Not taking anything for granted, Schwarzenegger last week had charged around Costco stores across the state to get signatures on initiative petitions that would have put the issue on the November ballot if the Legislature had failed to act. "Arnold much prefers the carrot, but he is willing to use the stick," said a member of the governor's team.
Throngs of autograph-seekers intent on catching a glimpse of their hero have flocked to these stores, a boon for Costco's business if nothing else. Legislators and a supposedly skeptical press corps in Sacramento seem equally star-struck. "Arnold's a superstar," says John Burton, the skilled and combative Democratic Senate leader whose agreement is crucial to Schwarzenegger's success on this year's budget, which is projected to be $15 billion in the red.
Schwarzenegger's stardom goes beyond celebrity, says Burton, a liberal politician from San Francisco with a profane manner and a progressive record. The Senate leader, routinely described as the most powerful legislator in Sacramento, disdained Davis, whom he described -- in one of his more printable comments -- as "bloodless." But he exchanges gifts and jokes with Schwarzenegger and believes he can negotiate with him on difficult issues, as he did as an assemblyman with Gov. Reagan. "Arnold's not afraid to get his hands dirty and become engaged," says Burton. "He's comfortable in his own skin, and he knows the problems aren't just going to go away."
Some of Schwarzenegger's friends say that his determination to succeed, not his celebrity status, is the key to his accomplishments. "Arnold's not a success because he's a celebrity," contends Sacramento lobbyist Bob White. "He's a celebrity because he's a success." White, chief of staff under Gov. Pete Wilson, says that Schwarzenegger is doing in Sacramento what he has done throughout his life: setting goals, engaging people and competing in an effective way. "He's got the best gut, political instinct of anyone I know," White says.
In this respect, as in others, Schwarzenegger inevitably has been compared to Reagan, who served two terms as governor en route to the White House and two terms as president. He has also been compared to Jesse Ventura, the wrestling champion who scorned conventional politicians and became the Reform Party-turned-independent governor of Minnesota. Indeed, Stuart Spencer, who managed several of Reagan's campaigns and believes the jury is still out on Schwarzenegger, says the key question is whether the governor turns out to be a Reagan or a Ventura.
