Schwarzenegger is in,Davis out in California

LOS ANGELES -- Restive California voters swept sitting Governor Gray Davis from office last night, electing Republican movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger to take his place in a landslide election that set the stage for a massive political realignment in the nation's most populous state.

In one of the most extraordinary -- and closely-watched -- statewide elections in history, Davis lost his seat less than a year after winning re-election to a second term. A decisive 56 percent of voters chose to recall Davis as governor; just 44 percent voted to keep him, according to early returns.

On a separate question, Californians chose Schwarzenegger to succeed Davis over his next-closest competitor, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, by nearly a two-to-one margin.

Introduced at his victory celebration by Tonight Show host Jay Leno, Schwarzenegger offered a conciliatory speech, thanking Californians for their trust and offering to work with his rivals to fix California's political crisis.

"We need to bring back trust in the government itself," he said. "For the people to win, politics as usual must lose."

The actor-turned-politician offered special thanks to his wife, Maria Shriver, who took center stage in the final hours of the campaign to combat allegations that the actor sexually harassed several women. "I know how many votes I got today because of you," he said.

Also at the event were Maria's parents, Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of President Kennedy, as well as many other members of the Shriver clan.

After months of bitter partisan fighting, Republicans said they had tapped a pool of first-time voters and also benefited from the nearly 2 million absentee votes that were cast before the groping allegations surfaced last week. Exit polls indicated that seven out of 10 voters decided on a candidate more than a month ago. Davis placed a congratulatory call to Schwarzenegger before telling disappointed supporters at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles that he was grateful for the opportunity to serve California "and, in my own way, to try and make life better."

"But tonight the people decided it is time for someone else to serve, and I accept their judgment," Davis said, pledging to work for a smooth transition of power.

"I am calling on everyone in this state to put the chaos and the division of the recall behind us and do what's right for this great state of California," he said.

Across town at the Century Plaza Hotel, supporters at the Schwarzenegger victory party watched Davis's concession on large-screen monitors in a ballroom -- and loudly booed the losing candidate.

As an overflow crowd numbering in the hundreds jammed the lobby, the actor's fans marveled that he had won so decisively, especially following the late revelations about his personal conduct. Before the election, Democrats predicted narrow margins and disputed ballot counts -- neither of which was evident last night.

In a separate initiative, Californians defeated Proposition 54, a measure that would have blocked the state from collecting racial data, which opponents argued would block scientists' ability to tailor medical research to specific groups.

Republicans moved quickly to close ranks around Schwarzenegger, despite some early criticism of his moderate views. Republican State Senator Tom McClintock, the leading conservative in the race, declared it a "great day for California" in his concession speech after the polls closed.

"This is a broad consensus for change," said Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California, the millionaire who jumpstarted the recall campaign with $2 million of his own fortune.

Issa, who dropped out of the race when the actor entered, declared nonetheless: "I was very, very happy that Arnold Schwarzenegger had become the Republican choice, and now he's the people's choice."

Although the transition from the Davis administration to Schwarzenegger's is expected to take several weeks, the Republican has already begun to assemble his team and plotted a course for the first 100 days -- and is expected to hold his first news conference as governor-elect today.

Democrats in the state appeared as despondent as Republicans were jubilant. Even before Davis conceded, Democratic state party chairman Art Torres admitted the election offered a final measure of Davis' unpopularity.

The California secretary of state reported that turnout was near 60 percent, slightly higher than turnout for the previous gubernatorial race but lower than the 71 percent for the 2000 presidential race.

International media converged on the state, helping turn an already topsy-turvy race into a spectacle on par with the 2000 election in Florida. Almost all attention centered on Schwarzenegger, the muscular movie star who upended the contest when he joined two months earlier, one of 135 Californians who qualified to put their names on the ballot in hopes of capitalizing on Davis's unpopularity.

The outcome of the race seemed certain to affect politics nationwide, especially next year's presidential race.

While Democrats tried to paint the recall challenge as an obstruction of the voters' will -- calling it a Republican "power grab" -- Republicans seized the opportunity to try to rebuild the party in California, which has all but disappeared from statewide politics.

Even before the polls closed, President Bush sounded ready to welcome Schwarzenegger into the ranks of national politics.

"If he's the governor, I'll work with him, absolutely," Bush said earlier. "He's obviously waged a spirited campaign, he's captured a lot of people's imagination. I haven't been paying that close attention to it, because I've got a job to do here in Washington. But the process is about over, the people of California are going to speak, and I look forward to seeing what the results are."

The campaign began as a fringe attempt by a small band of conservatives to undercut Davis. But it evolved into a massive display of discontent with the often awkward governor -- and later into a referendum on Schwarzenegger's character, after accusations he groped more than a dozen women and professed admiration for Hitler roiled the last phase of the race.

The 11th-hour controversies, if they turned off women or independents, also appeared to invigorate conservatives who saw the stories as a liberal plot.

The California secretary of state estimated that the recall balloting would cost taxpayers up to $66 million. The candidates raised about $75 million, much of which was spent in the state on campaign operations and advertising.

Overall, voters at the polls yesterday seemed polarized, irritated, and disgusted -- either by Davis, or by the recall process itself.

Out of frustration with the other candidates, Nicole Lipnick, a 23-year-old college student in Gilroy, voted for Schwarzenegger. "The rest are all professional politicians," she said, and then referenced the dozens of fringe candidates in the race: "Who else am I going to vote for, the porn queen?"

In San Francisco, Dimitri Spathis and his wife, Michele Miller, said they voted for the recall -- but could not contribute to the Schwarzenegger effort.

"The state has been a mess for a long time, especially with energy," said Miller, a cookie maker.

"It's time for a change -- shake it up a little," said Spathis, 40, a personal chef.

Both voted for McClintock, saying they were unswayed by Schwarzenegger's celebrity.

As elsewhere, the ballot in San Francisco took up both sides of one page. Because of the layout determined by the alphabet lottery, all the major candidates were on the front side: McClintock, Schwarzenegger, Bustamante. Peter Camejo, the virtually unknown Green Party candidate, appeared on the back side. Voters used pens to draw a line next to their favored candidate.

Despite widespread predictions of election mishaps -- hanging chads on punch card ballots, confused voters unable to find their candidate in such a long list -- voters interviewed in San Francisco said they had no problems.

Across the Bay Bridge, an equally large group of voters were using electronic voting machines to cast their ballots in Oakland.

"The morning rush came from about 8 to 11, and most people were making comments because they had to wait in line," said Tommy Ng, a poll worker at the Main Library downtown.

Ng said 245 voters had cast their ballots at his precinct by noon. Evelyn Moses, 61, a longtime Oakland resident and strong Davis supporter, said she felt the recall was a waste of time and money.

"I think the recall is insulting, because I already voted for Gray Davis in the last election," said Moses.

"I can't think of any outstanding thing he's done for people of color, but then again he hasn't had time because he just got into office and then he had to go out campaigning again," she said.

In Gilroy, a farming town where the smell of garlic hangs in the air, voters continued to arrive at the polls late into the afternoon. Leticia Valverde, a computer technician at a local food processing plant, said she suspected Schwarzenegger was going to win, but wanted to give Bustamante her last-minute support even in a possible losing campaign. "I want Mexicans in there," she said.

Rick Lewis, an executive chef at eBay inc., checked the Internet before coming to vote and saw that Schwarzenegger was believed to be winning. He voted for the recall, but for McClintock over Schwarzenegger.

"I'm a taxpayer, and he's going to cut taxes," he said.

Globe staff reporter Chris Gaither contributed to this report from San Francisco and Gilroy; Globe correspondent Garance Burke contributed from Oakland and Marin County; Globe correspondent Bobby Caina Calvan contributed from Sacramento. Exit poll material was provided by the Associated Press.