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Governor Gray Davis Begins Final Week of Campaigning
Aired September 30, 2003 - 15:15 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: Governor Gray Davis is opening a final week of campaigning to keep his job with DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe at his side. McAuliffe is the latest national Democrat working to help Davis and the party hold on to the California governor's office.
Let's listen in. This is a live event in California.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: ... person you are trying to replace. Does that make sense to you?
(APPLAUSE)
DAVIS: Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. The people in this state are pretty darn smart. I trust them. They're fair-minded. They will make the right decision on Tuesday. They know we're going through hard times. But they know we're solving our problems. In a couple hours, for example, I'm going to sign a worker compensation reform package that helps small businesses, large businesses, nonprofits, cities, counties...
WOODRUFF: And with me now from San Francisco to talk more about the California recall, as we listen to Governor Davis at that event, is Beth Fouhy. She covers the recall election for the Associated Press.
Beth Fouhy, a lot going on out there today, speculation about whether Arianna Huffington is going to stay formally in the campaign or not. Where does the race stand right now?
BETH FOUHY, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Well, perception or reality, Judy, right now, people are sort of feeling like the momentum is really in Mr. Schwarzenegger's camp.
And that's really motivated a lot of different activity this week. We don't know exactly where that perception comes from. It may come from your poll, the CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, that showed Arnold had gone way out ahead and that the recall was going to pass. Arnold did this big exciting fly-around on Sunday that generated a lot of press. We had the debate last week that he got apparently favorable notices on from many voters.
So what we are seeing now is a sense that the momentum is turning his way. Arianna Huffington apparently is likely going to say tonight on "LARRY KING" that she's going to get out of the race, say she opposes the recall, and say that it would be very bad for California to elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. So that's what we're looking at right now.
WOODRUFF: Now, as you know, Governor Davis, repeatedly -- and we heard it just again a moment ago -- urging Arnold Schwarzenegger to debate him. But we just talked with Schwarzenegger's campaign spokeswoman. And she's saying, no way. That's not going to happen.
Does that hurt Schwarzenegger at all or is it making Davis look desperate?
FOUHY: It's really hard to say, Judy.
I think, certainly, the Schwarzenegger people are telling you that it makes him look desperate. It seems certainly a legitimate request that Governor Davis has, if it really is now coming down to being pretty much a two-man race in most people's minds, that the two would go head to head in a debate to talk about California's problems. It's not going to happen. The Schwarzenegger has made very clear that they're not going to make that happen.
So Governor Davis really needs to do some other things to get his message out this week. He can't wait for that.
WOODRUFF: There's been a lot speculation about who exactly was going to turn out in this election. What's your sense of that? I know you've been talking to a lot of people.
FOUHY: Yes.
Well, anecdotally, everybody you run into on the street is telling you that they're going to vote. Nobody really knows. There's definitely a sense that Republican turnout is going to be very high, the people who hate Governor Gray Davis, who fueled this whole recall effort to begin with.
But now we're starting to wonder whether Democrats, having seen the CNN poll and getting the sense that Arnold has the momentum, whether they're going to be more motivated to come out. It's very interesting, Judy. The Davis campaign believes that there's about 10 percent of Democratic voters they need to move back into the no-recall camp. These are probably mostly living in Southern California and the Central Valley.
It's about 4 percent of the vote in California. They believe that, if they can get that group of Democrats back, they have a very good chance. And now, if Arianna Huffington throws her supporters toward Governor Davis, that might help. Who knows?
WOODRUFF: In other words, if she were to get out and travel around the state and urge people to vote against the recall.
FOUHY: That's right, and if her voters decided to go ahead and do what she asks. The Camejo vote as well could benefit Governor Davis, Peter Camejo, the Green Party candidate. But he has talked to us this morning and said he has absolutely no plans of getting out of the race.
The two of them have maybe 5 to 7 percent of the vote right now in California. That's voters that Governor Davis desperately would like to have.
WOODRUFF: For sure, at this point.
All right, Beth Fouhy with the Associated Press, thanks very much. Good to see you, Beth.
FOUHY: Thank you.
WOODRUFF: We 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 30, 2003 - 15:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Governor Gray Davis is opening a final week of campaigning to keep his job with DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe at his side. McAuliffe is the latest national Democrat working to help Davis and the party hold on to the California governor's office.
Let's listen in. This is a live event in California.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: ... person you are trying to replace. Does that make sense to you?
(APPLAUSE)
DAVIS: Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. The people in this state are pretty darn smart. I trust them. They're fair-minded. They will make the right decision on Tuesday. They know we're going through hard times. But they know we're solving our problems. In a couple hours, for example, I'm going to sign a worker compensation reform package that helps small businesses, large businesses, nonprofits, cities, counties...
WOODRUFF: And with me now from San Francisco to talk more about the California recall, as we listen to Governor Davis at that event, is Beth Fouhy. She covers the recall election for the Associated Press.
Beth Fouhy, a lot going on out there today, speculation about whether Arianna Huffington is going to stay formally in the campaign or not. Where does the race stand right now?
BETH FOUHY, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Well, perception or reality, Judy, right now, people are sort of feeling like the momentum is really in Mr. Schwarzenegger's camp.
And that's really motivated a lot of different activity this week. We don't know exactly where that perception comes from. It may come from your poll, the CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, that showed Arnold had gone way out ahead and that the recall was going to pass. Arnold did this big exciting fly-around on Sunday that generated a lot of press. We had the debate last week that he got apparently favorable notices on from many voters.
So what we are seeing now is a sense that the momentum is turning his way. Arianna Huffington apparently is likely going to say tonight on "LARRY KING" that she's going to get out of the race, say she opposes the recall, and say that it would be very bad for California to elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. So that's what we're looking at right now.
WOODRUFF: Now, as you know, Governor Davis, repeatedly -- and we heard it just again a moment ago -- urging Arnold Schwarzenegger to debate him. But we just talked with Schwarzenegger's campaign spokeswoman. And she's saying, no way. That's not going to happen.
Does that hurt Schwarzenegger at all or is it making Davis look desperate?
FOUHY: It's really hard to say, Judy.
I think, certainly, the Schwarzenegger people are telling you that it makes him look desperate. It seems certainly a legitimate request that Governor Davis has, if it really is now coming down to being pretty much a two-man race in most people's minds, that the two would go head to head in a debate to talk about California's problems. It's not going to happen. The Schwarzenegger has made very clear that they're not going to make that happen.
So Governor Davis really needs to do some other things to get his message out this week. He can't wait for that.
WOODRUFF: There's been a lot speculation about who exactly was going to turn out in this election. What's your sense of that? I know you've been talking to a lot of people.
FOUHY: Yes.
Well, anecdotally, everybody you run into on the street is telling you that they're going to vote. Nobody really knows. There's definitely a sense that Republican turnout is going to be very high, the people who hate Governor Gray Davis, who fueled this whole recall effort to begin with.
But now we're starting to wonder whether Democrats, having seen the CNN poll and getting the sense that Arnold has the momentum, whether they're going to be more motivated to come out. It's very interesting, Judy. The Davis campaign believes that there's about 10 percent of Democratic voters they need to move back into the no-recall camp. These are probably mostly living in Southern California and the Central Valley.
It's about 4 percent of the vote in California. They believe that, if they can get that group of Democrats back, they have a very good chance. And now, if Arianna Huffington throws her supporters toward Governor Davis, that might help. Who knows?
WOODRUFF: In other words, if she were to get out and travel around the state and urge people to vote against the recall.
FOUHY: That's right, and if her voters decided to go ahead and do what she asks. The Camejo vote as well could benefit Governor Davis, Peter Camejo, the Green Party candidate. But he has talked to us this morning and said he has absolutely no plans of getting out of the race.
The two of them have maybe 5 to 7 percent of the vote right now in California. That's voters that Governor Davis desperately would like to have.
WOODRUFF: For sure, at this point.
All right, Beth Fouhy with the Associated Press, thanks very much. Good to see you, Beth.
FOUHY: Thank you.
WOODRUFF: We 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
