Posted on 08/14/2003 8:39:48 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan
By Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Arnold Schwarzenegger has given Democrats thousands of dollars in political donations over the past two decades, including $1,000 to Massachusetts senator and liberal lightning rod Ted Kennedy.
At the same time, campaign reports show, the GOP actor and gubernatorial hopeful has been a lukewarm financial supporter of Republican candidates.
Ultimately, say political observers, Schwarzenegger's history of political giving indicates little beyond what already is known -- that he is a moderate Republican who married into the Democratic Kennedy clan via NBC news correspondent Maria Shriver.
But conservative activists argue the pattern underscores a questionable political allegiance.
"Certainly, he has not proven to be a dedicated Republican. Where is his loyalty going to be?" asked Celeste Greig, a longtime Republican activist from Northridge who is supporting Schwarzenegger's rival, Bill Simon.
According to Federal Election Commission reports, Schwarzenegger gave $7,500 to Democrats since 1980 -- all of them Kennedys -- and $12,500 to Republicans and GOP committees.
Schwarzenegger aides and supporters called the donations to Democrats a non-issue.
"It's blood. It's family. He wasn't supporting Democrats, he was supporting family," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora.
"The fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger passionately embraces Republican views on fiscal responsibility and economic growth is enough for me and enough for most Republicans," Dreier said.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Rob Stutzman called criticizing the actor for his Kennedy donations "foolish."
"It's just silly to suggest that Arnold Schwarzenegger can't be a good Republican while still supporting his family by marriage," he said.
Even some Democrats said they don't read much into the Kennedy donations. "He wants to stay married," said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks.
But Sherman also slammed the campaign contributions as "thoughtless."
"I don't think he's thought about anything in politics," Sherman said. "These political contributions are thoughtless gestures because he doesn't vote."
Sherman was referring to a published report that Schwarzenegger may not have voted in as many as five of the last 11 statewide elections, although the candidate's staff questioned whether all of his absentee ballots were counted.
In addition to Ted Kennedy, Schwarzenegger gave about $3,500 over the years to his wife's cousins, former Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy and Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; and $2,000 to his brother-in-law, Mark Shriver, who last year ran a losing congressional race.
Among Republicans, Schwarzenegger gave $1,000 to losing Senate candidate Bruce Herschensohn in 1992; $1,000 to former Gov. Pete Wilson; and $1,000 to also-ran Senate candidate Ed Zschau. The rest of his GOP giving went to either state or national party committees.
Maria Shriver, meanwhile, has donated $2,000 to Mark Shriver; $4,000 to her cousin, Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy; $2,500 to Joe Kennedy; $1,000 to Townsend; and $3,000 to Ted Kennedy over the past two decades.
Schwarzenegger also has given a total of $3,000 in local races to Democratic Mayor James Hahn and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.
In addition, he gave Republican Richard Riordan $50,000 to help the former Los Angeles mayor in his run for governor last year. Riordan himself ran into trouble during that race for having donated to Democrats like Sen. Dianne Feinstein and even Gov. Gray Davis.
California political analysts said they doubt Schwarzenegger will face the same problem.
For one thing, analysts said, Republican anger over bipartisan campaign donations would be more likely to boil over in a closed party primary. For another, they said, Republicans who are bothered by Schwarzenegger's Kennedy ties will probably vote for conservatives like Simon or state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, anyway out of ideological reasons.
Said Dan Schnur, a longtime California campaign strategist now working for Schwarzenegger rival Peter Ueberroth, "Dick Riordan hadn't married into Gray Davis' family. I think Republican voters will see the difference."
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Lisa Friedman can be reached at (202) 662-8731 and lisa.friedman@langnews.com.
All of this is true.
There is no Republican primary to sort them out.
We should rally behind whichever Republican is leading in the last few weeks.
No Republican should target another Republican. They should run against Davis/Bustamante (assuming no other Democrat enters the race).
Republicans in California NEED a crash course in Spanish right now. It will help them communicate (in socially conservative terms: Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!) with the fastest growing group of California voters. Hint: they are not the ones who hang out at Bohemian Grove. Even so, simple courtesy suggests that we ASK politely for their votes and even listen to them once in a while with respect just like the voters in La Jolla.
Ya know, you really ought to try to restrain all that gushy optimism.
Muffy: "Mumsy would be so (sniff, sniff) disappointed by these awful "issue" types and what IS an "issue", anyway?"
Skipper: "Gee, Muff, I dunno, let's take the yacht out for a few dozen toddies and drown our sorrows! Maybe we can get Schwarzenkennedy and some of our other friends to come too! Do you think Gloria Allred is busy?"
Can I quote you on that? LOL
Vote for the droid: he MAY be a fiscal conservative. Boy, that's a slogan to go to war on. It sounds almost as good as ol' John Lindsay's "He is fresh. They are tired."
Ummmm, if California is so broke that Arnold cannot spend money, then how can the Demonrats spend money? You have effectively abandoned the last shred of your hope (expressed by you as a mere maybe) that the election of the droid will make any difference whatsoever.
Shall we elect an actual Republican now? Ask the California Republican Assembly who to elect. The will tell you.
The guy comes to America and barely speaks the language; He uses the talents and gifts he has to improve himself; He has the drive and discipline to be a world-class body builder; He learns the language (which is what we INSIST all immigrants do); He succeeds not only in the realm of entertainment, but real estate and investment; he is the poster-boy for immigrant capitalism, and you have the cajones to say he has no brain.
Sorry - you lose the arguement.
Of course you won't.
You will pour every breath into an effort to keep a Democrat as Governor of California as long as possible.
The L.A. Daily News is NOT the L.A. Times. The News is the much more conservative Voice of the Valley. It publishes the work of the very fine conservative columnist Chris Weinkopf and was the birthplace of Michelle Malkins's first political column.
Much has yet to be revealed about this election and the candidates. At this point I'm firmly in the camp of the undecideds. I don't want to be in the position of a Trojan welcoming a wooden horse inside the city's walls. Bust-the-Budget may be a better option in the short term.
You are embarassing yourself with this sort of used RINO food.
If Schwarzenkennedy wins, Gloria Allred wins not the GOP or California.
The quotes reference getting seventy-five or eighty percent of what we are looking for. With Schwarzenkennedy, we get zero, zip, nada, if we are lucky, because RINO control of the California GOP is a major step backwards ESPECIALLY if Shwarzenkennedy/Wilson/Riordan/Buffett et al. get to buy more airheads with jobs and contracts and strengthen California RINOism as Nelson Rockefeller used to do in New York, George Romney in Michigan, William Scranton in Pennsylvania and a lot of other nebishes who left their state GOPs in shambles after selling out on anything and everything that mattered to the Demonratic agenda.
Increased Republican Party identification because of RINO social issue surrenderism?????
Investigative Action News Reporter Rex RINO: "Mr. Juan Gonzalez, why do you, as an agricultural worker, identify with the Republican Party?"
JG: "It was the GOP policy ending all taxes on the trust fund set that did it for me, Rex. You know, it just wasn't fair taxing private yachts and Lear jets like that. Those people need stuff and they shouldn't be taxed at all. It is my privilege to pay their taxes for them."
IRRR: "Anything else, Mr. Gonzalez?"
JG: "Well, of course. You know, my wife and I insulted those people unintentionally by having six Mexican kids of our own right here in California as though we had a right to breathe. We try to make up for it by paying our own way but, we were thinking, how many kids might our kids have to make Ms. Muffy and Mr. Skipper uncomfortable? We are convincing our sons to avoid marriage of the old-fashioned kind and glance passionately at the other guys on their football teams (the government schools have a policy to help us convince them and we are sterilizing our daughters, just in case. I hope Ms. Muffy and Mr. Skipper can forgive us for giving them the vapors and all."
IRRR: "Right now, that's all from here, Dan. Rex RINO for Action News: We'll decide for you and, if you don't agree, we'll report you to Warren Buffett and George Soros for, ummmm, processing. Remember Vote Schwarzenkennedy or else."
You dare to compare Schwarzenkennedy with Reagan?????????
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