Schwarzenegger taps George Shultz for economic council
Former secretary of state to co-chair with Warren Buffett
From Charles Feldman and Chuck Conder
CNN Los Angeles Bureau
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Former Secretary of State George Shultz has agreed to serve on Schwarzenegger's economic recovery council.
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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Thursday that former Secretary of State George Shultz will serve on an economic recovery council aimed at developing a plan to rebuild California's economy.
This is the second announcement of a high-powered figure joining the Schwarzenegger team in as many days. Wednesday, the actor-turned-politician who wants to be governor of California announced that the billionaire democrat Warren Buffett will be his senior economic adviser.
Schwarzenegger said Thursday that Shultz and Buffett will co-chair the recovery council.
"Secretary Shultz and Warren Buffett ... both of them will help me pick a team and put together the best, the greatest and the brightest in the business world and economists in California," said Schwarzenegger, who was visiting an after-school program he helps fund.
"The important thing here is that I need as much input from the business leaders and the business community, if it is a retail business or manufacturing or the high-tech business -- all of them come together so I can hear what the real problems are out there," he said.
Shultz, who will not be paid for his participation, was secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan -- another Republican actor who ran for -- and became -- governor of the nation's most populous state. Shultz also was secretary of the treasury under Richard Nixon.
Shultz is currently on the board of the Bechtel Corporation, an international construction firm he once led as president. He is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a West Coast think tank. Former California Gov. Pete Wilson, who is a co-chair of the Schwarzenegger campaign, is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, and many of Wilson's former aides are now working on behalf of Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger took a limited number of questions from reporters before the event at the Mulholland Middle School in Los Angeles.
In response to charges by gubernatorial hopeful Arianna Huffington that he met with then-Enron chief Ken Lay during California's energy crisis, Schwarzenegger told reporters he could not remember any such meeting.
During the school program, the actor, who is seeking to replace the unpopular Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in a recall election October 7, told students to say no to drugs, gangs and violence and yes to homework as a way of improving themselves.
