President Bush -- H.W., not W. -- will join Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today at two private California fundraisers as the Republican governor seeks to raise $75 million this campaign season for the party and his own race against Democrat Phil Angelides.
Attendees can give limited funds to Schwarzenegger or unlimited funds to a state Republican committee, highlighting the increasing role of parties in the first gubernatorial race with contribution restrictions for candidate accounts.
The governor has long-standing ties with the former president, who in 1990 named Schwarzenegger chairman of his President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
"The governor and former President Bush have been friends for more than 20 years and the former president has been an important figure in the governor's start in public service," said Schwarzenegger campaign spokeswoman Katie Levinson.
While Schwarzenegger has promoted his ties to the 41st president, he hasn't exactly done so with the 43rd, who had only a 28 percent approval rating in California in late May.
In June, Schwarzenegger told reporters he rejected a request from President Bush to send 1,500 more National Guard troops to the border. The governor on Tuesday sent a letter to Bush imploring him to sign legislation expanding stem cell research; the president vetoed the bill Wednesday.
Politically speaking, University of Southern California analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe said, voters likely won't resent the former President Bush's appearance with Schwarzenegger the same way they might if the current president helped the governor.
"'Forty-one' is not polarizing as his son is," said Jeffe, referring to the former president. "He's not as ideologically rigid as his son is."
Schwarzenegger's rival, Democratic state Treasurer Angelides, has consistently tried to tie the governor to the younger Bush in hopes that the Republican president's unpopularity will carry over to the Republican governor. The Democrat's campaign often points out that Schwarzenegger helped stump for Bush in Ohio in 2004.
"It's ironic that Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't run away from the Bush family when it comes to tapping into their network of Texas contributors," said Angelides spokesman Brian Brokaw. "While Governor Schwarzenegger will be standing with a Republican president to shake down big bucks from Big Oil, Phil Angelides will be fighting for families being squeezed by oil company profits."
Tickets to the fundraisers -- lunch in Los Angeles and dinner in the Bay Area -- range from $1,000 for entry to $100,000.
It is California's first gubernatorial campaign with limits on contributions -- $22,300 per donor -- though donors can earmark an additional $27,900 to the party for the express purpose of helping the same candidate.
The California Democratic Party has not yet run its own ads in the gubernatorial race, but both parties are expected to do much of the heavy lifting early in the campaign.
