'Terminator' brings out heavy artillery: his wife

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Maria Shriver, a member of a famously Democratic family, pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot here Monday afternoon in her first solo campaign appearance on behalf of her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who wants to be governor of California.

But it did not turn out as intended. Shriver was shouted down by a score of organized union members protesting the recall election and Wal-Mart's labor policies. After just five minutes, she was hustled into a black sport utility vehicle and driven away.

Before leaving, Shriver told reporters "like many women, I'm just trying to juggle helping my husband and my four children."

Her trip had larger ambitions than merely adding a few dozen voters to the rolls and issuing a bland statement of support for her husband. She is trying to soften Schwarzenegger's image and address a problem that is clouding his prospects.

Like virtually every Republican candidate in California for more than a decade, Schwarzenegger faces a gender gap among voters, with women showing more support for Democrats.

But his career as a professional bodybuilder and then as a star in a succession of violent movies, coupled with accounts of boorish behavior and chauvinistic comments about women, are making the problem worse for him. The situation has turned off thousands of potential female supporters, analysts here say.

Among the leading candidates in the recall race, Schwarzenegger holds a small edge among potential male voters over his current chief competitor, Lt. Gov. Cruz M. Bustamante, a Democrat, public and private polls show.

But among women, Schwarzenegger is trailing Bustamante by more than 10 points in independent polls and private surveys commissioned by the candidates.

Schwarzenegger has taken positions on some social issues that tend to attract votes from women, supporting abortion rights, some gun controls and environmental protections.

Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican consultant in Los Angeles, said that any Republican candidate began at a disadvantage in California because of the marked tendency for women to vote Democratic in this state, which has two women who are Democratic U.S. senators.

Schwarzenegger's macho image compounds the problem, he said. "Look at the movies he made, look at his career, look at the statements he's made — and he's a Republican," Hoffenblum said. "Of course he has a woman problem."