The gubernatorial candidates
wasted no time Wednesday, with each
hitting the campaign trail,
focusing their sights on their opponents, and
testing out their general election campaign message.
"A day after defeating rival Steve Westly in a ferocious Democratic primary, [
Phil] Angelides turned his focus to the Republican governor, portraying him as an untrustworthy champion of
President Bush's conservative agenda," writes Mark Barabak in the Times.
"'This is a governor who said he'd protect education, and then he slashed money to the classroom,' Angelides, the state treasurer, told supporters at a Universal City celebration with other Democratic winners in Tuesday's primary."
"'This is a governor who said he'd balance the budget, and then he borrowed billions. This is a governor who said he would be the people's governor, then at each and every turn, he has sided with the most powerful interests against the interests of hard-working Californians.'"
Angelides was joined by
Steve Westly at one of the events, showing that
Willie Brown's Reconciliation Service may not be needed.
"'
The treasurer is a brilliant man,' Westly said as he stood alongside Angelides to endorse him. '
He's been an accomplished treasurer. He's committed to environmental values.'"
Arnold "Schwarzenegger, in turn, called his rival 'out of touch.' On a campaign bus trip across a rural northern stretch of the Central Valley, the governor faulted Angelides — although not by name — for supporting a failed ballot measure, Proposition 82, that would have raised taxes on high-income Californians to establish universal preschool."
"
I don't think we should raise taxes,' Schwarzenegger said. '
We don't need to punish people for the shortcomings of Sacramento.'"
The Merc News political team
boils down the candidates' message to one word. For Schwarzenegger: taxes; for Angelides: Bush.
Dan Walters suggests that, more than a message,
Angelides needs Schwarzenegger to stumble.
Did
Steve Westly turn to The Godfather for campaign strategy? There is certainly a parallel, writes George Skelton.
"'To fully appreciate
Phil Angelides' triumph over Steve Westly, it helps to recall 'The Godfather: Part II.' Near the movie's end, Don Michael Corleone orders a hit on his brother Fredo at Lake Tahoe."
"The exact spot — the very same little marina — was used by Westly in an attempt to whack Angelides. The dock where Fredo motored off with Corleone henchman Al Neri in a small fishing boat before being shot and dumped in the lake is where Westly's ad-makers superimposed a dredger and accused Angelides of illegally dumping sludge offshore."
"The
truth is that Angelides was not a developer on the project, didn't know about the dredging — anyway, it was silt, not sludge — and never paid a fine. The state attorney general sued every condo owner at the complex, including Angelides and his partners. But only the developer wound up paying."
"
Unlike Fredo, Phil survived. But the wounds were severe."
The Bee's Amy Chance looks at
who helped Phil get across the finish line. "Here's who was on Phil Angelides' political thank-you list the Wednesday after winning the Democratic nomination for governor: organized labor, his daughters, U.S. Sens.
Barbara Boxer and
Dianne Feinstein, and Sacramento developer
Angelo K. Tsakopoulos -- not necessarily in that order."
In the down-ticket statewide races,
familiar names ruled the day, writes Jenifer Warren in the Times. "In the "down ballot" races — those for statewide offices below the marquee job of governor — Oakland Mayor
Jerry Brown spotlighted a cast of victorious veteran Democrats with his decisive win in the attorney general's race over Los Angeles City Atty.
Rocky Delgadillo."
"Other seasoned Democrats set to compete against Republicans for new offices this fall include Insurance Commissioner
John Garamendi, Lt. Gov.
Cruz Bustamante and Atty. Gen.
Bill Lockyer."
Eyeing the lineup, GOP strategist
Dan Schnur dubbed it '
the revenge of term limits.'"
Term limits will provide many future opportunities for Rocky Delgadillo, whose loss Tuesday is not expected to limit his political future. "'In hindsight, it might have been a miscalculation to run against Brown,' said
Jack Pitney, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. But, he added, "I don't think the defeat is a fatal setback to his career."
"'He's a young man, and he's attractive,' [political consultant
Bill] Carrick said. 'He tried to climb a very steep mountain here. Jerry Brown is an institution in this state. I don't think Rocky had a chance.'"
Capitol Weekly offers a
full scorecard of Tuesday night's winners and losers in the independent expenditure and political consulting world.
Shane Goldmacher takes a look at
gains and losses made by environmentalists Tuesday.
"The Senate has long been the friendlier of California's two legislative
houses to environmental legislation, but Tuesday's primary elections swept a
small cohort of pro-business Democrats into the upper house. That, combined
with the replacement of moderate Assembly Democrats with more liberal
counterparts, looks to have shifted the legislative landscape for
environmental legislation.
'The Senate is less green and the Assembly has gotten more green,' said
Bill
Magavern, the Sierra Club's senior legislative representative."
Duke Helfand tallies up Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa's political scorecard.
"Eight of 12 candidates Villaraigosa endorsed for state office won their primary races. But the mayor also put his substantial clout behind Proposition 82, an initiative that would have taxed the rich to provide preschool for all. And that measure lost resoundingly, in Los Angeles as well as statewide, even after Villaraigosa promoted it in English and Spanish television ads."
One of Villaraigosa's unsuccessful candidates, Cindy Montañez,
plans to to run for Alex Padilla's city council seat.
"
African Americans were poised to make their greatest gain yet in the Legislature, with three black Democrats winning their party's nomination in new districts where their success in November's general election is practically a sure bet," reports Nancy Vogel in the Times.
"Their election would increase the number of African Americans in the Legislature from six to nine, the highest ever at a time when the percentage of blacks in California is slipping. It would also increase the number of black women in the Legislature from one to three."
"'That's historic and I think it's reflective of the fact that African Americans can win in non-African American districts,' said Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles)."
The LAT's Ashley Powers looks at the
fall of the Baca dynasty. "'The attempt to create a dynasty just fizzled,' said
Allan Hoffenblum, who publishes the nonpartisan California Target Book, which analyzes state and federal races."
"'Maybe voters thought, 'We like Joe senior well enough, but three of them?' ' said
Shaun Bowler, a UC Riverside political scientist."
"'They found themselves up against people who were arguably more qualified than they are,' Hoffenblum said. 'Jeremy's sole qualification appeared to be that he was the son of a congressman.'"
The Democratic primary in AD80 still isn't final, although
Steve Clute is expected to hold on to his 253-vote lead, write Susannah Rosenblatt and Ashley Powers in the Times. "In one of the Inland Empire's most intense primary races, former Assemblyman Steve Clute appears to have snagged the 80th Assembly District's Democratic nomination Tuesday in a squeaker over
Ron Oden, the popular mayor of Palm Springs.
"Oden did not concede Wednesday, however, because more than 4,000 outstanding provisional, absentee and paper ballots had yet to be counted."
Matier and Ross write up the
independent expenditure efforts in this year's campaign. "For the special interests and their consultants,
the lure of the independent campaigns has proved to be irresistible. The consultants aren't hampered by spending limits, they can move money around mid-campaign to get the biggest bang for their clients, they make a ton of cash -- and because they must operate separately from campaigns,
they don't have to put up with a whiny candidate."
"Still, in the end, said candidate owes a debt of gratitude."
"Some things, it seems, never change."
Meanwhile, while amongst bleary eyed staff, some work got done in the Capitol yesterday. The Senate Rules Committee
rejected Schwarzenegger's nomination of David Crane to the California State Teachers Retirement System Board, reports CW's Shane Goldmacher.
The budget conference committee also returned to hearings yesterday, and while making progress toward the earliest budget in decades, several issues are left to be resolved.
If members find themselves in stalemate, they can pass on the Big 5, and instead take
advice for dispute resolution from a federal judge in Florida.
"Faced with the inability of two bickering attorneys to resolve even the most innocuous scheduling questions without his intervention, a Florida federal judge yesterday ordered the two to meet on the steps of the federal courthouse and resolve their latest quarrel
by playing 'one (1) game of 'rock, paper, scissors.'"
Fortune
provides the judge's written order.