Arnold Schwarzenegger went on the attack, denouncing the latest sexual harassment allegations made against him and charging that all the 11th-hour accusations were intended to wreck his campaign for governor.
"The last accusations that I read today are absolutely untrue," Schwarzenegger said on Saturday. "They're trying to torpedo my campaign. They're trying to make me look bad out there so that people vote no."
But Schwarzenegger, who has admitted that he treated some women badly in the past, also referred to past behavior on Saturday, saying he will work to convince voters that "this is a different Arnold."
The action star also said that "the environment in today's politics is totally different on the subject of women, it is much more sensitive today."
The harassment allegations earned Schwarzenegger criticism from his rivals in the final debate of the campaign, which the actor sat out.
Democratic Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante said if one of his three daughters had experienced the groping Schwarzenegger is alleged to have committed "it wouldn't have taken a campaign to resolve it."
Green Party candidate Peter Camejo suggested Schwarzenegger has gotten away with harassing women all these years because he's rich, white and famous.
"If he were a black man, he'd be in jail. If he was brown, he'd be in jail. If he were a poor white he'd be in jail," said Camejo. "What does it tell us about our society that a rich white person can do the type of things that he's alleged to have done?"
State Senator Tom McClintock, Schwarzenegger's main Republican rival, agreed that the accusations were serious and called for investigation. But he added extra caution was needed because the allegations surfaced so close to tomorrow's election.
Davis, in San Diego on Saturday, noted Schwarzenegger has acknowledged mistreatment of women.
"Electing a governor who might have committed a crime is going to distract the state from the work it has to do," he said.
A poll released late on Saturday indicated that the support for recalling Davis might be slipping, although it still showed most voters favored removing him.
The Knight Ridder poll, conducted Wednesday through Saturday, found that 54 percent of respondents supported the recall and 41 percent opposed it. The percentage of people saying they would definitely vote to oust Davis, however, declined among those surveyed Friday and Saturday.
The poll of 1,000 registered voters, conducted by Elway/McGuire Research and posted on the San Jose Mercury News Web site, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. It also showed Schwarzenegger still leading among potential replacements for Davis, with 36 percent support compared to 29 percent for Bustamante.
The Davis campaign said its internal polling showed support and opposition to the recall vote was running even after word of the allegations. The Schwarzenegger camp said its polls showed a slight movement in favor of Schwarzenegger. Before the remarks, polls showed the recall passing and Schwarzenegger leading the candidates to replace Davis.
Much of the focus remained on the front-runner Schwarzenegger, however, after the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday that six women claimed he groped or sexually harassed them between 1975 and 2000.
After the story was published, five other women came forward to report similar incidents, including two who said Friday the actor harassed them on the set of the 1988 film Twins.
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