A Hollywood liberal at a GOP governor's side

By Aurelio Rojas – Sacramento Bee Staff Writer - (Published January 18, 2004)

She is nearly always at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's side, a dark-haired wire of energy who, like the governor, arrived in Sacramento by way of Hollywood.

Officially, Bonnie Reiss is a senior adviser. In truth, the former entertainment lawyer, accountant and producer is one of the governor's most trusted aides and one of his wife's closest friends.

Like Maria Shriver, Reiss is a Democrat -- a liberal -- who met the first couple when they were dating and whose counsel the Republican governor values even when they disagree.

"We're in the Cabinet room the other day, and he has senior staff around him, and I'm going on and he says, 'Twenty-five years I've known her and I still can't get her to shut up,' " Reiss recounted, punctuating her mile-a-minute delivery with laughter.

Reiss' ascension to the upper reaches of the Governor's Office is indeed an oddity. She's a liberal Democrat in a Republican administration. She's an outsider from Hollywood playing the inside game in Sacramento.

With her Malibu tan and disarming smile and hugs, the daughter of a Queens, N.Y., auto supply store owner has, like her boss, made a splashy debut in the Capitol.

Chief of staff Pat Clarey credits her with helping to broker a deal with education groups -- including the California Teachers Association -- that will allow the state to defer $2 billion in costs as it struggles with enormous budget deficits.

" The governor wanted to get something done, and she provided the internal leadership and earned the trust of the CTA," Clarey said.

State Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, said Reiss was a source of comfort when the governor pressed the Legislature to repeal his bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain California driver's licenses.

" She's the one Democrats love and want to hug," said Cedillo, joking that it's inaccurate to call her the governor's "right-hand lady." "Left-hand lady is more like it."

Reiss, 48, said that unlike others in town who are just getting to know Schwarzenegger, she's worked with him so long she doesn't see him "as an intimidating person." But she cautions there are limits to her influence.

" Arnold is his own man," she said. "Even though he knows that he can trust me implicitly, because I'm there for him -- and I have nothing but his interests in mind -- ultimately, he's his own counsel."

Ever loyal, Reiss defended the governor's proposal to cut programs that serve the poor, even while incurring the wrath of her liberal friends.

Reiss recalled that a friend recently called her screaming, "How could you evilly cut these programs?"

" What do you mean evilly?" Reiss shot back, explaining that the tax-averse governor had little room to maneuver because of an imbalance between state spending and revenues.

Reiss said she and the governor share similar views on many social issues, but he "believes in fiscal conservatism and market economies," and their views sometimes clash.

She cites a hypothetical situation in which she might disagree with the governor -- say tax revenues were to increase, and "certain Republicans" want to return the money to taxpayers.

" That is where I might get into a good debate with (Schwarzenegger) and say, 'No, let's use it on this program or that program.' "

In the mid-'90s, the former corporate auditor helped Schwarzenegger launch his nonprofit foundation. Friends said her friendship and familiarity with Schwarzenegger's public endeavors are easing his transition from action movie star to governor.

" She will play a critical role in this administration and will invigorate (people) to think they can make a difference," Shriver said in a statement.

Reiss treasures her relationship with Shriver, whom she met as an intern in the office of Shriver's uncle Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

The two women traveled together campaigning for Kennedy during his 1980 presidential bid and wound up in Los Angeles where Shriver met up with Schwarzenegger, whom she had recently begun to date.

" They're my family and he's my brother in every sense of the word," said Reiss, who did a reading at the couple's wedding.

" When Maria's first child was born, I was in the hospital the first day -- running out to get little ribbons to put on her hair."

Reiss said she immediately saw what attracted Shriver to Schwarzenegger -- "the humor, the passion, the energy, the kindness and the magnetism."

One day, the two campaign workers tapped into the then-champion bodybuilder's charm to help them sell tickets to a Kennedy fund-raiser.

" He agreed to go to Venice Beach and let us walk behind him -- and when the crowd gathered around him, we sold tickets to them," Reiss recalled.

Reiss was bitten by the Hollywood bug. After graduating from Antioch Law School in Washington, she moved to Los Angeles and opened a practice providing personal and legal services to young actors.

But she found more fulfillment working for political causes -- including women's, environmental and civil rights issues -- and closed her practice to work with nonprofits.

Just as Schwarzenegger leveraged his celebrity to become governor, Reiss began working with an A-list roster of stars to advance political causes.

She was one of the founders with Barbra Streisand and others of the Hollywood Women's Political Committee, which raised money for Democratic U.S. Senate races.

Reiss was also a founder of the Earth Communications Office (ECO) in 1988, where she led the effort to increase the entertainment industry's awareness of environmental issues and promote recycling.

" Friends of mine, Ron Howard and Brian Glazer of Imagine Entertainment, gave me free office space at their company," recalled Reiss, who got another close friend, actor Tom Cruise, to sit on her board of directors.

Shriver said Reiss "helped to get people involved in the environment before it was 'cool.' "

As the driving force behind the Earth Communications Office, Reiss used her Hollywood contacts to place pro-environment messages in television programs during the 1990s, notably an episode of "Designing Women" that promoted cloth diapers.

" She got a lot of support, but in my mind Bonnie was ECO," said close friend Sally Maslansky, who also worked with Reiss in the Hollywood Women's Political Committee.

" She's politically connected for good reason -- people know she gets things done."

Maslansky recalled traveling in the 1980s with Reiss to Washington, where "it seemed there wasn't a senator's office that didn't open the minute Bonnie got there."

Maslansky said Reiss continues to have a hand in national politics.

" Howard Dean, when he was beginning to think about running for president, one of the first people he called was Bonnie," Maslansky said. "She has relationships like that with other candidates."

In 1992, Reiss helped producers Harry Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, provide entertainment for Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration.

A couple of years later, Schwarzenegger asked her to help him launch his nonprofit foundation to provide after-school programs to middle schools, which she helped expand to 15 cities nationwide.

She ran the organization until her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago -- shortly after her father died.

" She took a leave of absence and rented a house in New York so she could be near my mom and take her to the doctor," said her sister, Sandi Rabrich. "That's the kind of person, daughter and sister she is."

After her mother died, Reiss returned to California.

" Maria and Arnold had six of my closest friends over the first week to embrace me, and Arnold -- it makes me want to cry -- he says, 'I know you're not ready to talk about this now, but I have this great idea,' " Reiss recalled.
" 'I need you to do something your mom would be very proud of' -- because Arnold knew my mom very well and I knew his mom very well before she passed away."

Reiss said the idea was to start Arnold's All-Stars, his after-school program, "because he was thinking of doing Proposition 49 and he wanted to create a real model of an excellent program in L.A."

Approved by voters in 2002, the initiative was designed to increase support for before-and after-school programs, but it has never been funded because of insufficient state revenues.

Recalling his admiration for her mother, Reiss said Schwarzenegger has "great regard for strong women" and dismisses allegations by 16 women who claim that he groped them or behaved boorishly.

" Like Maria would say, when (this) started going around, are you going to believe what people say who knew him for a minute and a half, or are you going to believe someone who has known him for decades?" Reiss said.

Reiss, who has never been married, lives on the beach in Malibu when she's not in Sacramento and has an extended family of friends.

" People gravitate toward her because she's funny, intelligent and has such high moral standards," said Hollywood activist Corki Corman, who like Maslansky chose Reiss to be her son's godmother.

Reiss was handing off her duties as chief executive officer of Schwarzenegger's after-school program, looking forward to taking some time off to figure out what to do next, when her cell phone began ringing last August.
Schwarzenegger had just announced on television that he was running for governor, friends told her.

" No one knew except Maria," Reiss said, adding she was surprised. "So that night, Arnold and Maria called and they go, 'Come by the office tomorrow.' "

Surrounded by campaign workers they barely knew, Schwarzenegger and Shriver wanted Reiss' help.

She's also helping with the transition in Sacramento, but she doesn't anticipate staying for the full term.

" I'm anticipating maybe a year, because by that time he'll have his rhythm with everyone," Reiss said.

On election night, Reiss found herself alone with the couple after everyone had cleared out of Schwarzenegger's hotel suite in Los Angeles.

" I'm sitting on the patio and then it truly hit me," she recalled. "This is a unique opportunity -- my friend and brother is the governor."

About the Writer
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The Bee's Aurelio Rojas can be reached at (916) 326-5539 or arojas@sacbee.com.