'I won't let you down', says Governor Arnie
Movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger stormed to victory in California’s Governorship race today and promised: “I will not disappoint you.”
Exit polls suggested the 56-year-old Terminator star won an easy victory and current Governor Gray Davis conceded defeat.
Speaking less than three hours after polls closed Republican Schwarzenegger told supporters: “I want to be the people’s governor, I want to represent everybody, I believe in the people of California.”
Austrian-born Schwarzenegger, whose campaign was hit by lurid sex allegations, called for people of all political persuasions to reunite and make California “the greatest state of the greatest country in the world”.
He said: “For the people to win, politics as usual must lose.”
Californians turned out in droves and more than half – about 55% – voted to “recall” Davis, effectively throwing him out of office, according to the exit polls.
The Democrat governor has been accused of leading the state into a massive budget deficit by mismanaging the economy.
He is only the second governor in American history to be recalled.
The exit polls suggested that Schwarzenegger had comfortably beaten his closest rivals, Democrat Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante and Republican State Senator Tom McClintock.
