Arnie to run for governor

Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that he is leaving showbusiness to go into politics.

The announcement that he would run as a Republican for the governor of California took political observers by surprise.

It had had been widely believed that the Terminator star had decided to drop out of the fight to replace unpopular governor Gray Davis, who is blamed for pushing California deep into debt and an electricity shortage that led to widespread power cuts last year.

But in an astonishing about face, the 56-year-old star said he would enter the election, ordered after a petition of over one million signatures called for the recall of Governor Davis.

Speaking to chat show host Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, Schwarzenegger said California's political leaders were " fiddling, fumbling and failing".

He added: "The man that is failing the people more than anyone is Gray Davis. He is failing them terribly and that is why he needs to be recalled and that is why I am going to run for governor."

Schwarzenegger's political supporters believed he was about to abandon his bid to enter politics because of opposition from his TV presenter wife Maria Schriver, a member of the powerful Kennedy clan.

The actor would be the first of the Kennedy group to run as a Republican and can expect relatives like Senator Edward Kennedy to campaign against him.

He said that supporters of Governor Davis would probably mount a dirty tricks campaign against him, attacking him as "a womaniser" or "a terrible person". "I know they are going to throw everything at me," he said.

If he wins, the star will follow in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, another actor who became the Governor of California.

But the Austrian-born former champion bobybuilder cannot eventually run for the White House because American law bars a foreign-born president.

The date of the election and his Democrat opponent are still unknown. Governor Davis has launched a legal challenge to a ruling that says he cannot be on the ballot as the subject of the recall.

He is also seeking to have the poll date moved from October to March, saying that the electoral rolls are not ready and that there is a risk the election could turn into a repeat of the fiasco at the Florida polls in the presidential election of November 2000.

A March poll date would favour Democrats, because supporters will already be turning out in large numbers then to vote in the primary election to decide who will challenge George Bush next year.

Schwarzenegger has waited until after the opening of his "T3" Terminator sequel to formally enter the political arena.

Anyone can run in the polls, provided they gather 65 signatures from supporters and stump up the $3,500 (£2,200) fee required to stand.

Schwarzenegger is the latest in a long line of celebrities who has swapped the red carpet for the campaign trail. Besides Reagan, Clint Eastwood also turned to a career in California politics as mayor of Carmel. Other candidates in the current race include former child star Gary Coleman, pornographer Larry Flynt,and Oxford-educated political commentator Arianna Huffington.