of infrastructure such as freeways and waterworks. However, Governor Schwarzenegger's attempts to redeem his political career via the bond measures fell apart in March 2006, largely due to his inability to gain Republican support for the negotiated bond plan. Democratic legislators had pressed Schwarzenegger to emphasize in the bond offering those areas that broadly benefitted the population of the state, while the Republican minority in the legislature pushed for the interests of business and agriculture. The Governor found himself in an impossible situation, as he needed the support of both the Republicans and Democrats to achieve the two-thirds vote to establish the June bond measure. He chose to endorse the Democratic initiatives in the bond measure, but lost the support of the Republicans in the Legislature. Despite a week of tense, last-minute attempts to compromise, the Republican and Democratic legislators held fast, leading to gridlock. Both the Governor and Legislature have stated their desire to put some bond measure on the November 2006 ballot, and those bond measures are Propositions 1A through 1E on the ballot. May 2006 - September 2006
Campaign 2006 Electoral history See Achievements of Arnold Schwarzenegger Trivia Pilz claimed that Schwarzenegger's actions in support of the death penalty (prohibited in Austria under Protocol 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights) had indeed done heavy damage to Austria's reputation. Schwarzenegger justified his actions by referring to the fact that his only duty as Governor of California was to prevent an error in the judicial system. "Schwarzenegger has a lot of muscles, but apparently not much heart," said Julien Dray, spokesman for the Socialist Party in France, where the death penalty was abolished in 1981. Net worth Schwarzenegger's net worth has been under-estimated by conservatively using the usual $100,000,000-$200,000,000 (USD) estimate. However, over the years, he invested his bodybuilding and movie earnings in an array of stocks, bonds, privately controlled companies and real estate holdings in the US and worldwide, so his fortune is actually estimated at $800,000,000 (USD). Bibliography The Bible of Bodybuilding, 1985, Fully Updated and Revised, Simon & Schuster, 1999, ISBN 0684857219 The Life and Times of Arnold Schwarzenegger, from Pumping Iron to Governor of California, Bloomsbury USA, Revised edition, 2004, ISBN 1582344655 A Photodiary of His First 100 Days in Office, Simon & Schuster, 2004, ISBN 0743262662 Official Election Websites Unofficial | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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