Patricia Clarey '75: The Incredible Bigness of being Arnold's Aide

“Everything Arnold does is big. It's always wild,” says Patricia Clarey '75.
As right-hand person to Arnold – former Mr. Universe-turned-Terminator, now California Gov. Schwarzenegger – Clarey sees him up close every day.
“It's a dream job,” the Union alumna says. “He's probably the most recognized elected official in this country, with the exception of the president. He's also incredibly well known worldwide. Everybody wants to see him… Clint Eastwood, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, Queen Noor; they're his friends. The other day, President Bush 41 came by.”
Clearly, life in the Sacramento statehouse is anything but business as usual.
“We have to rent auditoriums when Arnold does a press conference,” Clarey notes. “We can get 1,000 people without doing much. He gets amazing, cheering, cross-party crowds.”
As Gov. Schwarzenegger's handpicked chief of staff, Clarey has her own starring role as logistics manager for the gubernatorial staff.
“California is the sixth largest economy in the world, bigger than Canada's. The problems are enormous,” Clarey says. “It's a challenging time. First and foremost, Arnold wants to fix the fiscal mess we're in. He's got a broad, non-partisan vision and he's intellectually curious, with tremendous instincts and a strong sense of what he can accomplish. It's very invigorating for those of us in public service.”
A native of Johnson City, N.Y., Clarey majored in psychology at Union, “the perfect small school in the Northeast.” She loved the small classes and close interaction with faculty, including the late Dr. C.W. Huntley '34, her advisor. “It's a very nurturing place. I came out feeling confident I could do it all.”
She was a resident advisor in North College and put in hours at Hale House, but Union wasn't all work. She recalls that in 1974, when streaking was big, “some of the guys in West College rented spotlights and played the '1812 Overture' while there was streaking going on. It was a lively place. We had a blast.”
Clarey received her B.S. at Union and earned a master's in public administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1983. She moved to Washington, D.C., where she honed her lobbying, legislative and communications skills “in and out of public service.”
She held government relations posts for Chevron and Ashland Oil, Inc., and was vice president of public affairs for Transamerica Corp., one of the nation's largest financial services companies. She worked in the Reagan and first Bush administrations and spent eight years as deputy chief of staff for California Gov. Pete Wilson, where she met Schwarzenegger. Most recently, she was vice president for governmental affairs at Health Net Inc., a Southern California HMO.
Then opportunity knocked, and Pat Clarey once more said hasta la vista to corporate America.
“The day after Arnold announced his candidacy on the Leno show, he called and asked if I'd take off two months to run his primary campaign. I said yes, and those were probably the most fascinating two months I ever had.”
Buoyed by the governor-elect's sense of optimism, she stayed and helped assemble a staff and cabinet, set priorities and write the State of the State address.
“There's a terrific mixture of people here, all for the same reason, to fix things,” she says. “We're a little army, and Arnold draws us up and makes us better.”
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