Beatty Takes On Arnie

He And Rob Reiner Opposing Ballot Initiatives Schwarzenegger Backs

(CBS/AP)  "The governor has never been able to sell them on the idea and have questioned his motives," Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said.

Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Todd Harris called the poll meaningless.

"I'm not going to pay a second's worth of thought to a poll that asks voters about a hypothetical ballot match up that is one year and three elections away," Harris said.

In a faceoff against various Democrats, state Treasurer Phil Angelides and state Controller Steve Westly held slight leads over the governor. Reiner was about even, and Beatty slightly behind.

The telephone poll was taken during the second half of October in two samples, totaling 1,450 voters. The margin of error was 4 to 6 percentage points.

CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzalez reports that Schwarzenegger is coming under fire for taking money from special interests after championing the cause of spurning such donations.

Beatty has taped a radio ad for the California Nurses Association that urges voters to turn out next week and turn down Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" initiatives.

Reiner, meanwhile, was working to persuade voters to cast their ballots against Proposition 75, an initiative that seeks to reduce the money public employee labor unions can raise for political purposes.

Beatty said he believes the special election has been orchestrated by the governor and his supporters so that most voters will not participate and give Republicans a better chance of passing their agenda.

"To me, it's a misuse of the initiative process," Beatty told The Associated Press. "It's a clear device to circumvent the legislature and spend a lot of money on oversimplified descriptions of these propositions and hope that the Trojan horses, (which) each of these are, will deceive a bored and not well-enough-informed public into staying home or vote in a way that is against their own best interest."

Beatty's 60-second ad, which he wrote, was for use on radio stations in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is promoting the union dues measure and three other initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot: Proposition 74, which lengthens the probationary term for new teachers; Proposition 76, which imposes a cap on state spending and gives the governor authority to make midyear budget cuts; and Proposition 77, which transfers the authority for drawing legislative and congressional districts from the state legislature to a panel of retired judges.

Reiner is promoting an initiative of his own for 2006, a proposal to provide a preschool education for every California child.

In a campaign appearance last month, Reiner said the union dues measure was designed specifically to stifle political speech of unionized workers.

"The things I care about — education, health care, energy, environment — I need, we all need, to have everybody's voice heard," Reiner said. "If a democracy is to work properly, we must not, we dare not, have any voice suppressed."

Schwarzenegger defended the initiative this week on a San Diego radio program, saying the state's public employee unions have too much influence over the legislature, which is controlled by Democrats.

"It is wrong for the politicians to go and ask the union bosses whether to make a move or not," the governor said."