2003 STATE: ARNOLD HANDILY STEPS INTO OFFICE 'GOVERNATOR' NOW A HOUSEHOLD TERM.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - It was a year like no other in the script of California's history.

For the first time in the state's history, a sitting governor was cast out by voters before his term ended - replaced by a muscle-bound movie star who promised he would generate almost as much ``action, action, action'' as his shoot-'em-up flicks.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, boosted by a Hollywood star's charisma and vows to clean up Sacramento, swept into town riding a wave of popular revolt fueled by legislative gridlock and budget disaster.

His entry into state politics had long been expected but was a surprise nonetheless. He had flirted with running in 2002, then didn't; as the recall gained momentum in the summer of 2003, he dropped hints he would not run because of wife Maria Shriver's objections.

Then he stunned the political world Aug. 6 by going on the ``Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' and announcing, with Maria's blessing, that he would indeed run.

``The politicians are fiddling, fumbling and failing,'' he declared on the show.

He poured millions of his own dollars into the race, but accepted millions more from business interests and traditional Republican backers.

Everywhere he went, hordes of media followed. Schwarzenegger's few press conferences were massive, carefully orchestrated affairs. At some events, more than 100 television cameras from stations throughout the world were present, and he fielded questions not only from the traditional political corps but tabloid TV shows and even answered questions in German for Austrian reporters.

Meanwhile, Gov. Gray Davis didn't get half the media coverage, while the other candidates got even less. The Democratic Party's standard-bearer in the candidate race was Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, but his ``No on recall, yes on Bustamante'' soon faded to ``Where's Bustamante?'' as the candidate held fewer public events and sunk in polls.

In the last week or two, it became a two-person race between Schwarzenegger and Davis, with Sen. Tom McClintock garnering enough conservative support to potentially be a Schwarzenegger spoiler.

Even a last-minute scandal didn't slow him down. Reports emerged only a few days before the vote of him groping and harassing women over the years and making comments in admiration of Adolph Hitler.

Pundits speculated that the charges could sink Schwarzenegger, as Davis and women's groups piled on with criticism of the ``Gropenator,'' but in the end, the voters didn't seem to care.

Schwarzenegger won the Oct. 7 race by a far bigger margin than any polls had predicted, taking nearly 49 percent in a field of 135 candidates. The next closest finisher, Bustamante, had only 31 percent. Davis was recalled by a 55-45 margin, meaning Schwarzenegger even outpolled him.

Following the shortest transition period ever, Schwarzenegger was sworn in as California's 38th governor Nov. 17, only a few days after the vote was certified.

He quickly went to work. Within minutes of taking office, he rolled back the hated car-tax increase that Davis had signed to balance the budget. While popular with voters, the order knocked a $4 billion hole in an already bleeding state budget. He then convinced the Legislature to repeal another unpopular bill, granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

He also made good on his promise to be the governor for ``all the people'' by appointing a few Democrats to key positions.

He then went about crafting his fiscal recovery plan - and that was where he suffered his first defeat.

He asked the Legislature to place a $15 billion bond measure and constitutional spending cap on the March ballot, but partisan politics gridlocked the Capitol, as Democrats proposed their own alternatives and negotiations broke down by the Dec. 5 deadline.

But just as Schwarzenegger had nearly given up hope and was beginning to look toward circumventing the Legislature with a November initiative, he was granted a last-minute reprieve. Secretary of State Kevin Shelley extended the deadline, and the governor and legislators returned to the table. They finally agreed to a compromise spending measure that met Democratic muster but was weaker than his original proposal.

As the year ended, he was crafting a budget for 2004-05 to be released in January and gearing up for a ballot measure campaign in March. Both will serve as tests of whether personal popularity at the box office and in the recall election will translate to genuine political victories for his policies.

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Photo:

Arnold Schwarzenegger signs an executive order to repeal the car-tax hike minutes after taking the oath of office.

Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press