You almost have to take a deep breath when you open up the L.A. Times or do a news wire search each day to see yet another story damaging to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger — and the latest says a business-partner/tabloid essentially paid a woman off to keep quiet about an affair with him.
Should we say it bluntly? Schwarzenegger, whose supporters used to be talking about circulating petitions to change the constitution to let a foreign born national run for President, has morphed into The Incredible Shrinking Governor. (FYI, this writer voted for Schwarzenegger and against then-California Governor Grey Davis.)
He’s shrinking in the polls, shrinking in the size of his reforms, shriking in the support he has in the courts and shrinking in the most fundamental aspect of his successful candidacy during the recall: shrinking as someone who was supposed to be a special kind of public official who didn’t take money from special interests and didn’t do politics as usual.
This latest LA Times story won’t help:
SACRAMENTO — Days after Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped into the race for governor and girded for questions about his past, a tabloid publisher wooing him for a business deal promised to pay a woman $20,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement about an alleged affair with the candidate.
American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, signed a friend of the woman to a similar contract about the alleged relationship for $1,000.
American Media’s contract with Gigi Goyette of Malibu is dated Aug. 8, 2003, two days after Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy on a late-night talk show. Under the agreement, Goyette must disclose to no one but American Media any information about her “interactions” with Schwarzenegger.
American Media never solicited further information from Goyette or her friend, Judy Mora, also of Malibu, both women said. The Enquirer had published a cover story two years earlier describing an alleged seven-year sexual relationship between Goyette and Schwarzenegger during his marriage to Maria Shriver, California’s first lady.
On Aug. 14, 2003, as candidate Schwarzenegger was negotiating a consulting deal with American Media, the company signed its contract with Mora, who said she received $1,000 cash in return. Goyette declined to say whether she received the $20,000 promised in her contract.
Rob Stutzman, the governor’s communications director, said he believed Schwarzenegger did not know of American Media’s deals with the women. Schwarzenegger is on vacation and not available for comment, Stutzman said.
Stutzman denied any link between AMI’s deal with Schwarzenegger and the company’s agreements with the two women.
“There is no connection with his business with AMI or AMI’s business of purchasing the rights to stories,” Stutzman said. “That’s what they do. Obviously, part of their business is the tabloid business.”
The women might have been in a position to embarrass Schwarzenegger in his bid for the governor’s office. When Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy on “The Tonight Show,” he speculated that he would face accusations of infidelity……
….But American Media was effectively protecting Schwarzenegger’s political interests, said a person who worked at the company when the contracts were signed. At the same time, American Media was crafting a deal to make Schwarzenegger executive editor of Flex and Muscle & Fitness magazines, helping to lure readers and advertisers.
Schwarzenegger is truly shrinking before our eyes. A slew of stories claim he has taken more money from special interests than any governor. His debut as a Reaganesque, hopeful politician didn’t last long as he ran into foot-and-mouth-disease on the stump, angering foes and PC critics with some of his speeches. One thing news reports don’t tell you: many Californians seem weary of his verbal references to his movies and screen catch phrases. He’s not wearing well; he seems to be losing independents and disgruntled Democrats and his core-support comes from Republicans.
An AP report notes:
The story risks distracting voter attention from a special election that Schwarzenegger has called for November and provided new ammunition for his political opponents.
“Now, for the umpteenth time, Arnold is undone by his attempts at hiding the truth from the public,” California Democratic strategist Bob Mulholland said. “How many more secrets does the governor have?”
Most of these stories that surface have the governor’s people denying them and/or offering a seemingly logical defense. But that is NOT enough for Schwarzenegger: He RAN ON being a DIFFERENT KIND of politician. And, with each new damaging news story, it seems as if the main difference between him and the others is ONE thing: his accent.
UPDATE: But now the state Supreme Court has handed Schwarzenegger a major victory: it has ordered his controversial redistricting proposal back on the special-election ballot:
If voters approve Proposition 77 in November, it would take the responsibility for drawing the state’s political map out of the hands of California’s Democratic-controlled legislature and give it to a panel of retired judges.
Schwarzenegger hopes the idea will enable more moderate politicians to win legislative districts that in the past have been carefully divided into Democratic and Republican strongholds.
A legal battle erupted long before the election because its sponsors changed the language of the petition voters signed in 17 places before submitting it to state officials.
Two lower courts ruled that the changes tainted the process but California’s top court disagreed in a 4-2 decision, saying the changes were unlikely to have misled those who signed the petition.
“We conclude that it would not be appropriate to deny the electorate the opportunity to vote on Proposition 77 at the special election to held on November 8, 2005, on the basis of such discrepancies,” the court said.
This is one of Schwarzenegger’s signature issues and an extremely serious one. that voters should consider, apart from political personalities.
The problem for him is going to be that opposition to him has so stiffened that he’s now in serious danger of some irked voters deciding to send him a message by voting against his proposal, regardless of its merits. You can see the makings of this right now, particularly since pundits are saying how important it is to keep him politically viable. In other words, the proposal is going to be carrying some baggage — resentment among some voters and disappointment among other towards A.S.
SOME OTHER VOICES:
—Kevin Drum:”So after paying out $20,000 to Goyette and $1,000 to Mora in order to get exclusive rights to their story, the Enquirer never ran anything. That’s a nicer perk than a key to the executive washroom, isn’t it?”
—DC Media Girl:”You know, I’m not easily shocked, but I admit that this revelation knocked me for a loop.”
—Ezra Klein:”You know what was fun? Last month’s scandal where Arnold’s second job as magazine publisher nicely intersected with his first job as pretend-governor when he signed off on a bill protecting their advertisers. But you know what’s going to be even more fun? This month’s scandal. Cause this time, there’s hush money..”
—Chris Nolan:”So the governor is in real trouble. And this story has a lot of the things that make for a good summer scandal: Sex, politics, money and movie stars. Last month, Schwazenegger’s butt got saved by Karl Rove et al. This month it might be the other way ’round.”
—Betsy Newmark on Arnold’s court victory:
Put this together with the efforts of Democrats and labor activists to get such a measure on Ohio’s ballot and we may have a movement. Republicans would lose a few seats in Ohio and Democrats would probably lose a few seats in California. But it would be a great step towards reforming our scandalous system of gerrymandering incumbent-protected seats if two of the biggest states were to make such a change. I would expect to see activists of both parties to start the ball rolling in other states. All in all, the 2010 census could lead to some very interesting new districting lines.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.