By JOHN M. BRODER
Dan Davidson, a pastor in Santa Ana, Calif., calls Arnold Schwarzenegger unacceptably liberal on social issues.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 22 — Hoping to unite their party around a single strong candidate, some prominent conservative Republicans endorsed Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor today and urged his principal Republican rivals to withdraw from the race.
The Lincoln Club of Orange County, which helped underwrite the campaign to put the recall of Gov. Gray Davis on the ballot, said Mr. Schwarzenegger had the best chance of reclaiming the governor's office for Republicans.
In other signs that the party was trying to coalesce around the actor, a conservative Republican member of the State Assembly, Doug LaMalfa, endorsed Mr. Schwarzenegger, and Rush Limbaugh, initially hostile to the actor's candidacy, softened his stance and spoke approvingly of his antitax statements this week.
But despite such movement, many other California conservatives remain queasy about his moderate-to-liberal views on social issues, which match the opinions of a majority of Californians but offend many die-hard Republicans.
Take Dan Davidson, the senior pastor of the Bethel Baptist Church in Santa Ana. He calls himself a conservative Republican and very much wants to see Mr. Davis removed from office.
But Dr. Davidson says he will not support Mr. Schwarzenegger because of what he considers his unacceptably liberal views on social issues, particularly his stance in favor of abortion rights and his tolerance for gay unions and adoption. Mr. Schwarzenegger has also said he supports some gun controls.
"On moral issues, I don't think he's any better than Davis," Dr. Davidson said. "I can't bring myself to vote for someone who is unabashedly pro-gay."
Some conservatives here also cast a suspicious eye on Mr. Schwarzenegger's ties to what they consider the liberal elite of Hollywood, on the possible influence of his wife, Maria Shriver, a member of the Kennedy family, and on his team of advisers, many of whom served under the moderate former Republican governor Pete Wilson.
Whether many of these voters can be brought around could turn out to critical to Mr. Schwarzenegger's chances.
Analysts say that the conservatives' customary ideological rigidity — some call it Republican cannibalism — is the reason Democrats have won every important statewide election since 1994.
The state Republican party's conventions tend to be bitterly tribal affairs, with the varying strains of the party vying for supremacy. Hard-line conservatives have been winning these battles — and little else — for the past decade.
The recall race features a two-part ballot, with voters first deciding whether to recall Governor Davis, and then choosing a replacement from among 135 candidates. Anything can happen, but many mainstream Republicans fear that with four credible Republican candidates in the race, it is possible that enough conservatives could withhold their support from Mr. Schwarzenegger to throw the election to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only prominent Democrat in the contest, if Mr. Davis is recalled.
So while many conservatives express qualms about Mr. Schwarzenegger, others — as well as party moderates and some Republicans close to the Bush White House — sense a chance to win in a freakish and foreshortened race for governor and are willing to look past his moderate social views and vague fiscal position.
"Arnold's commitment to reduced taxes, fiscal restraint and rebuilding California's economy through a revitalized business community reflect the Lincoln Club's conservative philosophy," Tracy K. Price, the group's president, said today. He called on Bill Simon, State Senator Tom McClintock and Peter Ueberroth to withdraw from the race.
"They're all in single digits with six weeks to go," he said. "It's not our intention to throw them under the bus, but we think this is time to rally behind one candidate and we think Arnold can win."
Spokesmen for all three candidates said they had no intention of dropping out.
K. B. Forbes, spokesman for one of them, Bill Simon Jr., the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor last November, said that the Lincoln Club was well regarded, but that it was "one club in one county and there are many different organizations endorsing candidates."
Mr. Simon is running hard to the right of Mr. Schwarzenegger, baiting him on his refusal to rule out tax increases and berating him for lacking specific plans for solving the state's budget problems.
And he has his fervent backers. Warene Wall, a retired telecommunications executive in San Diego, said she was supporting Mr. Simon as both a true conservative and the one candidate in the race whose views on taxes and spending were well known from his campaign last year.
"I don't think there's anything conservative about Arnold," Mrs. Wall said. "When he finally emerged this week and gave his speech, his delivery was excellent but he gave us no substance. I'm concerned he'll compromise with the Democrats rather than hold the line on spending."
Mr. Schwarzenegger may have helped himself with conservatives on Wednesday when he made a strong antitax pitch at his first news conference, complaining that Californians were taxed from the moment they awoke until they went to bed at night.
He repeated his antitax themes in a stroll today in Huntington Beach. "We have to stop this government from overspending, overtaxing and overregulating," he said, drawing an instant crowd and loud cheers. "That's going to go a long way toward winning back some conservative support," said Roger Hedgecock, the former Republican mayor of San Diego who now has a conservative radio talk show there. He said some of his callers said they feared that on social issues Mr. Schwarzenegger "just seems to be another Hollywood liberal."
However, Mr. Hedgecock continued, many callers appear willing to overlook those views for a chance to win back the governorship. "I detect a huge yearning to see the Republicans win this election and not be divided among three, four, five candidates," he said. "There's a great fear of winding up worse than we were before."
Democrats hold a decided edge over Republicans in party registration in California, roughly 44 percent to 35 percent, with another 15 percent declining to state a party affiliation. As a result, any candidate calling himself a Republican must reach out to Democrats or independents to have any hope of winning a statewide election.
In most cases, however, a Republican first has to survive the primary process, which brings out the most committed ideological conservatives. Richard Riordan, the moderate Republican former mayor of Los Angeles, learned that lesson in last year's gubernatorial primary, when he was badly defeated by Mr. Simon.
This contest is different. There is no primary, and thus no need to cater to the far reaches of the political spectrum. "This is the best thing that ever happened to moderate Republicans," said Samuel Popkin, a professor of political science at the University of California at San Diego. "It provides the chance to become governor without having to survive a Republican primary."
Mr. Schwarzenegger's advisers say that despite opposition from a number of outspoken religious and fiscal conservative leaders, Mr. Schwarzenegger is broadly supported by conservatives.
"The notion is just patently wrong that we're not doing well among conservative voters," said George Gorton, one of Mr. Schwarzenegger's chief strategists. "We're doing well among conservatives."
Joel Fox, former president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which sponsored the tax-cutting Proposition 13 in 1978, is now advising Mr. Schwarzenegger on tax and budget issues. He said that even if Mr. Schwarzenegger did not completely satisfy fiscal conservatives by signing a no-new-taxes pledge, they would support him in the end.
"Rank and file conservatives want a winner," Mr. Fox said.
But not all conservatives are willing to compromise their beliefs. Dr. Davidson of the Bethel Baptist Church said that among other points, he was concerned by Mr. Schwarzenegger's violent movie persona.
"I just don't believe he's a good role model," he said. He added that he did not think Mr. Schwarzenegger could be married to a member of the Kennedy family and be a conservative on social issues. He said resignedly, "I know I can't expect to get Jerry Falwell as governor."
