Schwarzenegger Spells Out Positions on Radio
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It looks as if the recall fever is spreading to Nevada. A group of conservatives has filed papers seeking to recall Republican Governor Kenny Gwynn. Organizers have 90 days to collect more than 128,000 signatures. That's 25 percent of the number who voted in last year's general election. The vote -- the group is upset over the governor's approval of the largest tax increase in Nevada history. And in neighboring California, Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger spelled out some of his political views for the first time since entering the recall race. CNN national correspondent Bob Franken has been following all this for us from Los Angeles, and he joins us. Hello, Bob.</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello. He's venturing out today, by the way, Miles, heading out to farm country for one of his sporadic public appearances. For the most part, he's been calling in these radio programs from his home and telling the world that he supports abortion rights, that he pretty much believes in gun control, that he does believe in prayer in the schools, is absolutely against -- his word, absolutely, -- offshore drilling, et cetera. Most of these are social views that Arnold Schwarzenegger has expressed before. What he has not really done is to take anybody much furthor on his views about what he would do about the economic problems in California. He was -- according to what his comments were, he was saying that he's going to be against taxes. He is going to, in fact, pledge not to raise taxes unless there's an emergency. And of course his critics are saying that that leaves him an awful lot of wiggle room. Meanwhile, as I said, he is out campaigning today, because what he wants to say to the people in this agricultural part of California is that, Miles, he's for the farmers -- Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: All right. We can only imagine what he had to say there when he spoke to that talk radio show host. But when you listen to what he had to say, there were a lot of fairly middle-of-the-road, almost borderline liberal views there on the social side of things. How's that going to play in California, where Republican politics has a very conservative feature to it?</s>FRANKEN: Well, Republican politics does, but general California politics does not. The fact of the matter is, is that the Republican Party can be thwarted in its primary area by the conservative wing, and of course that's been a problem for some of the people who they believe might have won in the general population. So what he's trying to do is cross that line just a little bit in the field of conservatives, but not cross it too much so he loses whatever liberal/moderate -- to use the terms that are used -- support that me might get.</s>O'BRIEN: And what is the sense out there that the latest numbers -- what are they showing as far as the polls go? Lots of conflicting numbers out there in the polls.</s>FRANKEN: There are. There are numbers that show Schwarzenegger ahead of Bustamante. Probably the most recent poll that has been widely reported is the "Los Angeles Times" poll that shows Bustamante against Schwarzenegger, and there could be a lot of reasons for that. But possibly one big reason that there is such a vacillation in the polls is that this is rarely unheard of. One hundred and thirty-five names on the ballot. A lot of voter confusion. A lot of people who say that they just very well may change their mind. Forty-five percent said they might change their mind by election time. So when somebody says, "This is how I'd vote today," it does not mean that is how he or she is going to vote on October 7th.</s>O'BRIEN: Bob Franken, if it's a circus out, you're our ringmaster. Thank you very much. Doing a good job. Appreciate it.