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Recall secret weapon { October 9 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/09/national/09SHRI.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/09/national/09SHRI.html
October 9, 2003
Recall Race's No Longer `Secret' Weapon
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JIM RUTENBERG
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8 — Arnold Schwarzenegger bounded onto the stage to cheers and applause late Tuesday night, surrounded by Hollywood celebrities and Republican Party leaders, to deliver his first speech as governor-elect of California.
But first, there was an urgent bit of business to attend to, and Mr. Schwarzenegger turned to his wife, Maria Shriver. "I know how many votes I got today because of you," he said softly.
As Democrats and Republicans sought on Wednesday to grasp the unlikely rise of Mr. Schwarzenegger from action-movie hero to the Republican governor of a predominantly Democratic state, those first public words by Governor-elect Schwarzenegger told much of the story.
Ms. Shriver, a television journalist, a member of the Kennedy dynasty and a celebrity in her own right, played an increasingly pivotal role in electing her husband as the race moved into its intense final weeks.
After initially resisting the idea of her husband's entering politics, fearful of what it might do to her own career and family life, Ms. Shriver campaigned relentlessly at his side, deflecting accusations of sexual misconduct against him while enveloping him under the umbrella of the Kennedy name.
In the final campaign swing through California, Mr. Schwarzenegger and Ms. Shriver traveled with an entourage that included Ms. Shriver's mother, Eunice Shriver — a sister of John F. Kennedy — providing an image that pollsters said was precisely the kind of reassuring symbol that Democrats and moderate voters needed before voting Republican.
Similarly, the recurring image in the closing days of the campaign of Ms. Shriver at her husband's side — smiling, holding his arm and kissing him warmly as the cameras clicked — was, as one Republican said, perhaps the best rebuttal Mr. Schwarzenegger could have asked for to a daily barrage of articles about Mr. Schwarzenegger's advances on women.
"He would have been dead if she hadn't come to his side over the weekend," said Douglas Rivers, a professor of political science at Stanford University.
In truth, given the margin of Mr. Schwarzenegger's victory, he might well have succeeded even without his wife. But as a professional journalist and as member of a storied Democratic family, Ms. Shriver brought an extraordinary amount of validation to someone who was known much more for his work on movie screens than in public life, distinguishing her in the process from, say, what Hillary Rodham Clinton or Lee Hart did on behalf of their own embattled spouses.
Ms. Shriver did not respond to a request for an interview on Wednesday. But her friends, family members and campaign officials described her as a central force in Mr. Schwarzenegger's campaign, a unique figure who brought an unusual command of politics that came from growing up as a Kennedy, but also working as a journalist.
"She was like the secret weapon of the press office," said Todd Harris, a campaign press secretary. "She understands both sides of this business better than anyone on the planet and she was able to provide insightful guidance for those of us dealing with media issues with suggestions: `Do this,' `Don't do that."'
Ms. Shriver emerged in the unlikely position of being a Kennedy who helped orchestrate one of the Democratic Party's biggest defeats of the year, a recall that resulted in the ouster of Gov. Gray Davis. She is registered Democrat, aides said, whose father, Sargent Shriver, was George McGovern's running mate on the Democratic ticket in 1972.
And she was a journalist who was involved, several officials said, in the campaign's strategy of trying to deal with, often by discrediting, reports in The Los Angeles Times about her husband's sexual activities.
Her role was both private and public, though more private at the beginning of the campaign, reflecting what her friends and campaign aides said was her own hesitancy about what her husband was doing.
Campaign officials said Ms. Shriver was instrumental in pressing through a shakeup in its staff in the early difficult days of the Schwarzenegger campaign .Her brother, Timothy Shriver, who is very close to her, credited her with honing the campaign's central theme.
The message, Mr. Shriver said, was "Arnold is a change agent; Arnold is strong enough to make a change and compassionate enough to understand what the state needs."
Mr. Shriver said his sister was also emphatic that Mr. Schwarzenegger not change his personal style to adopt his new career — to not, for example, tone down a sense of humor that might seem unusual outside Hollywood. "She encouraged him to live in his own skin, the way he is, funny and affable and creative,' he said.
Another senior campaign adviser described her as critical a force in the campaign as it came under fire. "When she's in a fight, you look at her closely, you see Bobby Kennedy looking back at you, and you feel good about the fight," this aide said, referring to her fiercely loyal and determined uncle.
Ms. Shriver recoiled in the initial hours after the first of three Los Angeles Times articles about her husband's sexual activities hit, several associates said. . But within a day, friends said, her resolve to help her husband stiffened.
"She's a warrior when it comes to people she loves," said Wanda McDaniel, a friend who accompanied her on several campaign stops. "Maria is steel with a soft center. I saw her get a little steelier perhaps. But I think it was because she was determined that Arnold come out of this experience with his dignity intact."
She added, "As she said to me, `You know, as far as I'm concerned, everyone can listen to the L.A. Times, or they can listen to me.' "
Bonnie Reiss, a close friend of Ms. Shriver who was also an adviser on the campaign, said Ms. Shriver attended key meetings from the earliest days of the campaign. At one of those meetings, she said Ms. Shriver expressed rage at accusations that her husband was anti-immigrant because he supported a California ballot measure that would deny social services to illegal immigrants.
"She said, `For God's sake. you know how angry I get when I hear the press reporting my husabnd is anti-immigrant?"' Ms. Reiss recalled. "He is an immigrant."
The polls of those who cast votes suggested the ways in which Ms. Shriver helped her husband, both in terms of appealing to women and to moderates. In one finding that stunned and dispirited Democrats, there was just a minimal drop in his support among women.
Even after Mr. Schwarzenegger's victory, NBC News officials said they expected Ms. Shriver to return to her job as a correspondent and occasional anchor of "Dateline NBC." But they said it was unclear whether she will be able to do any political reporting.
Mr. Schwarzenegger, at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, again credited his wife for her help, and said that while he wanted her to be an active first lady, "I'm encouraging her to go back to her journalism profession, because she's an extraordinary journalist, and I want her to continue to do that, because I know it made her very happy."
Her brother suggested that his sister was "not going to be a first lady like you've ever seen." Asked if she would step into the political background, leaving the business of Sacramento to her husband as she returned to her duties at NBC News, he said: "She's not going to do five ribbon cuttings a day, let's put it that way. She's got too much going on."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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