Ads Back Schwarzenegger for President

Sun Nov 14, 2004

Associated Press Newswire

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Californians will soon see advertisements urging them to help give Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other foreign-born citizens the chance to run for president.

The cable television ads, set to being running Monday, are from a Silicon Valley-based group that wants to amend the U.S. Constitution, which limits the presidency to people born in the United States. Schwarzenegger was born in Austria but became a U.S. citizen in 1983.

"You cannot choose the land of your birth. You can choose the land you love," Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones says in the ads.

She is a San Francisco Bay area mutual fund manager and major Schwarzenegger campaign donor who is helping pay for the ads and created a companion Web site.

Schwarzenegger, 57, has said he would consider running for president if the Constitution allowed but hasn't pushed for a constitutional change.

The TV ads mark the first significant attempt to build public support for an amendment. While polls show Schwarzenegger remains popular with voters, the idea of a constitutional change is not.

Four proposed amendments are circulating in Congress, but none has advanced. Constitutional amendments require congressional approval and ratification by 38 states.

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On the Net:

http://www.amendforarnold.com

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Schwarzenegger constitutional amendment gets nudge

Congressman backs allowing immigrant to seek presidency

San Francisco Chronicle

Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Sunday, September 19, 2004

The outcome is far from certain, but the campaign for a constitutional amendment that would allow foreign-born Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president is rolling right along.

The latest push came last week when Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach (Orange County) -- a friend of Arnold's and, incidentally, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration -- introduced a constitutional amendment to allow anyone who has been a citizen for 20 or more years to run for the nation's top office. As it is, no one who has immigrated to the United States can be president.

And while Rohrabacher said the change could help all legal immigrants, he grants there's little doubt that "the one name that comes to mind is Arnold.''

Rohrabacher's move mirrors an amendment introduced in the Senate by Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Oddsmakers say the amendment is a long shot -- at least in time to qualify Schwarzenegger to run in 2008.