Wilson had worked with Nicholas on Proposition 21 -- a juvenile crime measure passed in March 2000 -- and knew Nicholas' mother, Marcella Leach, who had started a victims' rights group. Nicholas was shocked to learn from Wilson that polls showed Proposition 66 would pass. He was impressed that Schwarzenegger opposed the measure.
"I said, 'I trust your judgment, Pete,' " said Nicholas. "If you think Arnold is willing to go all out, I'll put $1.5 million in."
The next day, Schwarzenegger agreed to jump in. Sipple wrote scripts for ads juxtaposing the governor against blown-up mug shots of three-strikes criminals; the ads were just 15 seconds, so air time could be bought on short notice and the ads could be repeated often.
The governor's political advisors have sought to emphasize that Schwarzenegger, criticized for being too cautious in picking fights, was challenging a ballot measure that had majority support in polls. "I think it shows the governor was willing to take a risk," said Randle.
The Schwarzenegger ads were on the air by the morning of Oct. 27. That same week, the prison guards union contributed $500,000 more to the campaign. The governor contributed more than $2 million through the California Recovery Team, a fund he established last year to pay for his ballot initiative campaigns. Nicholas made additional donations throughout the week -- in the end, he gave a total of $3.5 million to fight 66.
On Oct. 28, Schwarzenegger and Wilson appeared together at a Los Angeles news conference, along with former governors Jerry Brown and Gray Davis, to denounce 66. The governor made a No on 66 message a central part of his bus tour around the state that Saturday and declared all his last-minute appearances with Republican legislative candidates Monday to be No on 66 events.
Nicholas, who stayed in close touch with Wilson, spent the weekend making and buying his own radio ads -- at times with his personal credit card.
On Saturday night, he sent his private plane to Oakland to pick up the city's mayor, former Gov. Brown, and fly him to Long Beach. Brown was taken to a studio at the home of Ryan Shuck, guitarist of the group Orgy. Joined by musicians that included Korn drummer David Silvera, he recorded radio ads from 11:30 p.m. until 2:30 a.m.
"It was a very loose, cool mood," said Shuck. "I had Korn, Orgy, Jerry Brown and Dr. Nicholas in my house all at once. Pretty bizarre."
