Arnold’s Campaign Needs More Than Bodybuilders’ Base

OK, that’s it. I was willing to offer free advice to political rookie Arnold Schwarzenegger, but if he’s going to begin cribbing lines from this column verbatim, I’ve got to start charging.

Schwarzenegger told a radio host “one newspaper pointed out that [Lt. Gov. Cruz] Bustamante is Gray Davis with a receding hairline and a mustache,” swiping a quote I got from GOP strategist Ken Khachigian.

Is originality too much to ask?

Apparently so. After promising to be a political outsider who wouldn’t attack opponents or raise money in his run for governor, Schwarzenegger has hired a squadron of Sacramento insiders, trashed Bustamante and raised at least $1.4 million.

It’s almost as if panic has set in, with the no-name Bustamante holding a comfortable lead in the polls over Mr. International Celebrity. If it gets much worse, Republican leaders may have to reverse course and start screaming for a “no” vote on the recall.

That’s right, a “no” vote. The GOP would be much better off leaving a corpse like Davis in office than watching a political lightweight like Bustamante kick sand in Arnold’s face.

But it’s still early, and in fairness to Schwarzenegger, I did find a couple of places on the Westside where his support is rock solid.

He may not be able to count on the far right, or the far left, or young people, or old people, or anyone who saw “Kindergarten Cop.” But he’s locked up the bodybuilder vote at Gold’s Gym in Venice and World Gym in Marina del Rey.

“Whatever he sets his mind to, he can probably do,” said fan Dani Scherrer, a muscle-bound Adonis who’s a personal trainer at Gold’s, where Arnold used to pump iron.

By the way, I used to live near Gold’s, and I can tell you there is no better entertainment showcase in all Southern California than the comings and goings at that place. The hair, the tans, the abs, the strutting.

Is it a workout or an audition?

Some of these people must spend two hours just getting ready, and I’d love to see Joan Rivers in the parking lot with a microphone, screaming out a question:

“Doesn’t anyone have a job?”

Generally speaking, the bodybuilders I talked to are of the opinion that anyone who’s spent as much time working with dumbbells as Arnold ought to know exactly what to do in Sacramento.

After chatting up several of them, I strolled over to the Firehouse on Main Street, where lots of weightlifters eat. I swear on a Bible that a guy in a turban stopped me out front and told me I was a monk in a former life and would enjoy a tremendous personal victory this coming December.

If you can see the future, I asked, who’s going to be governor?

“Davis,” he said without hesitation.

Not if Mike Ryan, a spokesman for Men’s Fitness magazine and a personal trainer with biceps the size of cannon balls, has anything to do with it.

“Everyone at the gym was psyched,” Ryan said of Schwarzenegger’s candidacy. “Arnold is a legend.”

Ryan was eating the “Bodybuilder’s Breakfast,” which is a buffalo steak, five egg whites and three blueberry/banana pancakes, which he slathered with peanut butter.

Not only will Arnold straighten out California’s fiscal mess through sheer determination, Ryan said, but he might even inspire slugs like me -- and perhaps the ample Bustamante? -- to get off the couch.

“Obesity in adults and children is a huge problem,” Ryan noted. “If Arnold shapes up California, that’ll lower insurance premiums.”

Everybody wins.

“He’s great at laying out a plan,” said Mike Uretz, chief executive officer at World Gym, which Schwarzenegger used to own.

When Arnold ran the place, Uretz said, he told employees to quit trying to sign new customers and focus on servicing the existing ones. Business boomed, Uretz said, but he admitted it might have had something to do with Arnold’s celebrity.

A trainer named Eddie Giuliani said he’s heard griping about Arnold using steroids to become Mr. Universe, something Gray Davis has never been accused of. Others mention that Arnold smoked dope in “Pumping Iron,” which might not make him the best role model for the kiddies.

But Giuliani, who goes back 35 years with Arnold and worked out with him when Schwarzenegger trained for “Terminator 3,” believes his pal can do anything.

“It’s a rags to riches story,” said Giuliani, a V-shaped little guy. As he spoke, a muscle-bound Arnold looked on from a gallery of wall hangings. “He wasn’t born in Beverly Hills or an elite part of Europe. This goes back to ‘Rocky.’ America loves an underdog story and he worked for everything he got. It’s almost like a one-name thing with him, like Elvis.

“Arnold.”

I asked if anyone ever gets tired of talking about Arnold, and a lifter named Leland Perry quickly set me straight:

“Do they get tired of talking about Bruce Lee in Hong Kong?”

Excuse me.

“He’s a shiny horse,” Giuliani went on. “In my lifetime, I’ve never seen any person go to the top in three careers. He was a great bodybuilder, he was a great movie actor, and now governor?”

Not so fast. We know he’s strong, but can he bench press Cruz Bustamante?

Steve Lopez can be reached at steve.lopez@latimes.com