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Schwarzenegger holds leads despite allegations { October 6 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
Schwarzenegger still holds lead
Compiled by Our Staff From Dispatches AP, AFP, Reuters
Monday, October 6, 2003
But California poll also indicates second thoughts on recall
As Arnold Schwarzenegger was close to wrapping up his campaign for governor of California, a poll showed that he still held the lead among the dozens of candidates, despite allegations that he had groped women and had once expressed admiration for Hitler.
The poll came as the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that four more women had stepped forward to claim that Schwarzenegger had once touched them inappropriately, bringing the total number of women saying he had sexually harassed them to 15.
Schwarzenegger, 56, the Republican movie star trying to unseat Governor Gray Davis in a recall election on Tuesday, went on the offensive over the weekend, saying in an ABC interview released Sunday that the claims were "campaign trickery" and "dirty campaigning."
"Many of those things are not true," he said. "Like, for instance, I despise anything and everything that Hitler stands for."
On Saturday, during a campaign stop in Clovis, California, he said: "They're trying to torpedo my campaign. They're trying to make me look bad out there so that people vote no."
In the latest poll, released by Knight Ridder, voters surveyed Wednesday through Saturday said they favored removing Davis, 54 percent to 41 percent.
Schwarzenegger led the 135 replacement candidates with 36 percent in the poll, compared with 29 percent for Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat.
The percentage of people saying they would definitely vote to oust Davis, however, declined each day the poll was conducted, from 52 percent Wednesday to 44 percent Saturday. Those saying they either were probably going to vote for the recall or were unsure how to vote increased from 10 percent Wednesday to 24 percent Saturday.
"What looks like is happening is people who thought they were going to vote yes are unsure," said Stuart Elway of Elway/McGuire Research, which conducted the poll for Knight Ridder.
The poll surveyed 1,000 California voters by telephone and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Schwarzenegger has sought to get his campaign back on track after the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that six women had claimed that he had groped or sexually harassed them from 1975 to 2000.
After the article was published, similar allegations surfaced from five other women, including two who said he harassed them on the set of the 1988 film "Twins."
In the Times article published Sunday, four more women accused Schwarzenegger of sexual harassment. Schwarzenegger's spokesman, Sean Walsh, denied three of the accounts, and said the actor had no recollection of the fourth.
Last week he issued an apology for his treatment of women, saying he had "behaved badly" in the past.
On Saturday, the third day of his four-day bus tour of the state, Schwarzenegger faced small groups of protesters throughout the day. At his last stop, in Pleasanton, members of the group Code Pink shouted "No groper for governor" throughout his speech.
He has also had to fight off accusations that he admired Hitler as a young man. A leader of a Jewish human rights organization and the man who trained the teenage Schwarzenegger as a bodybuilder defended Schwarzenegger against the allegations, saying he has championed tolerance.
The Hitler report led the Democratic National Committee to issue a resolution Saturday calling on Schwarzenegger to apologize. The candidate said he planned to ignore it, stating for the third straight day that he despised Hitler.
The allegations have taken center stage in his campaign but are unlikely to cost him the election, analysts say.
"I think there are things about celebrity politicians that help to insulate them," said Darrell West, a professor of political science at Brown University in Rhode Island. "If these charges had come up in regard to a conventional politician it very well could destroy that person's chances of winning."
Jack Pitney, a political analyst in Claremont, California, said. Californians had already perceived Schwarzenegger as a man with a "colorful" past, and the actor never presented himself as a beacon of morality.
When Californians go to the polls Tuesday to vote on recalling Gray, they will also be asked to bar the state from collecting details on race and ethnicity.
The measure, called Proposition 54, has been buried by an avalanche of media attention on Schwarzenegger's past, but the initiative will appear on the same ballot. It faces well-funded, well-organized opposition from civil-rights advocates, public health researchers and educators.
A Los Angeles Times poll released last week found that 54 percent of voters did not support the measure.
Supporters say it would move the state closer to a colorblind ideal and that in an age of increased racial and ethnic mixing, labels have become meaningless. (AP, AFP, Reuters)
Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune
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