Arnold finds mansions scarce in California

SACRAMENTO, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Headlines have said Arnold Schwarzenegger is "seeking the California governor's mansion," but the San Francisco Chronicle sardonically says: "Good luck."

The newspaper says California's governor-elect isn't going to find a governor's mansion, because California is one of only six states without one.

The Chronicle said California's original gubernatorial mansion was a "clapboard palace" built in 1877, with 30 rooms and nine bathrooms.

Home to 13 governors, Nancy and Ronald Reagan moved into the mansion in 1967 and moved out three months later, calling it a "noisy firetrap." It's now a museum.

The Reagans then started building a new official residence, but it wasn't completed by the time Reagan left office, and Jerry Brown refused to live there, declaring it a "Taj Mahal."

Brown subsequently ordered the new mansion sold to a private party, and, ever since, California's governors have enjoyed simpler shelter.

The Chronicle said Republican Gov. George Deukmejian lived in a small apartment before the GOP bought a house for him for $400,000, which they rented to the state for $1 a year. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis also lived in that four-bedroom, three-bathroom, suburban ranch house. But now the GOP is selling the house.

And to complicate matters, Schwarzenegger and his wife say they don't even want to move to Sacramento.

So California's new governor may become a jet-commuter.