It wasn't the smell of anticipation that hung in the air Tuesday afternoon at Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign headquarters. It was the distinct smell of balloons--hundreds of ripe red, white and blue latex balloons poised to rain on California Governor-elect Schwarzenegger.
At 10:43 p.m., Hollywood time, the balloons fell, the confetti sprayed, Rob Lowe beamed, the canned Van Halen blared, and the candidate flashed the thumbs-up. Administration by Arnold was on.
In voting Tuesday, the blockbuster movie star was selected from a field of 135 actors, beer makers, gadflies and concerned citizens to head the world's fifth-largest economy in place of incumbent Governor Gray Davis, whom Golden State residents overwhelmingly chose to turn out of office.
"Everything I have is because of California. I came here with absolutely nothing, and California has given me absolutely everything," Schwarzenegger told supporters at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, California. "I want to be the people's governor."
With 100 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday, 55.4 percent of Californians voted to recall Davis. Schwarzenegger easily distanced all replacement contenders on the eight-page ballot. In terms of sheer votes, Schwarzenegger earned more than 3.7 million--about 125,000 more than voted to keep Davis in power.
Schwarzenegger's reign begins immediately, or as immediately as possible once the election results are finalized and a transition team is in place. Earlier, officials said Davis may remain in office through mid-November.
Joined on a ballroom stage at the Century Plaza by a choir's worth of backers, including wife Maria Shriver, actor Rob Lowe, Tonight Show host Jay Leno and director Ivan Reitman, Schwarzenegger's acceptance speech was long on the stuff of usual politicians (offering thanks to the wife, the kids, the campaign workers, etc.) and bereft of the stuff of usual Arnold (chiefly, the Terminator 1-3 references).
Schwarzenegger didn't forget his roots, though, giving a sound byte to a local Austrian reporter in his native German tongue just minutes after leaving the stage. (The reporter, Barbara Gasser, later translated and explained he'd thanked Austrians for their support, natch.)
The scene of the world's press--from Austria, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Jimmy Kimmel show and all parts in between--crowding to cover Schwarzenegger's coming-out bash as a political leader was enough to make TV's original Wonder Woman proud.
"I've watched him grow. I've watched him mature. I've watched him be successful in many avenues...He'll make a great governor," said Cathy Lee Crosby, who said she met Schwarzenegger shortly after he began dating Shriver in the 1970s.
For all of Schwarzenegger's years in Hollywood, there were probably more Shriver-Kennedy clan members on hand than show-biz players. Aside from Crosby, Lowe and Leno, sightings included American Pie's Thomas Ian Nicholas, Gary Busey and Jimmy Kimmel's uniform-clad Uncle Frank. Celebs were so scarce the Fox News Channel took to interviewing Tom Arnold--on the phone, from Michigan.
On the campaign trail, Schwarzenegger drew support from formerly hot types such as Dennis Miller, Dana Carvey, Tia Carrere and Twisted Sister's Dee Snider, he of Team Arnold's unofficial head-banging theme song, "We're Not Gonna Take It."
Likely owing to Hollywood's Democratic bent, more stars aligned against Arnold, than with him. Last week, Jack Nicholson, Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty were among 46 A-listers who placed an ad in Variety urging show-biz types to vote "no" on the recall.
None of that, though, kept Tuesday's campaign party from feeling like anything less than an oversized movie premiere, with the requisite back-slapping, nursed drinks (cosmopolitans were a favorite, according to a bartender) and nipped-and-tucked faces. The only thing missing was Martin Landau.
Nicholas, however, kept the evening in proper perspective. "It's certainly more important than any movie premiere," he said.
The election brought to a close the wildest 75 or so days in California's 153-year history. From the time the recall drive against Davis was certified on July 23, a guy (Schwarzenegger) best known for playing a cop-killing robot became the new voice of California's Republican party, a guy (Gallagher) best known for smashing watermelons weighed in on gridlock, a guy (Gary Coleman) best known for being a kid talked balanced budgets, and a porn star (Mary Carey) best known for things best not discussed in a family forum promoted the legalization of ferrets.
To be sure, the final run-up to the campaign was no laughing matter for Schwarzenegger. As a "Join Arnold" bus caravan motored up and down the state through the weekend, more than a dozen women came forward with tales of being touched, fondled and otherwise groped by the star. (Similar accounts were offered in a 2001 profile on the actor in Premiere magazine.)
If voters didn't hold the allegations against Schwarzenegger (who denied certain specific accusations and apologized for general misconduct), then neither did Gary Busey. "My gosh, we're on Earth--that happens when you're having fun," he said. "That happens when you have rowdy time, and you have a fun time."
And besides, said Busey, looking ready to run for (or from) something himself in blue-denim sneakers, "That's not the Arnold Schwarzenegger that's here now. He has evolved."
Rob Lowe, nearly chased around the room by reporters hungry for a quote after Arnold left the building, also was confident of Schwarzenegger's ability to govern: "He's made for challenges. He lives for this. He's gonna be great."
Schwarzenegger, at 56, a political novice, announced his intention to run for governor on Leno's Tonight Show couch on Aug. 6.
"Tonight is a testament to just how important an appearance on the Tonight Show can be," joked Leno in a brief warm-up bit before introducing Schwarzenegger to the Century Plaza crowd and the network-TV audience.
As a candidate, the champion bodybuilder turned heavily armed action-film icon revved up crowds by smashing cars and invoking movie-tested one-liners ("Hasta la vista, car tax!"). He was egged in a campaign stop and egged on TV pundit Arianna Huffington in his first, and only, debate.
Voters ate him up--literally. In a poll conducted by Taco Bell, as good a gauge as anything for this unprecedented election, Schwarzenegger supporters bought enough crunchy beef tacos to bring their candidate a commanding 81 percent of the vote. By comparison, just one percent of hungry voters requested a chicken soft taco in the name of Gray Davis, per the final week's results.
A Schwarzenegger victory seemed so certain, especially to Schwarzenegger's camp, that he released his plan for his first 100 days in office last week. On Tuesday night, campaign spokesman Sean Walsh talked about seeking cooperation from Democratic legislators--35 minutes before the polls closed.
As things turned out, Tuesday's Chicago Cubs-Florida Marlins baseball playoff game was tighter than the election. Fox News Channel projected a Davis defeat and a Schwarzenegger victory at 8 p.m. (PDT), the precise moment at which the polls closed. Applause in the ballroom was sparse--most supporters weren't in place yet.
While Schwarzenegger easily was the most famous candidate vying to replace Gray Davis, he was not the only familiar name. Comedian Gallagher, former child star Coleman, adult-film star Carey, Los Angeles billboard queen Angelyne, publisher Larry Flynt, punk rocker Jack Grisham and Huffington, who withdrew from the race last week, also were on the ballot.
Flynt placed first among the lesser celebs still in the game, hustling 15,454 votes with all precincts reporting. Coleman inspired 12,683 to think of him as gubernatorial material; Carey (on the ballot under her given name Mary Cook), 10,110. Gallagher got 4,862 votes; Angelyne, 2,261; Grisham, 1,917.
Coleman's rep, Mike Casey, said the Diff'rent Strokes alum intended to spend election night "at home seeing how close he can get to Governor Schwarzenegger. He's not really doing anything."
In an email, Gallagher said ABC News had asked him to stop by its election coverage booth at 9:30 p.m. "It could be dumb," he wrote. "They won't play my helicopter footage from my Website, Gallaghersmash, showing me lifting a wrecked car."
Carey who appeared live on the Game Show Network, where she was announced as the winner of its Who Wants to Be Governor of California? debate.
California was last governed by a Hollywood star from 1967-75 when Ronald Reagan held office en route to reciting lines from his old movies at the White House.
Schwarzenegger, whose last starring film, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, was the sixth highest-grossing movie of the summer, is essentially out of the movie business at least through 2006, when he'd complete Davis' unfinished term. He is the second butt-kicker from the 1987 sci-fi/action flick Predator to leave behind the set for the statehouse, after Jesse Ventura, who served as Minnesota's governor from 1999-2003.
Tuesday, Schwarzenegger called his night a "great celebration" and acknowledged that "tomorrow the hard work will begin."
And then the balloons popped like fireworks, the crowd thinned, Fox News' Greta Van Sustren got a picture with Rob Lowe, and CNN's Tucker Carlson unbowed his tie.
By then, Gary Busey wasn't around to sum up the evening or the task ahead. Lord knows he'd tried earlier.
"We train in many different ways," Busey said of him and workout buddy Schwarzenegger. "It's not just pumping iron. It's pumping positivity. It's pumping encouragement. It's pumping solidarity."
"Get away from the negative, and move to the positive."
A motto fit for a balloon or a recall-weary state, perhaps.
(Originally published 10/7/03 at 8:05 p.m. PT)