Governor on Track to Becoming Biggest Fundraiser in State History
    By Steve Lawrence
    The Associated Press

    Thursday 02 November 2006

    Sacramento - When he ran for governor during the 2003 recall election, Arnold Schwarzenegger described the Capitol as a place where "special interests have a stranglehold. The money comes in, favors go out, the people lose."

    Even as the governor says he is not returning favors for cash, the money has been flooding in since he rose from Hollywood celebrity to chief executive of the nation's most populous state.

    An exhaustive review of campaign finance records by the Associated Press reveals that Schwarzenegger is on pace to become the most prolific fundraiser in California history. He has raised $113.4 million in the little more than three years since he launched his campaign to replace Democrat Gray Davis, who often was accused of having a "pay to play" approach to governing that favored his donors.

    That amount is nearly as much as the $120 million Davis raised over seven years for two gubernatorial campaigns and to fight the recall effort. It also is more than three times as much as Schwarzenegger's Democratic opponent in Tuesday's election, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, has received during roughly the same period.

    Schwarzenegger has done it despite having voter-imposed contribution limits on some of his campaign committees that Davis did not face until the 2003 recall campaign.

    "Schwarzenegger has raised an average of $95,000 a day, which dwarfs the amount of money Davis raised,'' said Carmen Balber, a consumer advocate for the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, which tracks Schwarzenegger's campaign contributions and has been one of his biggest critics.

    Schwarzenegger also has funneled $23.7 million of his own money into his campaigns, which have included his unsuccessful efforts to pass four ballot measures in last year's special election.

    Angelides, a multimillionaire Sacramento land developer, has raised nearly $32.9 million since 2003, about 71 percent of which has come from donors who have given him at least $10,000. Those large contributors fall mainly into four groups: labor unions, attorneys, developers and fellow Greek-Americans.

    Angelides' contribution totals do not include $18.7 million in independent support. That money came from unions and his longtime mentor, Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, and Tsakopoulos' daughter, and has been spent on their own campaigns supporting his candidacy.

    Schwarzenegger has raised his campaign money in large part by mining board rooms and executive suites from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, the AP analysis shows. About 75 percent of his donations have come from contributors who have given him at least $10,000. Most of that money has come from businesses and business executives.

    Spanish-language television magnate Jerry Perenchio, Stockton developer and San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos and William Robinson, founder of the DHL courier service, each have given the governor more than $2 million.

    Mortgage lender Ameriquest Capital, the California Republican Party, Henry Nicholas, chairman of NS Holdings, and B. Wayne Hughes, chairman of Public Storage, have chipped in more than $1 million apiece.

    Chevron Texaco and Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens are among those who have contributed more than $500,000.

    Despite the waves of donations from corporations and the wealthy, Schwarzenegger has said repeatedly that no special interest has a stranglehold on him.

    "I cannot be bought by anyone, and anyone who gives me money buys into that philosophy," he told the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board recently.