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American Morning
Analysis on Schwarzenegger's Stances, Dean's Acceleration
Aired August 28, 2003 - 08:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: For the first time since he entered the California recall race, Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday made his positions clear on a number of hot button issues.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Do you support gay marriage?
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIF. GOV. CANDIDATE: I do support domestic partnership.
HANNITY: But not gay marriage?
SCHWARZENEGGER: No. I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman.
HANNITY: Do you support the Brady Bill or the Assault Weapons Ban or both?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Yes, I do, support that. And also I would like to close the loop hole of the gun shows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: That was Schwarzenegger yesterday talk with radio host Sean Hannity of ABC Radio.
Tomorrow a big day in that race in California. Campaign finance records are due for each of the candidates involved. Our political analyst Ron Brownstein, national political correspondent for "The L.A. Times" back with us this morning. Good to see you, Ron. Good morning to you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you.
HEMMER: Here's what Arnold said yesterday. Quote, "Of course I take donations from individuals. What I don't do is I don't want to take money from special interests that I have to negotiate it." Don't individuals have special interests, too, Ron?
BROWNSTEIN: Sure. I mean he's creating a distinction really without a difference, I think.
He is, -- first of all he started off the campaign by saying he was, you know, touting his own fortune in saying he really didn't need to raise money from anyone. Now of course he's decided that he does want to raise some money. But he's raising money as reports have already shown from developers with interests in front of state.
What he's trying to say is Gray Davis raises money from people that he has to negotiate directly with like the Public Employee's Union, I'm different. But it may be a difference, as I say, without much of a distinction for voters.
HEMMER: Let me understand this on the Democratic side. It appears there are loop holes all over the place. Gray Davis' name is not on the recall ballot so he can raise more money than the other candidates. Cruz Bustamente is taking the money and funneling it into his 2002 re-election campaign. How does this work?
BROWNSTEIN: They're moving around the state finance laws. And as you know, look, money is like a river in politics. You dam it up in one place and it flows somewhere else. and what you're seeing is the Democrats being very aggressive, and perhaps to a point that it may become a vulnerability, about trying to evade the limits on contributions directly to gubernatorial candidates.
What Bustamente has been talking about doing, I guess has actually been doing, is raising money for his ostensible 2002 campaign which is not subject to the contribution limits, rather than a direct gubernatorial campaign.
And as you mentioned, of course, Davis can get around it because the recall is not a candidate, so is not subject to the limit. There will be a lot of money flowing into this race.
HEMMER: Seems like there's a way around everything.
Move further east from California, state of Nevada. There's a push on there for the Nevada governor. What's happening and what are the possibilities right now that we're going to see this trickle throughout the country?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, I'm not familiar with all the details and that, but I do think that there is going to be more reluctance to do this in other states than in California for two reasons, Bill. First the threshold for getting it on the ballot, a recall, is lower in California than it is in any of the other 17 states that allow this.
And secondly, there's simply more of a tradition of direct democracy in California than in other states. You go back to Proposition 13 in 1978 all the way up to the Proposition 187 affecting illegal immigrants in 1994, California voters have been very comfortable taking decisions out of the hands of the legislature and the governor and making them themselves. I think that that is less developed in other states.
And finally, I think this process is not something that a lot of states are looking at and saying, Gee, I really want to emulate that.
HEMMER: Let's broaden our discussion, if we could. In a moment we're going to go to Maria Hinojosa talking about Vermont Governor Howard Dean getting a lot of steam on the Democratic side. He was in New York this past week, the big rally down at Brian Park down the street here.
There are many people who believe right now this is an absolute marathon when you're running for the White House where it may be mile marker No. 2, may be No. 3. What's the danger here of burnout too early, too fast, too soon?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, there is that danger. There's danger on both sides here, Bill. Someone said to me this week it gets late early this year.
Because the primary calendar is so accelerated the people will be voting in January in Iowa and New Hampshire. And Howard Dean has now moved ahead in the polls in both states. A poll came out yesterday with an incredible 21-point lead for Dean over John Kerry from neighboring Massachusetts in New Hampshire.
He is also moving to the head of the fund-raising race. His campaign announced this week at the end of this tour that I was on part of, that they expect to raise over $10 million in the third quarter. Not much by President Bush's standards, but possibly twice as much as any other Democrat in the field.
And the risk to the other Democrats is that if they don't find a way to either slow him down, or perhaps more to the point, accelerate their own campaigns, he may establish advantages that will be very hard to overcome by the time most Americans tune in next winter.
HEMMER: You've given us all something to consider. Very early, too. and I know you love this. Thanks, Ron. Ron Brownstein, "L.A. Times" in D.C.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Bill.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 28, 2003 - 08:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: For the first time since he entered the California recall race, Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday made his positions clear on a number of hot button issues.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Do you support gay marriage?
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIF. GOV. CANDIDATE: I do support domestic partnership.
HANNITY: But not gay marriage?
SCHWARZENEGGER: No. I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman.
HANNITY: Do you support the Brady Bill or the Assault Weapons Ban or both?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Yes, I do, support that. And also I would like to close the loop hole of the gun shows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: That was Schwarzenegger yesterday talk with radio host Sean Hannity of ABC Radio.
Tomorrow a big day in that race in California. Campaign finance records are due for each of the candidates involved. Our political analyst Ron Brownstein, national political correspondent for "The L.A. Times" back with us this morning. Good to see you, Ron. Good morning to you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you.
HEMMER: Here's what Arnold said yesterday. Quote, "Of course I take donations from individuals. What I don't do is I don't want to take money from special interests that I have to negotiate it." Don't individuals have special interests, too, Ron?
BROWNSTEIN: Sure. I mean he's creating a distinction really without a difference, I think.
He is, -- first of all he started off the campaign by saying he was, you know, touting his own fortune in saying he really didn't need to raise money from anyone. Now of course he's decided that he does want to raise some money. But he's raising money as reports have already shown from developers with interests in front of state.
What he's trying to say is Gray Davis raises money from people that he has to negotiate directly with like the Public Employee's Union, I'm different. But it may be a difference, as I say, without much of a distinction for voters.
HEMMER: Let me understand this on the Democratic side. It appears there are loop holes all over the place. Gray Davis' name is not on the recall ballot so he can raise more money than the other candidates. Cruz Bustamente is taking the money and funneling it into his 2002 re-election campaign. How does this work?
BROWNSTEIN: They're moving around the state finance laws. And as you know, look, money is like a river in politics. You dam it up in one place and it flows somewhere else. and what you're seeing is the Democrats being very aggressive, and perhaps to a point that it may become a vulnerability, about trying to evade the limits on contributions directly to gubernatorial candidates.
What Bustamente has been talking about doing, I guess has actually been doing, is raising money for his ostensible 2002 campaign which is not subject to the contribution limits, rather than a direct gubernatorial campaign.
And as you mentioned, of course, Davis can get around it because the recall is not a candidate, so is not subject to the limit. There will be a lot of money flowing into this race.
HEMMER: Seems like there's a way around everything.
Move further east from California, state of Nevada. There's a push on there for the Nevada governor. What's happening and what are the possibilities right now that we're going to see this trickle throughout the country?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, I'm not familiar with all the details and that, but I do think that there is going to be more reluctance to do this in other states than in California for two reasons, Bill. First the threshold for getting it on the ballot, a recall, is lower in California than it is in any of the other 17 states that allow this.
And secondly, there's simply more of a tradition of direct democracy in California than in other states. You go back to Proposition 13 in 1978 all the way up to the Proposition 187 affecting illegal immigrants in 1994, California voters have been very comfortable taking decisions out of the hands of the legislature and the governor and making them themselves. I think that that is less developed in other states.
And finally, I think this process is not something that a lot of states are looking at and saying, Gee, I really want to emulate that.
HEMMER: Let's broaden our discussion, if we could. In a moment we're going to go to Maria Hinojosa talking about Vermont Governor Howard Dean getting a lot of steam on the Democratic side. He was in New York this past week, the big rally down at Brian Park down the street here.
There are many people who believe right now this is an absolute marathon when you're running for the White House where it may be mile marker No. 2, may be No. 3. What's the danger here of burnout too early, too fast, too soon?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, there is that danger. There's danger on both sides here, Bill. Someone said to me this week it gets late early this year.
Because the primary calendar is so accelerated the people will be voting in January in Iowa and New Hampshire. And Howard Dean has now moved ahead in the polls in both states. A poll came out yesterday with an incredible 21-point lead for Dean over John Kerry from neighboring Massachusetts in New Hampshire.
He is also moving to the head of the fund-raising race. His campaign announced this week at the end of this tour that I was on part of, that they expect to raise over $10 million in the third quarter. Not much by President Bush's standards, but possibly twice as much as any other Democrat in the field.
And the risk to the other Democrats is that if they don't find a way to either slow him down, or perhaps more to the point, accelerate their own campaigns, he may establish advantages that will be very hard to overcome by the time most Americans tune in next winter.
HEMMER: You've given us all something to consider. Very early, too. and I know you love this. Thanks, Ron. Ron Brownstein, "L.A. Times" in D.C.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Bill.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
