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Voting Stats in California Recall Surprising

Aired October 08, 2003 - 13:04   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The recall campaign was fast and furious, lasting only 77 days. But if nothing else it lived up to its promise of being very colorful.
Joining us now with his colorful take, senior analyst Bill Schneider. Hi, Bill.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about the women voters here. Looks like the sexual harassment charges didn't matter when it came to the number women who turned out and voted for Arnold.

SCHNEIDER: They certainly didn't make a decisive difference because Women actually voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger, by a narrow margin, 42 percent to 37 percent, as you can see here, over his closest rival, Democrat Cruz Bustamante, the lieutenant governor.

That was a bit of a surprise given the charges of sexual misconduct that came out within the last week of the campaign. A lot of people said women would abandon Schwarzenegger, they'd never vote for him. There are a lot of women's rights activists who went out and protested his every campaign appearance.

But in the end, wouldn't say that women didn't take the charges seriously but a lot of women thought they were politically motivated because they came out so late in the campaign.

PHILLIPS: You think what else surprises too, just the number of votes from the porn star to Gary Coleman. How did they get so many votes?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I guess you could say there are a lot of dirty old men out there, for some of those porn stars. But they had a big menu of choices.

Look, Larry Flynt, the self-described summit peddler, he got over 15,000 votes. Angelyen, who is a somewhat up in years billboard model here in Los Angeles, got over 2000 votes. "Mary Carey" Cook, who is a porn actress, got almost 10,000. Another one-name performer, not in the porn industry, but an entertainer, Gallagher, got almost 5,000. Gary Coleman, former situation comedy actor, got about 12 1/2 thousand votes.

Those are trivial in terms of the total number of votes cast, which was almost 8 million. But still, that's a lot of people, a lot of dirty old men and situation comedy enthusiasts. PHILLIPS: Do you think a lot of these people showed up, Bill, just to say, this is who I voted for. Meanwhile, they've never voted before ever in the past?

SCHNEIDER: It's quite likely. A lot of people did show up. Some may have been casting a protest vote, some of them may have been making some kind of a statement. But I don't think I want to interpret what that statement was.

PHILLIPS: What about -- do you think there was a statement made here, to President Bush?

SCHNEIDER: There was. It was times are tough, voters want change, outsiders are in. That elected Arnold Schwarzenegger, much more than Republican partisanship, because he didn't really run as a partisan Republican.

And that statement, times are tough, voters want change, outsiders are in, that can't be the best news for President Bush because he's going to be running on the same economy Davis was running on last year. Terrible economy in California. California, one-eighth of Americans live in California.

So Bush is going to have to -- he's in some ways in the same position that Gray Davis was in, in the sense that times are hard and he's the insider. There are outsiders running against him but they're all Democrats. General Wesley Clark, who has never had elected office, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and a former governor of Vermont, Howard Dean. They're both Washington outsiders.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bill Schneider, thank you for your perspective.

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 8, 2003 - 13:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The recall campaign was fast and furious, lasting only 77 days. But if nothing else it lived up to its promise of being very colorful.
Joining us now with his colorful take, senior analyst Bill Schneider. Hi, Bill.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about the women voters here. Looks like the sexual harassment charges didn't matter when it came to the number women who turned out and voted for Arnold.

SCHNEIDER: They certainly didn't make a decisive difference because Women actually voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger, by a narrow margin, 42 percent to 37 percent, as you can see here, over his closest rival, Democrat Cruz Bustamante, the lieutenant governor.

That was a bit of a surprise given the charges of sexual misconduct that came out within the last week of the campaign. A lot of people said women would abandon Schwarzenegger, they'd never vote for him. There are a lot of women's rights activists who went out and protested his every campaign appearance.

But in the end, wouldn't say that women didn't take the charges seriously but a lot of women thought they were politically motivated because they came out so late in the campaign.

PHILLIPS: You think what else surprises too, just the number of votes from the porn star to Gary Coleman. How did they get so many votes?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I guess you could say there are a lot of dirty old men out there, for some of those porn stars. But they had a big menu of choices.

Look, Larry Flynt, the self-described summit peddler, he got over 15,000 votes. Angelyen, who is a somewhat up in years billboard model here in Los Angeles, got over 2000 votes. "Mary Carey" Cook, who is a porn actress, got almost 10,000. Another one-name performer, not in the porn industry, but an entertainer, Gallagher, got almost 5,000. Gary Coleman, former situation comedy actor, got about 12 1/2 thousand votes.

Those are trivial in terms of the total number of votes cast, which was almost 8 million. But still, that's a lot of people, a lot of dirty old men and situation comedy enthusiasts. PHILLIPS: Do you think a lot of these people showed up, Bill, just to say, this is who I voted for. Meanwhile, they've never voted before ever in the past?

SCHNEIDER: It's quite likely. A lot of people did show up. Some may have been casting a protest vote, some of them may have been making some kind of a statement. But I don't think I want to interpret what that statement was.

PHILLIPS: What about -- do you think there was a statement made here, to President Bush?

SCHNEIDER: There was. It was times are tough, voters want change, outsiders are in. That elected Arnold Schwarzenegger, much more than Republican partisanship, because he didn't really run as a partisan Republican.

And that statement, times are tough, voters want change, outsiders are in, that can't be the best news for President Bush because he's going to be running on the same economy Davis was running on last year. Terrible economy in California. California, one-eighth of Americans live in California.

So Bush is going to have to -- he's in some ways in the same position that Gray Davis was in, in the sense that times are hard and he's the insider. There are outsiders running against him but they're all Democrats. General Wesley Clark, who has never had elected office, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and a former governor of Vermont, Howard Dean. They're both Washington outsiders.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bill Schneider, thank you for your perspective.

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