Beatty, Bening Try to Crash the Gov.'s Party

"I know you have asked and I've turned you down," Beatty said.

He finally agreed to remain outside the hangar and listen over loudspeakers.

Holding his wife's hand, Beatty chuckled as various radio hosts and Republican speakers who preceded the governor onstage insulted his acting skills.

" 'Dick Tracy' was a terrible movie," said radio talk-show host Roger Hedgecock. "Just terrible.... That was celluloid abuse."

When it was his turn to speak, the governor did not mention the spectacle, which had drawn the attention of TV cameras and even the hundreds of Schwarzenegger supporters who had turned out for the rally. Organizers closed the hangar at one point, making it more difficult for the crowd to see Beatty.

In an interview later aboard his campaign bus, Schwarzenegger said Beatty's appearance posed no distraction. He has described Beatty, who has been active in Democratic causes and campaigns for years, as a friend.

"I'll let someone else be worried about that," the governor said, sitting in a soft leather chair at the back of his bus, which was decorated with posters that read "Reform and Rebuild California."

He added: "I don't concentrate on any of that. I just concentrate on my message, to get my message out there."

With several statewide polls showing his four measures trailing, Schwarzenegger hoped the bus tour would rally support in this late stage of the campaign. He addressed enthusiastic crowds of several hundred people here, in Anaheim and in Riverside. In Irwindale, he spoke to nearly 1,000 supporters.

"This is a very important election," Schwarzenegger said at Pacific Transformer Inc. in Anaheim. "We can take the power back again. Take it away from the special interests. Take it away from the public employee unions. Take it away from the politicians. And give it back to the people of California."

He was joined in Riverside by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whom the Schwarzenegger camp sees as someone with impeccable reformist credentials.

The senator said he was particularly interested in seeing voters approve Proposition 77, which would strip state legislators of the power to draw voting districts and give it instead to a panel of retired judges.

"Everybody complains about the extremism in politics," McCain said aboard Schwarzenegger's bus. "You're never going to change that if people have lifetime jobs in Congress and the Legislature."