ARNOLD'S FUNDRAISING HAS MUSCLE GOVERNOR COLLECTS $3.5 MILLION SINCE JANUARY.

Byline: KATE FOLMAR

MediaNews Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- When Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigned for governor, he infamously scoffed at the notion that he would need to accept special interest money.

Almost four years and more than $100 million later, Schwarzenegger is still raising money at a torrid pace, even though he's legally barred from seeking another term as governor. And much of that cash comes from special interests that have business before the state.

Since January, Schwarzenegger has pulled in $3.5 million in three different political committees -- an average of $700,000 a month in this nonelection year. Additionally, more than 100 private donors -- from AT&T to Chevron and Oracle -- paid $2.7 million total into a nonprofit that paid for the governor's two-day inaugural soiree.

"For someone who didn't believe in fundraising, he's doing a really good job" at it, said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. "People out there want to give money so that they can have access to him -- as a star and as a governor."

The governor raises so much that people have become "almost inured to it," said Stern, who wrote some of the state's campaign finance laws. "It doesn't shock anybody anymore that he's raising money. It certainly doesn't shock him."

Schwarzenegger's aides say he's retiring a debt from his landslide re- election last year over Democrat Phil Angelides and collecting cash to promote his legislative agenda.

But campaign finance watchdogs wonder if the governor's fundraising appetite can ever be sated. And they consider some of his recent moves unseemly, such as hosting a fundraiser at his West Los Angeles home for deep-pocketed donors. Concerns also persist about who's giving and why.

Schwarzenegger this year has socked away about $1.5 million into his re-election fund, which ended 2006 with a debt of nearly $2.4 million. Legally, he's allowed to keep collecting five-figure checks into his re- election coffers until that debt is settled and fundraising expenses are covered, perhaps within the next month or so.

kfolmar(at)mercurynews.com

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