SAN DIEGO -- Gubernatorial front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger, acknowledging he has "behaved badly" to women, apologized Thursday and promised he has changed.\nSchwarzenegger's remarks, as he kicked off a statewide bus tour in the final days of the recall campaign, came after the Los Angeles Times published a story Thursday in which six women accused him of sexually harassing and groping them.\n"Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right, which I thought then was playful but now I recognize that I offended people," Schwarzenegger told a crowd of supporters in San Diego.\n"Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize because that's not what I'm trying to do," he added.\nFrom this point on, Schwarzenegger said, he would prove he is a "champion for the women." As he made the pledge, the crowd interrupted him with cheers.\nSchwarzenegger also dismissed the Times story as "trash politics" and said much of it was not true.\nReaction to the apology was swift, with some of the actor's critics complaining that it was too little too late and some supporters saying they respected him for acknowledging past mistakes.\n"All is not forgiven. He's got a pattern of this for 30 years, it just doesn't just go away," said Karen Pomer, a spokeswoman for the women's group CodePink.\n"When you grab a woman's breast or rear when they don't want you to, that is sexual battery in the state of California," Pomer said.\nJulie Vandermost, president of the California Women's Leadership Association, an Orange County-based Republican group that has endorsed Schwarzenegger, said she was not troubled by his remarks.\n"I'm happy he's coming out, apologizing and being truthful, but it doesn't mean he shouldn't be governor," Vandermost said. "I'm madder at Gray Davis for tripling my car tax."\nThe latest poll from the Los Angeles Times, released Tuesday, showed Schwarzenegger leading among the 135 candidates in the race to replace Davis if the governor is recalled.\nThe poll showed 40 percent of likely voters supported Schwarzenegger, to 32 percent for Democrat Lt. Gov. Bustamante and 15 percent for Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock.
\nA Sept. 12 poll had showed Bustamante leading with 30 percent to 25 percent for Schwarzenegger and 18 percent for McClintock.
\nThe president of the California National Organization for Women, Megan Seely, attending a news conference celebrating Gov. Gray Davis's signing of a package of women's health care bills Thursday, said "It's clear Schwarzenegger is not safe for women."\nThe Times said none of the actor's political opponents helped the newspaper locate Schwarzenegger's accusers and that none of the women had come forward on their own. None of the six have brought legal action against Schwarzenegger, according to the newspaper.\nThe Times, quoting two of the women by name and the rest anonymously, said the instances of unwanted fondling and groping allegedly occurred as far back as 1975 and as recently as 2000.\nSchwarzenegger spokesman Sean Walsh had earlier denied the women's allegations in comments to the Times, saying the actor had not engaged in improper conduct toward women.\nWalsh had said the claims were a political attack in the days leading up to the Oct. 7 recall election. "We believe that this is coming so close before the election, something that discourages good, hard-working, decent people from running for office," he was quoted in the paper as saying.\nSchwarzenegger, in San Diego to kick off a four-day bus tour, took the stage Thursday to chants of "Arnold, Arnold" and immediately addressed the Times story.\nWithout mentioning specifics, he admitted to wrongdoing and apologized.\n"A lot of those that you see in the stories is not true, but at the same time, I have to tell you that I always say, that wherever there is smoke, there is fire," he said.\nSchwarzenegger's alleged past indiscretions have been an issue in the campaign since he announced his bid for governor. Much of the controversy has surrounded a 1977 interview in Oui magazine in which Schwarzenegger talked about engaging in group sex. The actor has previously said he didn't remember it.\nBefore Schwarzenegger's remarks, several in the crowd of supporters at the San Diego Convention Center said they didn't believe the article and didn't think it would affect his campaign.\n"I think it's baloney," said Kendall DePascal, 41, a marketing specialist from San Diego. "You know what, he worked on a movie set. You encounter people who make claims about you right and left. I don't believe it at all."\nThree of the women quoted in the Times said Schwarzenegger grabbed their breasts. Another said he reached under her skirt and grabbed her buttocks. Another woman said Schwarzenegger tried to remove her bathing suit in a hotel elevator, and the sixth said Schwarzenegger pulled her onto his lap and asked whether a certain sexual act had ever been performed on her.\nThree of the women who spoke on condition of anonymity said being named could jeopardize their careers; another feared public ridicule or harm to her husband's business.\nThe recent poll also showed the effort to oust Davis succeeding, 56 percent to 42 percent, a shift from the earlier poll, which had found 50 percent in favor of recalling Davis and 47 percent opposed.\nThe latest poll surveyed 815 likely voters Sept. 25-29 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
