Nursing a Grudge

The R.N.s claim their campaign has contributed to a 10-point drop in Schwarzenegger's approval rating since September, although it still hovers at 55%. "They're spending a lot of money to vilify him," says press secretary Margita Thompson, "but it doesn't faze him." Yet when he attended a recent Sacramento film screening the very sight of a nurse in periwinkle-hued hospital scrubs unnerved his security guards, who pulled the ticketed customer out of her fifth-row seat and interrogated her for an hour before releasing her. "They treated me like I was a terrorist," says Kelly Di Giacomo, a Sacramento cardiac nurse.

Whatever happens in court this week, Schwarzenegger's butt kicking has hardly improved his image. According to a recent Gallup poll, nurses are more popular than he is. "The nurses care about patient safety," says state senator Sheila Kuehl, author of the ratio law. "The Governor insulted them. It was a big misstep."