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CNN Live Saturday

Gray Davis Tours The State In Hopes Of Saving His Job

Aired October 04, 2003 - 16:04   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.


LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the man Schwarzenegger is trying to replace in office is also traveling the state this weekend. California Governor Gray Davis. He's recruited some big name Democrats to help him save his job. And CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley joins us from the campaign stop in Oakland with more on all of that. Hi, Candy.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Linda. You're right. He does have a lot of big names, both in the state and outside the state, that he is bringing along with him because this is the time that a candidate goes back to his party's base, that is, hard-core Democrats, and urges them to come out to vote. So you have the state's most popular Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, the Senator here, Barbara Boxer, another popular Senator, as well as Jesse Jackson, who, of course, is a very familiar face among minority groups and has been as well a national figure.

So what Gray Davis really has to do in these final days is to get back the 27 percent of Democrats who say they'll vote for the recall, and he obviously thinks he has found some new fodder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRAY DAVIS, (D) CALIFORNIA: If the news events over the last couple days have raised any doubts in your mind about the wisdom of electing Arnold Schwarzenegger, I say to you come home, vote no on the recall. No on the recall. No on the recall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Now, that was a union group. Those are the foot soldiers that go out and get other union members to vote, that Davis was rallying. After that, he just walked across the street and went to a gathering of women voters, and there Dianne Feinstein got a lot more specific.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D) CALIFORNIA: These 11 women have said things frankly that I couldn't believe anyone in public life would do. Not consensual, unwilling. Those things that really denegrate and deprecate a woman. In the workplace, in an elevator, wherever it may be. It should cause us all to think, do we really want this man as governor of our state?

(END VIDEO CLIP) CROWLEY: The same event, the women gave a long list of the number of initiatives that Gray Davis has pursued in favor of women. He also got a lot more specific and repeated some of his criticisms of Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying that some of the events involving those women may, in fact, be a crime, and electing a governor who may have committed a crime would be a distraction.

As for the Adolf Hitler, the alleged remarks, Gray Davis says he finds nothing admirable about Adolf Hitler and suggested that someone who does is not an American.

So, you can tell the last couple of days in this election, what the Democrats feel is they have an issue that they can begin to move these polls, and I can tell you that this is a campaign that's a lot more bouyant than it has been in weeks past --Linda.

STOUFFER: Candy, I want to ask you, how important that get out the vote message from Davis. Is there a fear that all the people who are fired up about a change in the governor's office might be much more likely to stand in line and cast a vote on Tuesday?

CROWLEY: Absolutely. It's huge. Any election gets down to turnout. What you want to do is get more of your people to turn out than the other guy does. And for Gray Davis, that's the base Democrats. They're the ones who are most susceptible to his message that this is a power grab by Republicans. It's like Florida. What we have to do here is stand up to the Republicans in California. Those are ones that are really roused.

Now that he has this other information, or alleged information about Arnold Schwarzenegger, he thinks he can go back and get back some of the Democrats who have said they're so dissatisfied with Davis, that they will vote yes on the recall.

If he can get Democrats to come out and vote no on the recall, he obviously would get this because there are millions more Democrats in this state than Republicans. So you got to get them out to the polls, and that's what this is about.

STOUFFER: Candy Crowley, thank you.

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 4, 2003 - 16:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the man Schwarzenegger is trying to replace in office is also traveling the state this weekend. California Governor Gray Davis. He's recruited some big name Democrats to help him save his job. And CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley joins us from the campaign stop in Oakland with more on all of that. Hi, Candy.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Linda. You're right. He does have a lot of big names, both in the state and outside the state, that he is bringing along with him because this is the time that a candidate goes back to his party's base, that is, hard-core Democrats, and urges them to come out to vote. So you have the state's most popular Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, the Senator here, Barbara Boxer, another popular Senator, as well as Jesse Jackson, who, of course, is a very familiar face among minority groups and has been as well a national figure.

So what Gray Davis really has to do in these final days is to get back the 27 percent of Democrats who say they'll vote for the recall, and he obviously thinks he has found some new fodder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRAY DAVIS, (D) CALIFORNIA: If the news events over the last couple days have raised any doubts in your mind about the wisdom of electing Arnold Schwarzenegger, I say to you come home, vote no on the recall. No on the recall. No on the recall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Now, that was a union group. Those are the foot soldiers that go out and get other union members to vote, that Davis was rallying. After that, he just walked across the street and went to a gathering of women voters, and there Dianne Feinstein got a lot more specific.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D) CALIFORNIA: These 11 women have said things frankly that I couldn't believe anyone in public life would do. Not consensual, unwilling. Those things that really denegrate and deprecate a woman. In the workplace, in an elevator, wherever it may be. It should cause us all to think, do we really want this man as governor of our state?

(END VIDEO CLIP) CROWLEY: The same event, the women gave a long list of the number of initiatives that Gray Davis has pursued in favor of women. He also got a lot more specific and repeated some of his criticisms of Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying that some of the events involving those women may, in fact, be a crime, and electing a governor who may have committed a crime would be a distraction.

As for the Adolf Hitler, the alleged remarks, Gray Davis says he finds nothing admirable about Adolf Hitler and suggested that someone who does is not an American.

So, you can tell the last couple of days in this election, what the Democrats feel is they have an issue that they can begin to move these polls, and I can tell you that this is a campaign that's a lot more bouyant than it has been in weeks past --Linda.

STOUFFER: Candy, I want to ask you, how important that get out the vote message from Davis. Is there a fear that all the people who are fired up about a change in the governor's office might be much more likely to stand in line and cast a vote on Tuesday?

CROWLEY: Absolutely. It's huge. Any election gets down to turnout. What you want to do is get more of your people to turn out than the other guy does. And for Gray Davis, that's the base Democrats. They're the ones who are most susceptible to his message that this is a power grab by Republicans. It's like Florida. What we have to do here is stand up to the Republicans in California. Those are ones that are really roused.

Now that he has this other information, or alleged information about Arnold Schwarzenegger, he thinks he can go back and get back some of the Democrats who have said they're so dissatisfied with Davis, that they will vote yes on the recall.

If he can get Democrats to come out and vote no on the recall, he obviously would get this because there are millions more Democrats in this state than Republicans. So you got to get them out to the polls, and that's what this is about.

STOUFFER: Candy Crowley, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com