Never mind groping tales and Hitler taunts - it's car tax that counts, say Arnie's fans

The Arnold Schwarzenegger team had nicknamed the press buses on this final statewide campaign tour as Predators One, Two and Three. It was meant to be a reference to one of his best known Hollywood films, not a reminder of his behaviour off screen. But as the district attorney in Los Angeles was asked yesterday to investigate the claims of six women who alleged that they had been groped by the gentleman in the Running Man bus, fresh allegations about another Austrian who came from nowhere to power were made.

It emerged that film producer George Butler, who worked with Schwarzenegger in the 1970s, had said in a book proposal that the then bodybuilder liked to play Nazi marching songs and spoke admiringly of Hitler. "I admired Hitler... because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education up to power and I admire him for being such a good public speaker," Schwarzenegger is alleged to have said.

"I don't remember any of those comments," the actor said yesterday as the campaign buses headed north on a tour that will finish symbolically in Sacramento, the state capital, tomorrow. "I despise everything he stood for. I think he was a disgusting villain, a dictator."

The California Comeback tour, which set off from San Diego on Thursday and is due to hit Fresno and Modesto today, was meant to be a lap of honour, with Schwarzenegger leading in the polls to replace Governor Gray Davis on Tuesday. Instead, it has attracted attention and demonstrators because of claims that it is Groping Man who could end up in the governor's mansion next week.

It was at the first stop in Orange County that things started to go pear-shaped.

A big group of supporters had turned out at the Fairground in Costa Mesa. They included a man carrying a large iguana called Iggy who, he claimed, was a firm Schwarzenegger supporter, even if he did not, as yet, have the vote. There was also a man dressed in a chicken suit, carrying a placard suggesting that "Arnold Is a Debate Chicken", because he has declined to take part in all but one of the debates with other candidates.

With a blazing sun at his back, the candidate, who has apologised to any women he has offended by his activities in the past, moved on to attacking the car tax in California, which has just been tripled by Democrat governor Davis. "It's not going to hurt me, this car tax," he said. "It's going to hurt low income people... I played a character in films and when I didn't like something, I destroyed it!" At which point a massive crane dropped a 3,600 wrecking ball from 50 feet on top of an unoffending Oldsmobile on which has been inscribed "Davis Car Tax".

But then came the first signs of trouble. A group of young women arrived carrying placards which read "No Groper for Governor" and "Women Demand Respect". The women had read the claims in the Los Angeles Times that the actor was a serial groper. "I don't think it's right to have a groper for governor," said Estrella Renteria, 17. "If he's governor, he's going to think he can get away with anything. He should stay in Hollywood." A young man arrived on the scene carrying a sign which read: "Reach out and cop a feel for Arnold."

A waitress from Santa Monica called Gail Escobar emerged, with her own story about the actor. It went back 25 years to when she was at Santa Monica high school and was working in a coffee bar. She said that Schwarzenegger and some of his body-building friends had come into the coffee bar and afterwards one of them had dragged her outside, claiming Schwarzenegger wanted to see her. She said that the actor, sitting in the passenger seat of a car, had threatened to rape her.

The Schwarzenegger team immediately denied the claims. Furious Schwarzenegger supporters rounded on the women. Some spat at them, others claimed that they were just resentful that the actor had not groped them. Supporters who could not reach the women vented their anger on the press approaching anyone with a notebook in hand.

But there was little sign that any of the allegations were denting support amongst fans who see the furore as a last desperate throw by Davis supporters to trip up the Running Man. "Women don't care," said Janis Schonfield, 52, who said she was supporting Schwarzenegger, "because Governor Davis taxes us to death."

At the next stop in San Bernardino, most of the crowd were supporters although one young Latino man shouted "don't vote for him - he won't let my grandma come in the country", a reference to Schwarzenegger's views on tight immigration controls.

James Tate, who described himself as a "black Republican", said that he was backing the actor because "it's all about winning and I think Arnold has the ability to bring in the cross-over vote". As for the groping allegations, Mr Tate, 49, said: "When we were young, everyone had a little fun in college."

The tour moved on once more as the most professional of all the campaigns, coordinated by former Republican governor Pete Wilson's former aides, headed on to what everyone now assumes must be victory. Inside a school, the actor was again asked about the groping allegations, some of which he said were not true, but "other things may be true". Schwarzenegger also said: "It's very interesting that since I'm ahead in the campaign all the things are coming out. I'm very pro-women, I'm very much into equality. Those things are not coming out."

None of the other candidates are mounting such huge campaigns, not least because they do not have the $20m (£12m) war chest that Schwarzenegger has amassed. This week, his contributors came under scrutiny, not least because the actor had said he was wealthy enough not to have to take money from anyone but has now done so from real estate developers, businesses and construction interests. Developer Tim Blixseth, who made his fortune in the timber trade and whose firm faces fines for illegal dumping, this week contributed $100,000.

The elections are on Tuesday, by which time the campaign's theme tune of We're Not Going to Take It by Twisted Sister will have been played a few more dozen times. There are likely, too, to be more women protesting. For the record, the song played before the actor came on stage for the first rally of the tour, down in San Diego, was Bob Marley's No Woman, No Cry.