Voters unimpressed with Schwarzenegger

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Ninety-two percent of California's registered voters know Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger but 54 percent rate him unfavorably, a new Field Poll finds.

Other actors mentioned as possible 2006 gubernatorial candidates also have gotten the thumbs-down from voters, who gave the man famous for "I'll be back" a favorable rating of just 38 percent.

Democrat Rob Reiner received a 41 percent negative rating while Warren Beatty was rated unfavorably by 48 percent of the 774 voters surveyed by telephone in late October.

Beatty flopped among Democratic, Republican and non-partisan voters.

"Beatty's got an image problem that's hard to deal with," Mark DiCamillo, director of the independent annual poll taken since 1947, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

While he faces an uphill challenge to win re-election, DiCamillo said Schwarzenegger has time to change his image.

"You have to command the stage for that sort of reappraisal, and the governor does," DiCamillo said. "The other candidates almost have to manufacture their stage."