Von Anhalt, 65, launched his long-shot bid for office with a news conference in West Hollywood and the unveiling of a large billboard on the Sunset Strip, showing him smiling and dressed in a military-style coat adorned with various medals. Von Anhalt described himself as a longtime Republican and fiscal conservative who is liberal on social issues -- he supports a broad amnesty for illegal immigrants and legalization of marijuana.And like his major-party rivals, von Anhalt is sharply disparaging of Schwarzenegger, chiding the Austrian-born Republican incumbent for traveling too much on the job and leaving California “in a mess” for the last year of his term. “Arnold is going to go, and California needs somebody new,” he told Reuters in an interview. “It took always a German to clean out the Austrian mess. That was always the case, and it will happen here also.”
Gabor, who by von Anhalt’s reckoning turns 93 next month and is in failing health, was not present for his announcement. But the prince, her longest-lasting spouse, said the Hungarian-born actress fully supports his run for governor. “My wife, when I married her 23 years ago, she was for me the first lady of California already, and now she gets the title officially,” he said. Von Anhalt said he still needs to file papers to make his campaign official and collect 10,000 signatures by the end of June to get on the November ballot.
