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Supporting Schwarzenegger
Aired September 26, 2003 - 13:35 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: With 11 days until the recall vote, California Republicans getting pumped up about Arnold Schwarzenegger. Just moments ago, he picked up yet another key endorsement in his bid to become California's next governor.
National correspondent Bob Franken is in Los Angeles with the latest on all of this.
Still, one additional member in the GOP field though, right, Bob?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: One big one. And the reason that these endorsements are coming as a matter of fact, is that there's applied pressure on Tom McClintock, who's the conservative Republican. Party leaders feel that he's splitting the party. All of these endorsements are a way to say to him, OK, Mr. McClintock, you need to pull out.
Anyway, you see Arnold Schwarzenegger now. He was joined just a few moments ago by the person who financed the recall, Congressman Darrell Issa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARRELL ISA, CONGRESSMAN: And with that, I give you, with my wholehearted support, Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANKEN: The keywords of course being "my wholehearted support." Notable that Issa, probably, ideologically, is closer to McClintock. But party have decided with McClintock in the race, the GOP's chances of actually winning this thing are really, really kind of very dicey, because of the fact that McClintock is siphoning off a lot of the vote, or at least somebody is siphoning off the vote. They figure that if they were combined, that view back up by the polls, that they'd be able to take over from the Democrats, either by beating Cruz Bustamante and by beating the recall.
So all that is going on. McClintock himself is resisting all of these demands so far, saying that he's in it until the end. Of course this is politics, Miles, and things can change, and party leaders are counting on that, as a matter of fact.
O'BRIEN: Let me ask a quick question, Bob. If McClintock were to bow out, would conservatives just sit on their hands and stay at home on October 7th?
FRANKEN: I suspect that the party leaders would say to them, look, conservatives, the more conservative person, the bigger chance that conservative values being represented, is a vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger. And of course there's such passionate hatred among Republicans for Gray Davis, and no love particularly for Cruz Bustamante, that party leaders are quite confident -- and again, this is reflected in the polls -- that if there's only one candidate there, they can take over the state house.
O'BRIEN: All right, Lesser of about 135 evils, or something like that. All right, thank you very much, Bob Franken. Appreciate it.
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 26, 2003 - 13:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: With 11 days until the recall vote, California Republicans getting pumped up about Arnold Schwarzenegger. Just moments ago, he picked up yet another key endorsement in his bid to become California's next governor.
National correspondent Bob Franken is in Los Angeles with the latest on all of this.
Still, one additional member in the GOP field though, right, Bob?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: One big one. And the reason that these endorsements are coming as a matter of fact, is that there's applied pressure on Tom McClintock, who's the conservative Republican. Party leaders feel that he's splitting the party. All of these endorsements are a way to say to him, OK, Mr. McClintock, you need to pull out.
Anyway, you see Arnold Schwarzenegger now. He was joined just a few moments ago by the person who financed the recall, Congressman Darrell Issa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARRELL ISA, CONGRESSMAN: And with that, I give you, with my wholehearted support, Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANKEN: The keywords of course being "my wholehearted support." Notable that Issa, probably, ideologically, is closer to McClintock. But party have decided with McClintock in the race, the GOP's chances of actually winning this thing are really, really kind of very dicey, because of the fact that McClintock is siphoning off a lot of the vote, or at least somebody is siphoning off the vote. They figure that if they were combined, that view back up by the polls, that they'd be able to take over from the Democrats, either by beating Cruz Bustamante and by beating the recall.
So all that is going on. McClintock himself is resisting all of these demands so far, saying that he's in it until the end. Of course this is politics, Miles, and things can change, and party leaders are counting on that, as a matter of fact.
O'BRIEN: Let me ask a quick question, Bob. If McClintock were to bow out, would conservatives just sit on their hands and stay at home on October 7th?
FRANKEN: I suspect that the party leaders would say to them, look, conservatives, the more conservative person, the bigger chance that conservative values being represented, is a vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger. And of course there's such passionate hatred among Republicans for Gray Davis, and no love particularly for Cruz Bustamante, that party leaders are quite confident -- and again, this is reflected in the polls -- that if there's only one candidate there, they can take over the state house.
O'BRIEN: All right, Lesser of about 135 evils, or something like that. All right, thank you very much, Bob Franken. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
