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American Morning
California Recall Race Looking More Like Two-Man Race
Aired August 26, 2003 - 07:24 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The California recall race may have more than 100 candidates, but it's looking more and more like a two man race, each taking aim at the other. Yesterday, Arnold Schwarzenegger attacked Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who he is trailing in the most recent polls.
CNN's national correspondent Bob Franken joins us live from Los Angeles this morning -- good morning to you, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
And there's really a lot of ferment on both sides of the political ledger. For the Democrats, they're going to be going before the AFL-CIO meeting that's going to be going on later today. The labor group, which represents over two million workers in the state, is going to decide whether it will abandon its strategy of just opposing the recall and coming up with an oppose the recall but support Cruz Bustamante strategy. Of course, this has been a burning debate within the Democrats for the last couple of weeks now and the Bustamante strategy has resulted in his really showing up well in the polls.
As we've been reporting, the "Los Angeles Times" has him way ahead of Arnold Schwarzenegger right now, 35 to 22 percent. That's a huge lead and somewhat of a reversal. And it has caused Schwarzenegger to hit the talk radio circuit and take the gloves off a bit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: I think that people just have to understand that when you vote, when you think about Gray Davis, you have to also think at the same time Bustamante. Because it's one team. I mean they both are, you know, it's -- one cannot say well, listen, I had nothing to do with that mess because they both are together and it's like one newspaper pointed out, that it's just Bustamante is Gray Davis with a receding hairline and with a mustache.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANKEN: The one problem Schwarzenegger has is that there's about a million and a half more registered Democrats in the state than Republicans, so he has to appeal to voters across-the-board. And, Soledad, we have absolutely no way of quantifying how many of them have receding hairlines and mustaches.
O'BRIEN: Get right onto that count for us, Bob, will you? We'd appreciate it.
FRANKEN: All right.
O'BRIEN: All right, thanks.
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 August 26, 2003 - 07:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The California recall race may have more than 100 candidates, but it's looking more and more like a two man race, each taking aim at the other. Yesterday, Arnold Schwarzenegger attacked Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who he is trailing in the most recent polls.
CNN's national correspondent Bob Franken joins us live from Los Angeles this morning -- good morning to you, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
And there's really a lot of ferment on both sides of the political ledger. For the Democrats, they're going to be going before the AFL-CIO meeting that's going to be going on later today. The labor group, which represents over two million workers in the state, is going to decide whether it will abandon its strategy of just opposing the recall and coming up with an oppose the recall but support Cruz Bustamante strategy. Of course, this has been a burning debate within the Democrats for the last couple of weeks now and the Bustamante strategy has resulted in his really showing up well in the polls.
As we've been reporting, the "Los Angeles Times" has him way ahead of Arnold Schwarzenegger right now, 35 to 22 percent. That's a huge lead and somewhat of a reversal. And it has caused Schwarzenegger to hit the talk radio circuit and take the gloves off a bit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: I think that people just have to understand that when you vote, when you think about Gray Davis, you have to also think at the same time Bustamante. Because it's one team. I mean they both are, you know, it's -- one cannot say well, listen, I had nothing to do with that mess because they both are together and it's like one newspaper pointed out, that it's just Bustamante is Gray Davis with a receding hairline and with a mustache.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANKEN: The one problem Schwarzenegger has is that there's about a million and a half more registered Democrats in the state than Republicans, so he has to appeal to voters across-the-board. And, Soledad, we have absolutely no way of quantifying how many of them have receding hairlines and mustaches.
O'BRIEN: Get right onto that count for us, Bob, will you? We'd appreciate it.
FRANKEN: All right.
O'BRIEN: All right, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
