MERCED, Calif. – Arnold Schwarzenegger (search) was wrapping up his four-day bus tour across California, still leading in the polls but his campaign deeply troubled by claims he groped women and once praised Hitler.
The Republican action star was set to rumble into the state capitol Sacramento for a noon rally Sunday.
Gov. Gray Davis (search), meanwhile, was expected to sign a bill that would allow many California employers to offer health insurance to their workers.
Schwarzenegger went on the attack Saturday, claiming the harassement and Hitler allegations were a last-minute effort to sink his campaign for governor.
"They're trying to torpedo my campaign. They're trying to make me look bad out there so that people vote no," Schwarzenegger said during a stop in Clovis.
Schwarzenegger sought to get his campaign back on track after the Los Angeles Times (search) reported 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."
He said Saturday he will work to convince voters that "this is a different Arnold" and added he will be "extra careful ... even if there is any move from a female on my part."
A Knight Ridder poll released late Saturday showed Schwarzenegger still leading among potential replacements for Davis in the Oct. 7 recall election, with 36 percent support compared to 29 percent for Bustamante.
The survey, conducted Wednesday through Saturday, also indicated that support for recalling Davis might be slipping, although it still showed most voters favored removing him.
The poll 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.
On Saturday, Schwarzenegger faced small groups of protesters throughout the day. At his last stop, in Pleasanton, members of the feminist activist group Code Pink shouted "No groper for governor" throughout his stump speech.
The Austrian-born candidate, also had to fight off accusations that he admired Hitler as a young man. A leader of a Jewish human rights organization and the man who trained the teenage Schwarzenegger as a bodybuilder defended Schwarzenegger against the allegations, saying he has championed tolerance.
The Hitler report led the Democratic National Committee to issue a resolution Saturday calling on Schwarzenegger to apologize. The candidate said he planned to ignore it, stating for the third consecutive day that he despises Hitler.
While Schwarzenegger toured the state, Bustamante, McClintock and Green Party candidate Peter Camejo showered criticism on Schwarzenegger during the final debate of the campaign.
"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?"
The Oakland Tribune withdrew its endorsement of Schwarzenegger on Saturday, saying the sexual harassment allegations indicate "a pattern of recurring abuse and boorish behavior that in different circumstances could have led to assault charges."
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