Schwarzenegger wants to clean up California

Aug 06, 2003 by Ian Evans

Following his surprise announcement on Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show, Arnold Schwarzenegger told a press conference outside the NBC studios that the decision to put his name in California’s gubernatorial recall election was a very difficult decision to make.

After performing the last of his promotional duties for T3 in Mexico City, the actor/activist said he began to weigh the choices with his wife, Maria Shriver, and his children. He said he had to contemplate issues connected to his family life, his film career and the business relationships he has.

He said that Shriver, a member of the Kennedy clan and a lifelong Democrat, supported her Republican husband’s decision to run. Schwarzenegger said he wanted to go the the state capital, Sacremento, and clean house. He said that he felt that California was beholden to too many special interest groups and with his wealth he couldn’t be bought off.

Schwarzenegger, who has strongly campaigned in the past on children’s issues and education felt that the great state that he lived in was in decline, with businesses and people leaving the state and creating a budget mess that was hurting the programs he believed in.

When one reporter commented that he was to the left of many Republicans and to the right of most Democrats, Schwarzenegger said that he wasn’t running for the parties, but for the people who shared the state of California with him.