Schwarzenegger Says LA Times Columnist George Skelton Inspired Him to Run for Governor

Schwarzenegger Says LA Times Columnist George Skelton Inspired Him to Run for Governor

California Politics

Laurier Rosenhall

January 17, 2024

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger credits Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton for his decision to run for governor of California during the historic 2003 election in which voters recalled the Democratic administration. Gray Davis and replaced him with the Republican action movie superstar.

The revelation comes in a new mini-documentary about Skelton, the story

politics

columnist who has been covering California politics for more than half a century

.

“What most people don’t know is that George Skelton is actually the one who, in a way, is responsible for me running for governor,” Schwarzenegger says in “Bold Ink: A Columnist’s Life,” a mini-documentary produced by LA. Times Studios to celebrate Skelton’s 50th anniversary with The Times.

“I was on a movie set doing ‘Terminator’

three 3,

‘Mind my own business. Then I read the story about the recall and I called him,” Schwarzenegger says in the film from senior producer Karen Foshay. “And he says, ‘Well, you’ll be perfect, you’d be a great candidate.'”

Skelton went on to interview him, Schwarzenegger said, and then wrote a column about their conversation.

“From that moment on, people were suddenly bombarding me and saying, ‘This is a great idea, you should run for governor,’” Schwarzenegger said. “I said, ‘Look, I’m making a movie, I don’t have time for all this stuff.’ But in the end it got me into it.”

The documentary about Skelton’s journalism career captures his fearless style and includes interviews with several politicians he has covered over the years. It will air

Wednesday

January 24 at 7pm and 10pm on LA Times Today on Spectrum News 1.

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