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Schwarzenegger Prepares for 'Super Bowl' of Debates

Aired September 24, 2003 - 15:01   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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Arnold Schwarzenegger likens it to the Super Bowl, but tonight's recall debate in California may seem more like a boxing match, with Schwarzenegger in one corner, his rivals in the other.
CNN's Bob Franken begins our preview of the big event. And it is big.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is big, Judy.

And I think you described it exactly the way it is going to be. It's Arnold Schwarzenegger against the rest of the governor wanna-bes. Now, Governor Gray Davis is not participating because he's not running to be the recall alternative. Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, has not participated in any of the debates up until now. And this is the one that comes with the questions that were submitted a week ago.

And they're all pretty simple questions, questions that the people would have expected and ones that they'll have plenty of time to prepare for. But that's not all there is to this debate. The questions will be asked of the individual candidates. The candidate will have a minute to answer the question. But then they can engage in what amounts to a variation on CNN's "CROSSFIRE."

The candidates will get to talk to each other. And that's what's going to be so critical. You can look for the various candidates to try and go after Arnold Schwarzenegger, particularly Tom McClintock, who has a very important appearance here, too. He is the other Republican candidate, the conservative who's under huge pressure to get out and clear the way for Arnold Schwarzenegger, clear the way, so that the Republicans have a unity candidate. And then they would be able to beat the Democrats. So goes the reasoning.

The problem is, McClintock has dug in his heels. He's really closer to Schwarzenegger in the polls than when he started. And, of course, if Schwarzenegger should falter this evening, McClintock would claim that he is the real professional candidate and should be the one in the race. The Democrats' Cruz Bustamante is going to be getting a lot of flak, too, the lieutenant governor.

There have been a lot of questions about his campaign contributions. The other candidates who are considered principal, but barely principal candidates, include Arianna Huffington and Peter Camejo. But the eyes are going to be on Schwarzenegger to see if he's in fact ready for prime time. And, Judy, it will be prime time in California. This will be one of the first times in a long time that people pay the slightest bit of attention to a political debate. But, of course, registration is high. There's a lot of attention to this in general -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: OK, Bob Franken, who's been watching it all for many days for us, thank you very much.

And now let's talk to the moderator of this evening's recall debate. He is Stan Statham. He is president of the California Broadcasters Association. That is the group that is sponsoring the candidate forum.

Mr. Statham, first, am I pronouncing your name correctly? I want to get it right.

STAN STATHAM, CALIFORNIA BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION: Yes, Judy, you are.

WOODRUFF: Well, all right, here's the first question. If it's indeed the case that these other candidates are going to be going after Mr. Schwarzenegger, how do you, as moderator, control that? Are you concerned about it?

STATHAM: Not overly concerned, because these are five people that want to be governor. And if they all want to gang up on one candidate, then that would be their strategic plan.

We here in America, we don't like everybody ganging up on one person. Arnold has to take the heat, if that's the situation. I think Bob assessed it properly as you led into talking to me. There are three candidates of these five that are pivotal on how they control the votes and who might replace Gray Davis, if he is tossed out of office. What I want to create is as much crosstalk as possible, but it must be civilized.

We literally have set this up unlike any other gubernatorial debate, where the candidates will challenge and debate one another and call one another on facts. And we're going to see that they'll have to provide more information. But, also, we'll see their personality. We'll see their character and how they operate under such an intense give-and-take. My tough job...

WOODRUFF: Well...

STATHAM: I was going to say, my tough job is simply to make sure that this crosstalk is civilized and that nobody leaves the topic at hand.

WOODRUFF: Well, you're very aware, Mr. Statham, that there's already been plenty of criticism that the debate -- because the candidates got the questions in advance, that you're really looking at something that is very predictable.

In fact, one of the candidates himself, Tom McClintock's campaign manager said, -- quote -- "This shouldn't be called a debate. It's a scripted forum, the only one Schwarzenegger is attending. He has to have the answers ahead of time. And that's not right." What do you say to that?

STATHAM: Well, the first thing I say to that is the first candidate that objected to the questions in advance was Arnold Schwarzenegger. So we've already had three out of five of the candidates complaining about our debate forum and how that's going to operate.

We didn't let Arnold affect us. And Tom McClintock's not going to change us. Cruz Bustamante at one point wanted to walk because he didn't like the no podiums and no journalists. The only thing that's going to be scripted is a question from a voter. After that question is answered in less than one minute by only one candidate, the others are invited to jump in. It will be a civilized, but possibly dysfunctional crosstalk. We want a lot of sizzle, a lot of action.

WOODRUFF: So you're saying we can expect maybe to learn something new about these candidates this evening?

STATHAM: Oh, absolutely.

WOODRUFF: That they can't plan it all out ahead of time.

STATHAM: There's no way they can plan it out, because they know what all the others know. And they're going to be standing by inside their answers -- I'm guessing here -- they're going to be standing inside their answers to put their questions and their heat to whatever candidate that they want to attack, even though they will profess not to be attacking candidates.

WOODRUFF: All right, Stan Statham, he is the president of the California Broadcasters Association, putting on tonight's debate. Thank you very much.

Well, this debate tonight, you can watch it yourself. It's going to be -- we're going to be carrying it live here on CNN starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific. The big debate will come too late to sway some Californians who are taking advantage of early voting now under way in Los Angeles County.

CNN's Frank Buckley is at an early polling place in Beverly Hills.

Frank, what are you seeing?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, people are already voting. And we're going to show you the touch-screen system that they're using here in Beverly Hills in just a moment.

But, first, I just wanted to show some of our viewers what the actual ballot looks like this year, and the punch card machines. Here's what it looks like for people who are voting. "Shall Gray Davis be recalled, removed, from the office of governor?" You take your stylus and vote either yes or no. And then begins the seven pages of candidates. These are all the folks that are running for governor, replacement governor, whatever you want to call it here, in the state of California. You would take your ballot after you voted, if you're using a punch card machine, and then you would stick it into this box here.

Here in Beverly Hills, though, people are using the touch-screen system. And we want to talk to someone who can give us an explanation of that. Reggie Simms is the polling precinct coordinator.

And if we could ask you, since we're on live here, to show both of us here how this system works. Reggie, you've got a card in here that you have stuck in. And then what happens next?

REGGIE SIMMS, LOS ANGELES CO. ELECTION OFFICIAL: OK. If you speak English, you press English, and it -- you start it. And it's loading the ballot up for you.

BUCKLEY: OK.

SIMMS: The card is really your ballot without you having to punch it.

BUCKLEY: OK.

SIMMS: And they give you instructions on how to operate the machine.

BUCKLEY: Right.

SIMMS: And the good thing about this, if you make your selection, you can change it. You can modify it before you cast your ballot.

BUCKLEY: All right, so, for president, this is a sample ballot, Thomas Jefferson. For poet laureate, I would go for the North Carolinian, Carl Sandburg here. We will go for all these folks. And we would go "next." And we would just go along and vote for the different candidates of who we want and then go "next." And then this last question here and "next." And now we've got what? These are all of our votes?

SIMMS: Right.

BUCKLEY: But this one is in red. Why is that?

SIMMS: That means you didn't make a vote for that selection.

BUCKLEY: But if I don't want to vote for that?

SIMMS: That's your discretion.

BUCKLEY: OK. So, and then I would cast my ballot.

SIMMS: Cast your ballot. And once you cast your ballot, it kicks out the card. That means you're through voting. BUCKLEY: Now, there have been concerns about hacking into computer-based systems. Is there any way to prevent that here?

SIMMS: These are not hooked up to any Internet or online. It's just single operated machines.

BUCKLEY: So a disk in here is actually physically transported to L.A. County Registrar's Office?

SIMMS: Exactly.

BUCKLEY: And that's where they're counted?

SIMMS: Right.

BUCKLEY: Quickly, how is turnout looking today?

SIMMS: Well, pretty good. We've got over 50 voters already. So I think that's a good sign. And that compares to just a handful in the last

(CROSSTALK)

SIMMS: From the last one, from the first day, because they was kind of -- it was really like the early stages of it. So, since being out here, it's picked up every day.

BUCKLEY: All right, Reggie Simms, polling precinct coordinator, thanks very much.

You can see, Judy, people are voting. And, in fact, on the absentee side, as you know, some 600,000 people across the state have already cast their ballots. This election is already under way.

WOODRUFF: And, Frank, do we know in how many places people can actually do this early voting in California?

BUCKLEY: Well, there are 12 locations here in Los Angeles County where you can do the touch screens like this. Four counties across the state actually use this touch-screen system, where you can do the early voting on the touch screen.

WOODRUFF: OK, Frank Buckley, bringing us the very latest in the American way of doing politics, OK, thanks very much.

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 24, 2003 - 15:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Arnold Schwarzenegger likens it to the Super Bowl, but tonight's recall debate in California may seem more like a boxing match, with Schwarzenegger in one corner, his rivals in the other.
CNN's Bob Franken begins our preview of the big event. And it is big.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is big, Judy.

And I think you described it exactly the way it is going to be. It's Arnold Schwarzenegger against the rest of the governor wanna-bes. Now, Governor Gray Davis is not participating because he's not running to be the recall alternative. Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, has not participated in any of the debates up until now. And this is the one that comes with the questions that were submitted a week ago.

And they're all pretty simple questions, questions that the people would have expected and ones that they'll have plenty of time to prepare for. But that's not all there is to this debate. The questions will be asked of the individual candidates. The candidate will have a minute to answer the question. But then they can engage in what amounts to a variation on CNN's "CROSSFIRE."

The candidates will get to talk to each other. And that's what's going to be so critical. You can look for the various candidates to try and go after Arnold Schwarzenegger, particularly Tom McClintock, who has a very important appearance here, too. He is the other Republican candidate, the conservative who's under huge pressure to get out and clear the way for Arnold Schwarzenegger, clear the way, so that the Republicans have a unity candidate. And then they would be able to beat the Democrats. So goes the reasoning.

The problem is, McClintock has dug in his heels. He's really closer to Schwarzenegger in the polls than when he started. And, of course, if Schwarzenegger should falter this evening, McClintock would claim that he is the real professional candidate and should be the one in the race. The Democrats' Cruz Bustamante is going to be getting a lot of flak, too, the lieutenant governor.

There have been a lot of questions about his campaign contributions. The other candidates who are considered principal, but barely principal candidates, include Arianna Huffington and Peter Camejo. But the eyes are going to be on Schwarzenegger to see if he's in fact ready for prime time. And, Judy, it will be prime time in California. This will be one of the first times in a long time that people pay the slightest bit of attention to a political debate. But, of course, registration is high. There's a lot of attention to this in general -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: OK, Bob Franken, who's been watching it all for many days for us, thank you very much.

And now let's talk to the moderator of this evening's recall debate. He is Stan Statham. He is president of the California Broadcasters Association. That is the group that is sponsoring the candidate forum.

Mr. Statham, first, am I pronouncing your name correctly? I want to get it right.

STAN STATHAM, CALIFORNIA BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION: Yes, Judy, you are.

WOODRUFF: Well, all right, here's the first question. If it's indeed the case that these other candidates are going to be going after Mr. Schwarzenegger, how do you, as moderator, control that? Are you concerned about it?

STATHAM: Not overly concerned, because these are five people that want to be governor. And if they all want to gang up on one candidate, then that would be their strategic plan.

We here in America, we don't like everybody ganging up on one person. Arnold has to take the heat, if that's the situation. I think Bob assessed it properly as you led into talking to me. There are three candidates of these five that are pivotal on how they control the votes and who might replace Gray Davis, if he is tossed out of office. What I want to create is as much crosstalk as possible, but it must be civilized.

We literally have set this up unlike any other gubernatorial debate, where the candidates will challenge and debate one another and call one another on facts. And we're going to see that they'll have to provide more information. But, also, we'll see their personality. We'll see their character and how they operate under such an intense give-and-take. My tough job...

WOODRUFF: Well...

STATHAM: I was going to say, my tough job is simply to make sure that this crosstalk is civilized and that nobody leaves the topic at hand.

WOODRUFF: Well, you're very aware, Mr. Statham, that there's already been plenty of criticism that the debate -- because the candidates got the questions in advance, that you're really looking at something that is very predictable.

In fact, one of the candidates himself, Tom McClintock's campaign manager said, -- quote -- "This shouldn't be called a debate. It's a scripted forum, the only one Schwarzenegger is attending. He has to have the answers ahead of time. And that's not right." What do you say to that?

STATHAM: Well, the first thing I say to that is the first candidate that objected to the questions in advance was Arnold Schwarzenegger. So we've already had three out of five of the candidates complaining about our debate forum and how that's going to operate.

We didn't let Arnold affect us. And Tom McClintock's not going to change us. Cruz Bustamante at one point wanted to walk because he didn't like the no podiums and no journalists. The only thing that's going to be scripted is a question from a voter. After that question is answered in less than one minute by only one candidate, the others are invited to jump in. It will be a civilized, but possibly dysfunctional crosstalk. We want a lot of sizzle, a lot of action.

WOODRUFF: So you're saying we can expect maybe to learn something new about these candidates this evening?

STATHAM: Oh, absolutely.

WOODRUFF: That they can't plan it all out ahead of time.

STATHAM: There's no way they can plan it out, because they know what all the others know. And they're going to be standing by inside their answers -- I'm guessing here -- they're going to be standing inside their answers to put their questions and their heat to whatever candidate that they want to attack, even though they will profess not to be attacking candidates.

WOODRUFF: All right, Stan Statham, he is the president of the California Broadcasters Association, putting on tonight's debate. Thank you very much.

Well, this debate tonight, you can watch it yourself. It's going to be -- we're going to be carrying it live here on CNN starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific. The big debate will come too late to sway some Californians who are taking advantage of early voting now under way in Los Angeles County.

CNN's Frank Buckley is at an early polling place in Beverly Hills.

Frank, what are you seeing?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, people are already voting. And we're going to show you the touch-screen system that they're using here in Beverly Hills in just a moment.

But, first, I just wanted to show some of our viewers what the actual ballot looks like this year, and the punch card machines. Here's what it looks like for people who are voting. "Shall Gray Davis be recalled, removed, from the office of governor?" You take your stylus and vote either yes or no. And then begins the seven pages of candidates. These are all the folks that are running for governor, replacement governor, whatever you want to call it here, in the state of California. You would take your ballot after you voted, if you're using a punch card machine, and then you would stick it into this box here.

Here in Beverly Hills, though, people are using the touch-screen system. And we want to talk to someone who can give us an explanation of that. Reggie Simms is the polling precinct coordinator.

And if we could ask you, since we're on live here, to show both of us here how this system works. Reggie, you've got a card in here that you have stuck in. And then what happens next?

REGGIE SIMMS, LOS ANGELES CO. ELECTION OFFICIAL: OK. If you speak English, you press English, and it -- you start it. And it's loading the ballot up for you.

BUCKLEY: OK.

SIMMS: The card is really your ballot without you having to punch it.

BUCKLEY: OK.

SIMMS: And they give you instructions on how to operate the machine.

BUCKLEY: Right.

SIMMS: And the good thing about this, if you make your selection, you can change it. You can modify it before you cast your ballot.

BUCKLEY: All right, so, for president, this is a sample ballot, Thomas Jefferson. For poet laureate, I would go for the North Carolinian, Carl Sandburg here. We will go for all these folks. And we would go "next." And we would just go along and vote for the different candidates of who we want and then go "next." And then this last question here and "next." And now we've got what? These are all of our votes?

SIMMS: Right.

BUCKLEY: But this one is in red. Why is that?

SIMMS: That means you didn't make a vote for that selection.

BUCKLEY: But if I don't want to vote for that?

SIMMS: That's your discretion.

BUCKLEY: OK. So, and then I would cast my ballot.

SIMMS: Cast your ballot. And once you cast your ballot, it kicks out the card. That means you're through voting. BUCKLEY: Now, there have been concerns about hacking into computer-based systems. Is there any way to prevent that here?

SIMMS: These are not hooked up to any Internet or online. It's just single operated machines.

BUCKLEY: So a disk in here is actually physically transported to L.A. County Registrar's Office?

SIMMS: Exactly.

BUCKLEY: And that's where they're counted?

SIMMS: Right.

BUCKLEY: Quickly, how is turnout looking today?

SIMMS: Well, pretty good. We've got over 50 voters already. So I think that's a good sign. And that compares to just a handful in the last

(CROSSTALK)

SIMMS: From the last one, from the first day, because they was kind of -- it was really like the early stages of it. So, since being out here, it's picked up every day.

BUCKLEY: All right, Reggie Simms, polling precinct coordinator, thanks very much.

You can see, Judy, people are voting. And, in fact, on the absentee side, as you know, some 600,000 people across the state have already cast their ballots. This election is already under way.

WOODRUFF: And, Frank, do we know in how many places people can actually do this early voting in California?

BUCKLEY: Well, there are 12 locations here in Los Angeles County where you can do the touch screens like this. Four counties across the state actually use this touch-screen system, where you can do the early voting on the touch screen.

WOODRUFF: OK, Frank Buckley, bringing us the very latest in the American way of doing politics, OK, thanks very much.

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