Caitlyn Jenner is aiming to display a command of the issues affecting California in private tutorials as the novice Republican contender for governor campaigns for a recall election that is expected to be called for this fall.
On Tuesday, Jenner sat for a 2.5-hour briefing session on budgetary matters with veteran Republican insiders Jim Brulte (the former chairman of the state GOP and, before that, the top Republican in the California Senate) and Michael Genest, who functioned as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s chief fiscal adviser in his role as the director of the state’s finance department. Brulte, who in the early 2000s tutored Schwarzenegger on similar issues, emerged from his meeting with Jenner “impressed.”
“I found her to be extremely thoughtful,” Brulte told the Washington Examiner Friday. “She asked the right questions.”
Jenner, 71, is looking to replicate what Schwarzenegger accomplished in 2003 when California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and replaced the Democrat with the Republican movie star and global bodybuilding sensation, who at that time was in his mid-50s. But there are some key differences between the two that could make a difference in Jenner’s prospects, not to mention the fate of the Democratic governor at risk of being recalled: Gavin Newsom.
By the time Schwarzenegger launched his gubernatorial bid in the summer of 2003, he was quite familiar with the intricacies of California’s budget and other major issues affecting the state. The previous year, Schwarzenegger drafted a voter initiative to create after-school programs and fund them with money from Sacramento. He met with Brulte, then the state senate minority leader, and his counterpart in the Assembly, Dave Cox, for policy and political guidance.
Schwarzenegger actively campaigned for the measure up and down the state in the 2002 midterm elections — and it passed. Jenner’s recall campaign, on the other hand, begins with a rudimentary understanding of state government. Jenner suggested in a tweet that Newsom has the power to hire and fire independently elected district attorneys, a claim that was later corrected. And in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, Jenner appeared confused about the petition process for qualifying the recall.
“Jenner is very different from Schwarzenegger,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. “Jenner is a much less prominent celebrity and has a much thinner record of involvement in public affairs.”
Jenner has been an iconic figure for decades. Born male, Bruce Jenner was an Olympic decathlon champion, product pitchman, businessman, occasional actor, and reality television star. Around 2015, Jenner transitioned, becoming perhaps the most famous transgender woman in the world. Some Republicans believe Jenner will be able to leverage this notoriety to win over Democratic voters in California, a state that is even more liberal now than it was in 2003, in the same way that Schwarzenegger did in his campaign.
Jenner appears to have the requisite high name identification to run in a massive, expensive state such as California, and Newsom is reeling. Voters soured on the governor’s handling of the coronavirus, a critical state agency is under fire for misappropriating tens of millions of dollars, and homelessness and crime in the state have reached crisis levels, with no end in sight.
But Jenner is supportive of polarizing former President Donald Trump, who lost the state last November by 29 percentage points — and is closely tied to his associates. It is unclear whether Jenner has the same cross-party appeal as did Schwarzenegger, who ran three years after President George W. Bush lost California by 12 points. Also uncertain is whether Jenner can be established as a competent policymaker like Schwarzenegger.
“Arnold had an intrinsic standing in ‘03 that Jenner can’t come close to matching,” said Garry South, who was Davis’s top political adviser in the last recall campaign. “Jenner didn’t even bother to vote the last time we elected a governor in ‘18. In a supreme irony, she didn’t even vote in the ‘03 recall.”
In California, recall ballots ask voters to weigh in on two questions: Should the governor be removed? If so, who should replace him? If a majority of voters approve of recalling Newsom, the candidate who garners the most votes among those qualified for the ballot is elected governor. There is no primary contest, minimum threshold for victory, or limit on the number of candidates. The Jenner campaign did not respond to an email requesting comment.
