GOVERNOR LAUNCHES EARLY TV AD COMMERCIALS START AIRING IN CITIES THAT ARNOLD IS VISITING.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Struggling against low poll numbers and a dearth of recent accomplishments, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched his first campaign television ad Monday - a full eight months before voters will decide his political fate.

Highlighting the governor's efforts to improve the state's economy, the ad is being released as his top Democratic challengers spend as much time bashing him as each other. Schwarzenegger campaign chief strategist Matthew Dowd said the ads were being released at this time to start laying the long-term groundwork for the campaign.

``Our approach to campaigns is they're always about narratives,'' Dowd said. ``The voters don't stop on election day and decide based on information they got the day before.''

``Voters are going to judge us on what we want to do in the next four years to a large extent based on our credibility and what we did in the last four years.''

The ad is airing this week in five major markets - Los Angeles, Bakersfield, San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego.

The markets coincide with the same areas the governor is touring this week - in his taxpayer-funded official capacity, not for the campaign - to tout his economic accomplishments.

Campaign aides declined to say how often the ad would air or how much was spent on the media buy, but officials with the governor's Democratic opponents' campaigns said their media tracking indicates it was a minimal buy.

The ad opens with sped-up images of cars moving through California cities - mainly if not entirely in San Francisco - as a male voice-over says ``Tomorrow is going to be a little better than today for Californians.''

The voice-over lauds the governor's successes: reducing the budget deficit, cutting the car tax and reforming the workers' compensation system.

The ad concludes with an image of Schwarzenegger sitting and talking to a small group of people in what appears to be a casual office setting as the voice-over declares ``Gov. Schwarzenegger's leadership is making California work again.''

The two Democratic candidates vying in the June primary, state Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly, launched their first television ads earlier this month.

A spokesman for the Westly campaign said the governor doesn't have any recent accomplishments to brag about, with the failure of his special election last year and his inability to get a bond package on this June's ballot.

``Tomorrow is going to be a little better than today for Californians because Arnold Schwarzenegger will be sent packing come November,'' said Westly campaign spokesman Nick Velasquez.

In reference to Schwarzenegger's campaign using some of President George W. Bush's staff, the Angelides campaign issued a statement saying: ``The Bush TV crew can't erase the two years Arnold Schwarzenegger has spent attacking teachers, nurses and firefighters, students and all of California's hard-working families. Just as movies never got Schwarzenegger an Oscar, 30-second spots won't give him a second term.''

A Field Poll earlier this month found that 47 percent of California likely voters are not inclined to re-elect Schwarzenegger, with 37 percent inclined to re-elect him.

Political analyst Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at California State University, Sacramento, said the governor needs to get his voice out early because his opponents are trying to define him.

``It is early, but with his poll numbers, he can't afford to let the Democratic candidates define themselves without being in the game,'' O'Connor said. ``There's not a lot of clutter, so people are watching them.''

Harrison Sheppard, [phone]

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com