If you haven’t noticed, there’s an awful...

If you haven’t noticed, there’s an awful lot of buzz in California,

and even more in Orange County, about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bid for

governor during the recall election. Orange County, it turns out, is

going to be an important enough piece of the state that the

Schwarzenegger campaign has set up a headquarters in Costa Mesa to

get out the vote. Costa Mesa businessman David Padilla is helping run

the office with Bill Christiansen (a longtime name in Republican

circles in Orange County). Padilla talked with Pilot Managing Editor

S.J. Cahn about what’s in store for the next nine days.

What does the Schwarzenegger camp hope to get out of being in

Orange County?

Orange County, they’ve determined, is extremely important to them

to not only do well, but do extremely well. So they’ve decided to set

up this GOTV office -- get out the vote office.

What is the office’s main goals?

Getting out the vote. We will be coordinating get out the vote for

“Yes on Recall” and “Yes on Arnold” for all of Orange County.

What will you be doing to promote Arnold?

There are two activities we will be focusing on: We will be

setting up and running phone banks to get people to the polls and

walking door-to-door to get people to the polls. We’re going to be

focusing on new voters and lower propensity voters that we think will

be getting out to the polls this election.

Do you expect Arnold to stop by?

He’s going to be in Orange County one of the last three days of

the campaign to do a get out the vote rally at the Orange County

Fairgrounds. He can’t stop by here because it’s too small. He draws

enormous crowds. We’ll know later next week.

How many volunteers do you have?

Because this has been so quickly set up, it’s hard to tell. But

3,000 people have signed up on the Join Arnold Web site just for

Orange County. Even if we get a small fraction of them ... if not, me

and Bill will walk every precinct in Orange County. Twice.

What are the plans post-election? What will you be doing Oct. 8?

Sleeping. The way these offices normally work -- I always say a

campaign is like starting a business for a product with a one-day

roll-out. You’ve got to get everybody to buy and the next day you’re

out of business.

Anything else to cover?

What we’re doing here is not complicated. Our goal is to organize

the volunteers who are enthusiastic about Arnold, which is an

unprecedented number. And focus on getting people to the polls so

Arnold will win on Oct. 7.