Rather than go back to the same Californians who have funded his various campaigns, Schwarzenegger said he wants to solicit well-heeled businesspeople across the country.
"I feel it's wise not to just rely on the same people that we normally go to, and let other people participate a little bit," he said.
Likely donors would include people who've been "successful in the real estate market or successful in the restaurant business," he said. "Maybe they can contribute $10,000 or $20,000 or $50,000 or be in charge of raising $500,000 from smaller donors."
Schwarzenegger's celebrity may help him woo contributors from other states. He is widely known because of his movie career, but he also reached a national audience last fall when he campaigned for President Bush in Ohio and, before that, gave a televised prime-time speech to the Republican National Convention in New York City.
The planned fundraising blitz has opened Schwarzenegger to criticism from campaign fundraising groups. They are particularly upset that committees formed to support ballot initiatives the governor may launch are not subject to the same fundraising limits that apply to candidates. The governor can raise unlimited amounts for these efforts; the money he raises for reelection, however, is limited to $22,300 per donor.
"At the very least, the governor seems to be mocking the spirit of California laws, which were passed by voters and put already high limits on contributions to candidates," said Ned Wigglesworth, a Sacramento analyst with www.therestofus.org, a group that monitors campaign finance laws.
Many of Schwarzenegger's donations come from insurance companies, telecommunications firms and other corporate interests that lobby state government. Though Schwarzenegger often derides "special interests" as a dangerous force in Sacramento, he repeatedly states that he is not beholden to anyone because he is wealthy.
"I think this is why the people sent me to Sacramento," the governor said in a news conference this week, "because I cannot be bought."
On Friday, Schwarzenegger pushed his plan to institute merit pay for teachers. He visited two classrooms and greeted an auditorium full of students at the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in San Fernando. The 1,450-student school gained charter status in 1993, the first campus in the Los Angeles Unified School District to do so.
