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When the Oakland Tribune and other ANG Newspapers withdrew their endorsement of Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor over the weekend, citing recent sexual harassment allegations against the actor, the news brought cheer to a group of East Bay female politicians who had pressed the paper to make the retraction. 

“We can no longer in good conscience recommend him for governor,” read the editorial, published in the Tribune’s Saturday edition. 

The retraction followed a protest Friday by the National Women’s Political Caucus of North Alameda where caucus members and female politicians from the East Bay Area called for the paper and other publications in the ANG Newspapers chain to rescind the endorsement.  

The protest was one of many that have sprung up against Schwarzenegger since the Los Angeles Times reported last Thursday the stories of six women who say Schwarzenegger fondled them. The alleged incidents occurred from the 1970s through 2000.  

“Arnold Schwarzenegger is a sexual predator,” Caucus Chair Patricia Dilks told the small crowd gathered at the County Administration Building in Oakland. “He’s admitted that himself.”  

Dilks gave out copies of the letter she wrote to ANG Newspapers asking for the Oakland Tribune to reverse its endorsement of Schwarzenegger. “It is absolutely untenable for the Oakland Tribune to sustain its endorsement of an admitted sexual predator for governor of California,” the letter read.  

The caucus said it would give the Oakland Tribune “the benefit of doubt” since the endorsement was published Sept. 27, before the sexual harassment allegations were printed. However, Dilks said that if the paper doesn’t retract the endorsement she would personally write letters to local businesses asking them to pull their advertising from the Tribune.  

A few women in the small crowd also began to yell that they would cancel their subscriptions.  

Tom Tuttle, ANG Editorial Page Director, said Friday he had not yet received any complaints from the caucus and insisted that Saturday’s statement would not be in response to the Caucus’ protest.  

“It was of our own initiative,” Tuttle said.  

The latest recommendation, which was also published in the San Mateo Times on Sunday, still urges readers to vote against the recall as it did last Sunday, but now suggests that voters abstain on naming a replacement.  

“Although allegations of his abusive and disrespectful behavior toward women had surfaced earlier,” the editorial read, “the latest revelations reported in the Los Angeles Times and Schwarzenegger’s convenient but seemingly insincere admission that ‘I have behaved badly sometimes,’ alienates a significant proportion of the state’s population, male and female.”  

Schwarzenegger made a public apology Thursday, admitting that he has behaved badly toward women. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday that Schwarzenegger told a crowd at the San Diego Convention Center that in the past he thought his “rowdy” behavior on movie sets was playful, but now realizes that he offended people.  

The women at Friday’s rally, however, remained unmoved.  

“Should we have a governor who thinks it’s playful to touch women in inappropriate ways and who believes that if he apologizes it just goes away?” Assemblywoman Ellen Corbett asked. Corbett went on to say that by regarding his behavior as playful, Schwarzenegger showed that he doesn’t realize that the humiliation, pain and suffering that sexual harassment victims endure is real.  

Several of the speakers at Friday’s rally said that Schwarzenegger’s behavior not only shows his lack of respect for women but also his lack of understanding of sexual harassment.  

Schwarzenegger doesn’t understand that in a true work environment he would be “terminated” for his behavior, Oakland City Council member Jane Brunner said, evoking cheers from the audience.  

Other speakers also questioned Schwarzenegger’s understanding of the law.  

“It makes me wonder whether he knows the difference between movies and real life,” Wilma Chan, Majority Leader of the State Assembly, said. “In real life, you can’t treat women this way.”