Angelides Says Schwarzenegger Supported Apartheid Regime
Standing before a gathering of African American pastors, state Treasurer Phil Angelides today claimed that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger defended the apartheid regime in South Africa during the 1970s and '80s.
Angelides' comments came barely an hour after a Schwarzenegger advisor, Margaret Fortune, broke down in tears while attempting to address the same ministers at St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church near downtown Sacramento. A pastor spoke to her from the audience and said the governor had been disrespectful for ignoring their invitation, and Fortune issued what some said was a veiled threat.
"That sounds like a threat,'' someone says from the audience.
Fortune: "No, no, no. That is not a threat.''
The claim that Schwarzenegger supported South African apartheid has been circulated for years, and it's dubious at best. After his appearance before the ministers today, Angelides said he made the claim based on news accounts.
It certainly was one of the most explosive things Angelides could have said about the Austrian-born governor in front of that audience, and it highlighted the intense fight between the two candidates to woo African American voters.
"There have been news reports that have indicated the governor might have made comments defending apartheid," Angelides said. "Now, you can make a judgment about those."
The accusation appears based on the impressions of a single person quoted in Wendy Leigh's biography of Schwarzenegger: "According to Rick Wayne, who is black, when they discussed apartheid, Arnold said he thought South Africa was right, saying things like, 'If you gave these blacks a country to run, they would run it down the tube.' " That account has been repeated in a few newpaper stories.
Katie Levinson, spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, had this to say about the accusation: "This is just more nonsense talk from Phil Angelides and a flailing campaign that has come untethered from reality."
The question-and-answer session for candidates was organized by the NAACP's Sacramento chapter and a group called Associated Ministers Empowering Neighborhoods, AMEN.
Before Angelides arrived, Fortune was asked to address the group. She quickly became emotional and broke down in tears when a minister said "the bride didn't show up" and dismissed her as an underling. In fact, the governor's office had declined the invitation two weeks ago but a few pastors were not informed, campaign officials said. A spokeswoman for the NAACP, however, said they only heard late Monday that the governor would not attend.
As she stood in front of the assembled ministers, Fortune dabbed her eyes and attempted for a few minutes to "share with you some of the things the governor has been saying with the black clergy." After the event, Fortune headed to her Mini Cooper, which was boxed in by several other cars. She made a brief comment to TV cameras. Then, after a church official moved some cars, she drove away.
UPDATE: Longtime Schwarzenegger friend Albert Busek, who operated the Universum Gym in Munich that Schwarzenegger used in the mid-1960s, wrote to say: "I have been on tour with the governor through South Africa in November 1975 staying in Pretoria, Capetown, Port Elizabeth and Durban. We both were shocked how unhuman apartheid really is if you see right there. Never ever I've heard any comment of the governor to defend apartheid. To use a phrase of Steve Lopez' article in L.A. Times of today, I can say that apartheid is against the governor's 'molecular cell structure.' "
(Photo: Robert Salladay / LAT)
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