"State Treasurer Phil Angelides
brought the big name Democrats to San Francisco on Sunday, hoping the star power of Sens.
Dianne Feinstein and
Barbara Boxer could give his campaign for governor a boost in the final hours before Tuesday's down-to-the-wire primary election," report John Wildermuth and Carla Marinucci in the Chron.
"Despite already spending a combined $70 million on the campaign, both Angelides and Westly were
desperately courting the estimated 25 percent of likely Democratic voters who haven't made their choice in an election expected to draw only about 38 percent of the state's registered voters."
"That search for the atypical voter is what convinced Westly to try an online video approach. Filmed this weekend during a campaign bus trip through Los Angeles, the homemade 3 1/2 minute video, which is anything but slick, features a relaxed-looking Westly and his wife,
Anita, talking directly into the camera, making a pitch to young voters who see the Internet as a second home."
Of course, you can watch the video on
westly2006.com.
But, the video most on the minds of campaigns this weekend was an
ad released by the Westly campaign charging Angelides with dumping sludge in Lake Tahoe.
Robert Salladay and Seema Mehta report in the Times that "[t]he ad uses an Angelides investment in a Lake Tahoe condominium to raise doubts about his environmental record. He and several partners owned one unit in a 22-unit lakefront project. The state sued the developer — and the owners of each unit — for dumping 1 million gallons of marina silt into the lake."
"'I wouldn't come out and support somebody who I thought pumped sludge into Lake Tahoe,' Feinstein said in an interview. 'I have worked very hard for the restoration of Tahoe. That is very upsetting for me to see one Democrat do that to another."
"Westly's senior campaign advisor
Garry South was blunt about Feinstein, telling The Times in an e-mail: '
With all due respect to the senior senator, I doubt that she knows squat about the Tahoe incident, other than the lies her pal Phil is telling her. Take what she says with a grain of salt — or a pound of sludge!'"
The campaigns thus far
have left plenty of undecided voters, writes Mary Anne Ostrom in the Merc News. "Ask Californians what is on their minds. They have no trouble answering: immigration, traffic, gas prices, the war. Ask Californians who they are going to vote for on Tuesday. Mostly, they hem and haw."
"'
It's Tuesday? Oh, the election? I heard something about it from my union,' said
Rosie Perez of San Jose, interviewed as she dropped off her DVD rental at Japantown's Blockbuster store."
"Who does the 48-year-old Valley Transportation Authority worker plan to vote for? 'I haven't decided,'' she said. '
I guess I'll do what the union says. It's -- what do you call it? -- a camaraderie thing.'"
Music to Phil's ears.
Matier and Ross write that the negative campaign is
more about Garry South v. Phil Angelides than the controller versus the treasurer.
"To hear South tell it, the feud started in 1993 when Angelides -- who was winding up his tenure as chair of the state Democratic Party -- started casting an eye toward the lieutenant governor's office."
"South, who had been brought in by then-Controller
Gray Davis to manage his campaign for lieutenant governor, was determined to knock Angelides out of the race early. He did it by circulating some very unfavorable poll numbers to Angelides' financial backers in the Greek American community."
"Angelides and Co. fought back hard, and dirty, South maintains."
"'Rumors about Gray being gay, about him having an arranged marriage that was a sham ... that he's anti-Semitic, hates women and abuses women,' South said. '
Even about him being on anti-psychotic medication that he's supposed to take to control his behavior.'"
You mean Davis
isn't a doped-up, Jew-hating, misogynistic homosexual? Glad we cleared that up.
"'
We never would have said anything about Gray -- that's complete horse manure,' said [Angelides adviser
Bob] Mulholland, who worked closely with Angelides at the time. And the campaign isn't spreading any rumors this year either, he said."
"'South has gone off the deep end,' Mulholland concludes."
Congratulations to Bob Mulholland for getting the Roundup's Second Annual
Pot Calling the Kettle Black Award! Way to go, Bob!
"'If I was (state party Chair)
Art Torres,
I know I would have my hands full trying to negotiate a peace between these cats the day after the primary is over,' [
Willie] Brown said. 'I don't know how he can do that.'"
Da Peacemaker is available--for a fee, of course.
George Skelton throws up his hands and
thinks about writing in Leon Panetta.
The U-T's John Marelius writes
this cycle's article on confusing slate mailers.
"'It's a really sleazy business and if you read the fine print, you'll figure out it's a sham,' [San Diego Democratic Party chair
Jess] Durfee said. 'It's a for-profit business and has nothing to do with party politics. All it has to do with is making money.'"
"'Slate mailers are not the most ennobling feature of California politics,' said
Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. 'The essential premise is voter misunderstanding. I don't think very many voters would find them persuasive if they understood it was simply a business transaction and not an endorsement by a real group.'"
"
Tim Hodson, who directs the Center for California Studies at California State University Sacramento, regards slate mailers as a legitimate campaign tool no more subject to abuse than any other."
"'It can be useful to a voter who, rationally, doesn't spend a huge amount of time on politics to get a mailer from a political party or organized group that says surfers believe these candidates will support surfer rights,' Hodson said."
Finally, from our
Stupid Human Tricks File: "A man shouting that God would keep him safe was
mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.
"The man shouted '
God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.
"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery." If you're keeping score at home, that's Nature: 1, Faith: 0.