Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for President Bush's re-election campaign, has been hired by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to sources close to the administration. Dowd has been participating in strategy calls, as the governor begins to put together an election campaign, the sources said. The governor also recently hired Steve Schmidt, an adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, as his campaign manager. Schmidt is working on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito and will join Schwarzenegger's campaign when they conclude.