In the end it was less a political campaign than a promotional tour for a superstar's latest flick. Criss-crossing the state in a white Learjet, setting down for 15-minute photo ops, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger tossed out scripted one-liners with the charm of a pitchman before heaving "Join Arnold" T-shirts to adoring throngs. And at most stops, there were props to make his point. In San Diego, he brandished a "broom" to symbolize his intention to sweep Sacramento clean of cronyism and gridlock. In Costa Mesa, a wrecking ball fell from a five-story crane to smash a beat-up Buick, symbolizing how Schwarzenegger intended to pulverize the tripling of auto taxes that Gray Davis approved as the movement to recall him intensified. To get elected, Schwarzenegger shrewdly tapped into the well-known voter resentment of a state that's battered and broken, governed by a balka-nized and dysfunctional political system, Now, as the 56-year-old bodybuilder transitions to Conan the Governor, promo stunts will need to give way to forging policies and the nuts and bolts of political dealmaking to try to implement them. Electric rates are among the highest in the nation, as are the regulatory burdens and costs of doing business. Indeed, runaway premium hikes for workers' compensation threaten to send businesses out of state.
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