GOP: Schwarzenegger 'a great disappointment' updated 6/26/2010 7:49:26 AM ET

ANAHEIM, CALIF. — When Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, the Dream Team of the California GOP, joined hands at a rally celebrating their primary victories this month, there was one broad-shouldered Republican conspicuously missing from the scene: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Organizers said the actor-turned-politician declined an invitation to the event. The truth is, he would not have been welcome. After nearly six years in office, Schwarzenegger has few friends left in either party. The state budget deficit hovers around $20 billion; his approval rating has sunk below 25 percent.

"We thought he was going to be a great governor, but he has been a great disappointment," said Geneviève M. Clavreul, a Republican activist.

As candidates in races across the country try to position themselves as the politician with the least political experience, Schwarzenegger's troubles in California illustrate some of the possible downsides of outsiderdom. Like Whitman, the GOP's candidate for governor, and Fiorina, the party's Senate nominee, Schwarzenegger came to office as a non-politician who would solve problems with unconventional ideas.