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CNN Live Sunday
A Look At The Recall Landscape With 40 Hours To Go
Aired October 05, 2003 - 18:36 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We've seen the mudslinging and the campaign tactics. Now there are only 40 hours to go until Election Day. Dick Rosengarten is the publisher of "California Political Week," Dick good to see you, thanks for being here.
DICK ROSENGARTEN, PUBLISHER, "CALIFORNIA POLITICAL WEEK": Good to see you, Carol.
LIN: You know I think there's going to be a sense of relief when Election Day comes because we're all waiting to see the effect of these allegations about Arnold Schwarzenegger and now yet more women are coming out with stories of groping. Do you think these stories are going to hurt him at all?
ROSENGARTEN: Oh, yes. I mean the question is how much and, you know, the previous report was about absentee ballots. Millions of people have already cast their ballots by absentee. How did these, you know -- these allegations came afterwards so nobody knows what's going to happen there. Does anybody want to get their vote back?
LIN: Well, they can't though, can they Dick?
ROSENGARTEN: You know I don't have the answer -- no, they can't do it at all.
LIN: Been there, done that.
ROSENGARTEN: The allegations against Schwarzenegger, you know, it's this last minute thing. I think there is a report, Jeff Greenfield this morning on Wolf Blitzer's show talked about late hits and how sometimes they don't work and I tend to agree with that to some extent but these allegations have been known about Schwarzenegger for a long, long time.
The "L.A. Times" has been taking a lot of criticism too and unfortunately the people who are supporting Schwarzenegger they tend to say it's all media who are involved in this so, in other words, I'm getting negative calls. I know other reporters are but we've known about this for a long time.
The original article that the "L.A. Times" based its story on was done back in 2001. It was the "Premiere" magazine story and Gary South (ph) who at that time was Gray Davis' campaign consultant he faxed it out to every political reporter in the state. So, we all knew about it.
LIN: Yes. ROSENGARTEN: And all I can say is that, you know, at that time Schwarzenegger denied it. He had his attorneys threaten to sue everybody but, you know, the other day when he fessed up and he said, yes, I apologize and I'm sorry that sure as heck made it a different ballgame.
LIN: Right and I think Californians, I mean I am one. I am born and raised in California and still continue to vote there and, you know...
ROSENGARTEN: Have you voted yet?
LIN: Have I voted? Absentee.
ROSENGARTEN: Absentee.
LIN: Absentee, yes, but I remember those articles and I remember that big spread in "Vanity Fair" years ago.
ROSENGARTEN: Oh, yes.
LIN: That there were several other kinds of personal allegations about Arnold's sex life at that time which haven't surfaced in this campaign.
ROSENGARTEN: Well, if you go to Drudge, you know Matt Drudge, he's been carrying stuff all over the place. I mean there was the stuff about (unintelligible) about a week and a half ago and there's something today on the Internet in the Drudge report. So, it's getting nasty.
LIN: Yes but you know what...
ROSENGARTEN: And the mud is starting to get slung.
LIN: In California there -- you know it's tinsel town rules and people are...
ROSENGARTEN: Oh, sure.
LIN: ...used to sort of salacious stories about people and do you think that in a sense Gray Davis being so bland...
ROSENGARTEN: Gray, yes.
LIN: Very gray, yes, which has sort of worked with governors in the past, you know. You think of Duke Magen (ph) wasn't exactly, you know, a rock and roll star.
ROSENGARTEN: And Pete Wilson wasn't either.
LIN: No and neither was Jerry Brown. He was just a little strange.
ROSENGARTEN: Yes. LIN: Kind of quirky but he wasn't charismatic and it seems to be that the tide is turning now. The people -- maybe what it takes to get them more interested in politics is to have a little star power, have a little controversy.
ROSENGARTEN: Well, that seems to be working in this case. I mean, look, let's face it without Arnold Schwarzenegger in this race you probably would have had Dick Reardon the former mayor of Los Angeles and probably Darrell Issa might have gotten into it.
LIN: Yes.
ROSENGARTEN: So it -- while you guys would have been out there and been paying attention there wouldn't be the massive amount of media attention that's being paid to this race right now.
LIN: Right.
ROSENGARTEN: It would be -- and I would hesitate to say but I don't think the turnout would be anything like what we're going to see on Tuesday.
LIN: What's the number, eight million, ten million more?
ROSENGARTEN: Well, I don't go by that. I go by percentages. I think it's going to be somewhere between 55 and 65 percent.
LIN: Really?
ROSENGARTEN: Now that's a -- it's a big gap. I predicted in my newsletter that it would be about 58 percent. I think maybe I might be low. I'm not really sure. You know there's an old saying about pundits who use a crystal ball sometimes eat glass so I don't know where I, you know, where I come off on that, you know.
LIN: All right.
ROSENGARTEN: But I know it's going to be high.
LIN: Yes.
ROSENGARTEN: It's going to be a lot higher than 50.9 which we had last November.
LIN: Well, you know what anything that gets people interested in the process and politics and democracy.
ROSENGARTEN: Hey, absolutely.
LIN: It works. All right, thanks so much Dick Rosengarten.
ROSENGARTEN: All righty, thanks Carol.
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 October 5, 2003 - 18:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We've seen the mudslinging and the campaign tactics. Now there are only 40 hours to go until Election Day. Dick Rosengarten is the publisher of "California Political Week," Dick good to see you, thanks for being here.
DICK ROSENGARTEN, PUBLISHER, "CALIFORNIA POLITICAL WEEK": Good to see you, Carol.
LIN: You know I think there's going to be a sense of relief when Election Day comes because we're all waiting to see the effect of these allegations about Arnold Schwarzenegger and now yet more women are coming out with stories of groping. Do you think these stories are going to hurt him at all?
ROSENGARTEN: Oh, yes. I mean the question is how much and, you know, the previous report was about absentee ballots. Millions of people have already cast their ballots by absentee. How did these, you know -- these allegations came afterwards so nobody knows what's going to happen there. Does anybody want to get their vote back?
LIN: Well, they can't though, can they Dick?
ROSENGARTEN: You know I don't have the answer -- no, they can't do it at all.
LIN: Been there, done that.
ROSENGARTEN: The allegations against Schwarzenegger, you know, it's this last minute thing. I think there is a report, Jeff Greenfield this morning on Wolf Blitzer's show talked about late hits and how sometimes they don't work and I tend to agree with that to some extent but these allegations have been known about Schwarzenegger for a long, long time.
The "L.A. Times" has been taking a lot of criticism too and unfortunately the people who are supporting Schwarzenegger they tend to say it's all media who are involved in this so, in other words, I'm getting negative calls. I know other reporters are but we've known about this for a long time.
The original article that the "L.A. Times" based its story on was done back in 2001. It was the "Premiere" magazine story and Gary South (ph) who at that time was Gray Davis' campaign consultant he faxed it out to every political reporter in the state. So, we all knew about it.
LIN: Yes. ROSENGARTEN: And all I can say is that, you know, at that time Schwarzenegger denied it. He had his attorneys threaten to sue everybody but, you know, the other day when he fessed up and he said, yes, I apologize and I'm sorry that sure as heck made it a different ballgame.
LIN: Right and I think Californians, I mean I am one. I am born and raised in California and still continue to vote there and, you know...
ROSENGARTEN: Have you voted yet?
LIN: Have I voted? Absentee.
ROSENGARTEN: Absentee.
LIN: Absentee, yes, but I remember those articles and I remember that big spread in "Vanity Fair" years ago.
ROSENGARTEN: Oh, yes.
LIN: That there were several other kinds of personal allegations about Arnold's sex life at that time which haven't surfaced in this campaign.
ROSENGARTEN: Well, if you go to Drudge, you know Matt Drudge, he's been carrying stuff all over the place. I mean there was the stuff about (unintelligible) about a week and a half ago and there's something today on the Internet in the Drudge report. So, it's getting nasty.
LIN: Yes but you know what...
ROSENGARTEN: And the mud is starting to get slung.
LIN: In California there -- you know it's tinsel town rules and people are...
ROSENGARTEN: Oh, sure.
LIN: ...used to sort of salacious stories about people and do you think that in a sense Gray Davis being so bland...
ROSENGARTEN: Gray, yes.
LIN: Very gray, yes, which has sort of worked with governors in the past, you know. You think of Duke Magen (ph) wasn't exactly, you know, a rock and roll star.
ROSENGARTEN: And Pete Wilson wasn't either.
LIN: No and neither was Jerry Brown. He was just a little strange.
ROSENGARTEN: Yes. LIN: Kind of quirky but he wasn't charismatic and it seems to be that the tide is turning now. The people -- maybe what it takes to get them more interested in politics is to have a little star power, have a little controversy.
ROSENGARTEN: Well, that seems to be working in this case. I mean, look, let's face it without Arnold Schwarzenegger in this race you probably would have had Dick Reardon the former mayor of Los Angeles and probably Darrell Issa might have gotten into it.
LIN: Yes.
ROSENGARTEN: So it -- while you guys would have been out there and been paying attention there wouldn't be the massive amount of media attention that's being paid to this race right now.
LIN: Right.
ROSENGARTEN: It would be -- and I would hesitate to say but I don't think the turnout would be anything like what we're going to see on Tuesday.
LIN: What's the number, eight million, ten million more?
ROSENGARTEN: Well, I don't go by that. I go by percentages. I think it's going to be somewhere between 55 and 65 percent.
LIN: Really?
ROSENGARTEN: Now that's a -- it's a big gap. I predicted in my newsletter that it would be about 58 percent. I think maybe I might be low. I'm not really sure. You know there's an old saying about pundits who use a crystal ball sometimes eat glass so I don't know where I, you know, where I come off on that, you know.
LIN: All right.
ROSENGARTEN: But I know it's going to be high.
LIN: Yes.
ROSENGARTEN: It's going to be a lot higher than 50.9 which we had last November.
LIN: Well, you know what anything that gets people interested in the process and politics and democracy.
ROSENGARTEN: Hey, absolutely.
LIN: It works. All right, thanks so much Dick Rosengarten.
ROSENGARTEN: All righty, thanks Carol.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
