Schwarzenegger Tactics Turn Rougher

Schwarzenegger also started running a spot Monday that calls Gov. Gray Davis incompetent, blames him for high energy prices and hammers him for letting illegal immigrants get driver's licenses. It accuses Davis of fiscal mismanagement and criticizes him for tripling the state car tax.

Schwarzenegger's spokesman, Sean Walsh, denied that the candidate was going back on a promise. "This is not negative campaigning. This is simply stating the facts," he said.

The twin ads, however, reflect an abrupt tactical shift for Schwarzenegger and come after intense debate among his advisors. For weeks, the actor has been stuck in the polls, with roughly one in four voters backing him. TV ads to burnish his image appear not to have expanded his base of support. Schwarzenegger is paying for the ads in part with money he has collected from the oil, automobile, insurance, lumber and real estate industries, along with a host of other donors that lobby the governor's office on state business. He asserts that unlike the people giving money to his rivals, those donors are not "special interests."

One of Schwarzenegger's new ads opens with the image of a slot-machine dial as the candidate says: "Indian casino tribes play money politics in Sacramento: $120 million in the last five years." California should require tribes to "pay their fair share" of state taxes on casino profits, he says.

Without naming any of his opponents, he adds: "All the other major candidates take their money and pander to them. I don't play that game. Give me your vote, and I guarantee you things will change."

Last year, Schwarzenegger accepted $62,000 in Indian donations for a ballot measure he was promoting. He has declined money from the tribes for his gubernatorial campaign; tribes have backed two other contenders, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, and state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks).

Walsh accused Bustamante and Davis of promising tribes state favors in return for campaign money, referring to appearances by Davis, Bustamante and McClintock last month at a meeting of the California Nations Indian Gaming Assn.

Walsh said that whoever is governor must engage in direct negotiations with tribes on the scope of casino operations.