LOS ANGELES (AP) — Arnold Schwarzenegger hoped to take the state Republican convention by storm with a major rally and speech, as he aimed to win over party activists who may be leaning toward his conservative opponent in the California gubernatorial election.

Schwarzenegger was to attend a morning rally outside the convention hotel, then woo the faithful with a lunchtime address aimed at casting him as the successor to California Republican leaders such as Ronald Reagan and former Gov. Pete Wilson.

Republican rival Tom McClintock, a state senator, was giving his own speech the same evening, buoyed by a new poll showing him edging close to Schwarzenegger.

The biannual convention opened with a plea for unity from the man largely responsible for qualifying the Oct. 7 recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis for the ballot.

Rep. Darrell Issa, who spent $1.7 million of his own money to fund the recall, told some 1,500 delegates that if they divided their votes between Schwarzenegger and McClintock they would be handing the election to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the one major Democrat on the ballot.

“This will be a job opportunity for Cruz Bustamante if we ask the voters to divide their choice between two well-qualified and capable candidates,” Issa said. “No matter whether you’re wearing an Arnold button tonight or you’re wearing a McClintock button tonight, you know the math just doesn’t work.”

Issa had launched his own bid for governor before dropping out tearfully just before the filing deadline. He has not endorsed another candidate and did not suggest which one should drop out.

Issa commended fellow Republicans Bill Simon, the party’s nominee last year, and Peter Ueberroth, a former baseball commissioner, for withdrawing their bids.

“They put the interests of our party and our state first,” he said.

California Republicans have a history of supporting candidates too conservative for the left-leaning state, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 44 percent to 35 percent and control all statewide offices and both houses of the Legislature.

Schwarzenegger backers argue he is the one candidate who can win. They say McClintock supporters should abandon ideology for pragmatism and give them their vote.

But McClintock has shown no signs of backing down.

“The momentum’s entirely on my side,” the state senator said Friday on KSTE-AM in Sacramento as he discussed a new Los Angeles Times poll showing Bustamante with support from 30 percent of likely voters, Schwarzenegger with 25 percent and McClintock with 18 percent.

McClintock’s support rose by 6 percentage points from the last poll, compared to 3 points for Schwarzenegger.

The survey of 922 likely voters, conducted Sept. 6-10, also found support growing for Davis, with 50 percent saying they would vote yes on the recall against 47 percent against it. The poll’s sampling error margin was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

For his part, Schwarzenegger refused to be drawn into speculation about McClintock’s candidacy.

“No matter what anyone tries to do and say, I will never say anything negative about Tom McClintock,” he told reporters after a campaign stop in Los Angeles. “I respect him, I think he’s a terrific man, and this is a decision that he has to make for himself.”

Many of Schwarzenegger’s views make him more liberal than the GOP activists who make up the party’s core of support and turn out for conventions. He supports abortion rights, gay domestic partnerships and many gun control laws. McClintock, by contrast, is an unwavering conservative on social and economic issues.

While Schwarzenegger describes himself as a fiscal conservative, he refuses to take an anti-tax pledge, which McClintock has taken.

Many analysts said the weekend convention represents Schwarzenegger’s best chance to win over the conservatives who could be key to his success.

“There are a lot of Republicans who’d like to support him if only because it’s fun and glamorous but he has to close the sale,” said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College.