I don’t recall Arnold campaigning as a conservative. He campaigned as a fiscal liberal. Otherwise, he made it crystal clear he was a social liberal, whicn meant he had to pay for those entitlements and liberal causes somehow.
No, he was brought in by conservatives and others who believed him when he said he would get CA back on track fiscally. Arnold’s posture as the fiscal conservative who would “blow uo the boxes” of the liberal “economic girly men” continued all the way through his victory until he had to campaign for the propositions meant to pave the way for major fiscal reform. This is when he backed down.
You may be thinking about his 2006 reelection campaign, but the issue here is how he got elected in the first place in 2003.
"Let me tell you what being a conservative means to me. I'm a conservative because I believe communism is evil and free enterprise is good. I'm a conservative because Milton Friedman is right and Karl Marx is wrong. I'm a conservative because I believe government serves the people, the people don't serve the government. I'm a conservative because I believe in a balanced budget, not budget deficits. I'm a conservative because I believe money that people earn is their money and not the government's money. And when you look at the drivers' license outrage, I am a conservative because I believe in the rules of the law, not political pandering."