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Ueberroth Withdrawal Already Helping Other Candidates
Aired September 10, 2003 - 10:12 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to the California governor's race and the California recall. Former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth has dropped out of the race to replace Governor Gray Davis. Our Bob Franken is with us in Los Angeles to explain why and what comes next, how it might shake up the very crowded feel. Bob, good morning.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well of course everything out here is discussed in terms of a Richter scale. This is going to be a very mild tremor or nonexistent tremor, if you want to believe the latest poll. This being the withdrawal of Peter Ueberroth who was a Republican who was only pulling five points on the political scale in the polls that were conducted. So he decided yesterday that it was this was a mountain too high to climb and he was getting up.
So where do the vote go? Who's the advantage here? There is an updated Field Poll. Remember Field Poll came out yesterday, Daryn. And what they do in this poll is the say, OK, that's your first choice. And who's your second choice? And that's exactly what they did.
And here's how it spreads out. Now in this latest poll, Bustamante, who is the lieutenant governor, the Democrat who is running to replace Gray Davis the Democrat, now has 32 percent versus the 30 he had yesterday.
Schwarzenegger now has 27 percent versus the 25 he had yesterday. Meaning that the spread is still five points. And the spoiler, Tom McClintock, the conservative Republican moves up from 13 percent to 14 percent.
Now McClintock is the person who is making things more difficult for the Republicans. Schwarzenegger, the poll shows, would in fact beat Bustamante if McClintock would pull out of the race. But McClintock is making it absolutely clear that he has no intentions of pulling out of the race.
And of course what about the possibility they there will not be a recall? The Field Polls still continues to show that 55 percent of those who are asked, which by the way was 509 likely voters, 55 percent of them said they are for the recall, 40 percent say they're against.
And, Daryn, you'll remember that Gray Davis is suffering such hard times that he looks at that as an improvement. There is a big question mark that after all of the campaigning is done in what promises to be a very intense last month, there will even be a recall -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Did peter Ueberroth, when he came out and said he was going to back out, say he was going to back anyone who was still in the race?
FRANKEN: Not yet. He wants meet with the candidates to discuss his pet issue, job creation. Then he'll decide who he's going to endorse. He said, by the way, if the Democrats want to meet with him, he'll do that too.
KAGAN: Meanwhile, interesting article in "The L.A. Times" today talking about Cruz Bustamante and how his politics as he goes through this governor's race, definitely leaning more left than he has as a statewide elected official.
FRANKEN: Well there's been a decision made by his campaign clearly that Bustamante has to run as the person against the favored rich. Implyably (ph), of course, he's talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger. So what he is doing now is that he's going through the traditional Democratic base.
I think the thing to watch for here is the involvement of the labor union. The AFL-CIO has a huge membership in California, more than 2 million members and there is a plan to put out any number of campaign commercials saying that workers lose a lot if the Republican takes over the state house and that is the best shot that the Gray Davis forces have to try and avoid the recall.
KAGAN: Bob Franken in Southern California, thank you so much for that.
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 September 10, 2003 - 10:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to the California governor's race and the California recall. Former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth has dropped out of the race to replace Governor Gray Davis. Our Bob Franken is with us in Los Angeles to explain why and what comes next, how it might shake up the very crowded feel. Bob, good morning.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well of course everything out here is discussed in terms of a Richter scale. This is going to be a very mild tremor or nonexistent tremor, if you want to believe the latest poll. This being the withdrawal of Peter Ueberroth who was a Republican who was only pulling five points on the political scale in the polls that were conducted. So he decided yesterday that it was this was a mountain too high to climb and he was getting up.
So where do the vote go? Who's the advantage here? There is an updated Field Poll. Remember Field Poll came out yesterday, Daryn. And what they do in this poll is the say, OK, that's your first choice. And who's your second choice? And that's exactly what they did.
And here's how it spreads out. Now in this latest poll, Bustamante, who is the lieutenant governor, the Democrat who is running to replace Gray Davis the Democrat, now has 32 percent versus the 30 he had yesterday.
Schwarzenegger now has 27 percent versus the 25 he had yesterday. Meaning that the spread is still five points. And the spoiler, Tom McClintock, the conservative Republican moves up from 13 percent to 14 percent.
Now McClintock is the person who is making things more difficult for the Republicans. Schwarzenegger, the poll shows, would in fact beat Bustamante if McClintock would pull out of the race. But McClintock is making it absolutely clear that he has no intentions of pulling out of the race.
And of course what about the possibility they there will not be a recall? The Field Polls still continues to show that 55 percent of those who are asked, which by the way was 509 likely voters, 55 percent of them said they are for the recall, 40 percent say they're against.
And, Daryn, you'll remember that Gray Davis is suffering such hard times that he looks at that as an improvement. There is a big question mark that after all of the campaigning is done in what promises to be a very intense last month, there will even be a recall -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Did peter Ueberroth, when he came out and said he was going to back out, say he was going to back anyone who was still in the race?
FRANKEN: Not yet. He wants meet with the candidates to discuss his pet issue, job creation. Then he'll decide who he's going to endorse. He said, by the way, if the Democrats want to meet with him, he'll do that too.
KAGAN: Meanwhile, interesting article in "The L.A. Times" today talking about Cruz Bustamante and how his politics as he goes through this governor's race, definitely leaning more left than he has as a statewide elected official.
FRANKEN: Well there's been a decision made by his campaign clearly that Bustamante has to run as the person against the favored rich. Implyably (ph), of course, he's talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger. So what he is doing now is that he's going through the traditional Democratic base.
I think the thing to watch for here is the involvement of the labor union. The AFL-CIO has a huge membership in California, more than 2 million members and there is a plan to put out any number of campaign commercials saying that workers lose a lot if the Republican takes over the state house and that is the best shot that the Gray Davis forces have to try and avoid the recall.
KAGAN: Bob Franken in Southern California, thank you so much for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
