Well, looks like there will be no Meathead v. Terminator election in 2006.  Rob Reiner officially declared that he is not running for governor:

“This is a decision that has taken me a while to come to,” Reiner said. “Essentially, I’ve been having a lot of discussions with my wife and family. I have young children, and they really are not all that keen on me doing this right now. They know what’s involved, and they know how difficult it can be.”

While it would have been a lot of fun to have an all-Hollywood race, I believe that we have some strong candidates already.  Both Angelides and Westly are far more qualified than Ahnold.  I look forward to a Democrat Governor again.

Oh and by the way, apparently Reiner is going to hang around the scene for a while:

Reiner — who has two sons, 14 and 12, and a daughter, 7 — said he would not rule out running for public office when his children are older.

The filmmaker has been active in politics for more than a decade, working on initiatives to improve education and healthcare for children in California.

That’s a good thing, he’s doing good work with the preschool initiative. (Although for the record, I’d prefer legislative action.  Governance by initiative is a mess.) I hope to see Reiner around the California political scene in the future.