Schwarzenegger sworn in as California's governor, Nov. 17, 2003
On this day in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Hollywood film star and professional bodybuilder, was sworn in as California’s 38th governor. Before entering the political arena, Schwarzenegger had become a familiar figure to movie audiences for his roles in such action films as “The Terminator” and “Total Recall.”
Running as a Republican, Schwarzenegger defeated Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in a special recall election on Oct. 7. After serving the remainder of Davis’ term, “The Governator,” as he was called, won a full term in 2006.
In his first term, Schwarzenegger set out to cut state spending, only to find, as Michael Lewis wrote in “Boomerang,” that “he could cut only the things that the state actually needed.” In 2005, Schwarzenegger called a special election, in hopes of passing four propositions: clamping limits on state spending, ending gerrymandering of legislative districts, curbing campaign contributions by public service unions and stretching the time it took teachers to become tenured.
All four gubernatorial initiatives were defeated. Schwarzenegger did succeed, however, in reforming worker compensation procedures, creating open primaries and ensuring that district lines could henceforth be drawn by an impartial committee rather than by the Legislature.
Schwarzenegger was born in Austria on July 30, 1947. Under the U.S. Constitution, he is barred from seeking the presidency — unlike Ronald Reagan, another Hollywood actor who went on to serve, from 1967 to 1975, as California’s 33rd governor before becoming the nation’s 40th president in 1981.
In 2011, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Schwarzenegger had engaged in an adulterous affair with a household employee and fathered a son 14 years before. The revelation led to the breakup of his 25-year marriage to Maria Shriver, a niece of President John F. Kennedy.
“I think it was the stupidest thing I’ve done in the whole relationship,” Schwarzenegger subsequently said in an interview that aired in 2012 on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” “It was terrible. I inflicted tremendous pain on Maria and unbelievable pain on the kids,” he added.
In 2012, Schwarzenegger helped found the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, which is a part of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. The Institute’s mission is to advance “post-partisanship, where leaders put people over political parties and work together to find the best ideas and solutions to benefit the people they serve” and to “seek to influence public policy and public debate in finding solutions to the serious challenges we face.” Schwarzenegger serves as institute’s chairman.
In 2016, Schwarzenegger endorsed Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich for the GOP presidential nomination. He announced in October that he would not vote for Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, noting that this was the first time he did not vote for the Republican candidate since becoming a U.S. citizen in 1983.
SOURCE: “BOOMERANG: TRAVELS IN THE NEW THIRD WORLD,” BY MICHAEL LEWIS (2011)