Arnold Schwarzenegger Won’t Vote for a Republican in June Primary

A spokesman for former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that the “Terminator” will not be voting for a Republican in the June 5 primary.

Schwarzenegger’s spokesman Daniel Ketchell told the Los Angeles Times on Friday that the Hollywood action star made his decision based on comments that Republican governor candidates John Cox and Travis Allen have made regarding their disbelief in climate change, and their promise to overturn Assembly Bill 32, which Schwarzenegger and the Democratic legislature passed in 2006, inaugurating California’s “cap-and-trade” program.

Ketchell told the Times that Schwarzenegger was adamant: “He won’t support any candidate that plans to take California backward and undo our environmental leadership.”

Schwarzenegger has claimed on CNN that Republicans now only have about 26 percent registration percentage in California because they are “dying at the box office” by failing to have inclusive policies to address health, education, and environmental issues.

But Schwarzenegger somehow has forgotten that when he was first elected governor in 2003, the Rose Institute reported 35.21 percent of California voters registered as Republicans. Although that was down 1.2 percent from 1996, the Democrats’ registration percentage had plunged over the same period by 2.6 points to 44.6 percent.

When “Govenator” Schwarzenegger left office in January 2011, his popularity was already in a free fall when a scandal exploded in the media regarding the out-of-wedlock son he had with the family’s long-time housekeeper.

The Field Research poll during that period found that Schwarzenegger was seen negatively by 75 percent of California voters, and his approval rating was only 20 percent. To put that in perspective, President Richard Nixon — who left office on the verge of impeachment, and continues to be the most unpopular president in history — had a 25 percent approval rating when he resigned in disgrace.

Breitbart News reported in January that Schwarzenegger had joined Ohio Gov. John Kasich and fired Republican Assembly leader Chad Mayes to launch a new effort called “New Way California.”

Assemblyman Chad Mayes was dumped in August as a GOP leader after he provided the crucial Republican swing vote that renewed Democrat Gov. Jerry Brown’s cap-and-trade program.