"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has
put $3.5 million of his own money into his reelection campaign, according to secretary of state filings late Thursday," reports Robert Salladay in the Times.
"The Republican governor now has donated close to $30 million from his personal fortune to finance his various political campaigns over the last three years."
"Sources close to the governor said aides asked for roughly $6 million to complete his 2006 reelection effort, but the governor has settled for the smaller amount so far."
Meanwhile, the LAT's Jordan Rau
looks to Phil Angelides's tennis partner to understand Phil's competitive drive.
"There are no pretty strokes in Phil Angelides' tennis game. Disarmingly gangly but unremittingly competitive, the Democratic candidate for governor relies on sheer aggression, along with slices and spins, to confound his opponents."
"'
He's a scrapper,' said longtime tennis partner
Bill Cody, who was ranked behind Angelides in the Northern California tennis circuit when both were boys. The strokes are not textbook perfect, Cody said, but Angelides '
gets the most out of his game that he possibly could.'"
Speaking of scraps, Rau includes one anecdote that could lead some to think the treasurer can be a bit of a micromanager. Since January, Angelides has shed half a dozen high-level political consultants, several of whom said privately that they were driven away by the candidate's overbearing control. Once,
when staffers were choosing a shredder for the office, two sources said, Angelides — then traveling on the East Coast — insisted that aides express mail him samples of minced paper to make sure they were sufficiently pulverized."
Now that is attention to detail...
Meanwhile, Phil spent the day on
the Adam Carolla Show, and got some mixed reviews, at least from the LAT's Scott Martelle. "Only days after urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to renounce questionable sexual comments made to high school students by a Republican assemblywoman, Democratic challenger Phil Angelides sat through a morning radio talk show Thursday without objecting to a series of
dubious gags about sex, ethnicity and an elderly female guest.
Angelides protested — humorously — only when syndicated radio host Adam Carolla made sexual comments about Angelides' 28-year-old daughter, Megan, who was in the studio.
Asked later why he didn't object to the tenor of the other comments — an earlier African American guest was described as a "tall glass of chocolate milk" while Angelides was in the station — Angelides said his performance was not inconsistent with his earlier comments about Schwarzenegger. He defended it as being within the context of a comedy-based radio show."
The Bee's Aurelio Rojas
looks at the minds behind the Schwarzenegger turnaround. "When
Steve Schmidt and
Matthew Dowd arrived at the Capitol early this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had been battered by voters who rejected his ballot initiatives and was facing a tough re-election."
"Working with a revamped staff in the Governor's Office, the two campaign operatives have helped reverse Schwarzenegger's political fortunes -- Schmidt as the day-to-day manager and Dowd as chief strategist."
"
Garry South, who ran state Controller
Steve Westly's campaign in the Democratic primary for governor, said that when Schwarzenegger hired Schmidt and Dowd, '
most Democrats, myself included, panned these guys.'"
"'We deluded ourselves that they wouldn't understand California and would be too conservative to shift Schwarzenegger into moderate mode,' he said. 'But they've done it, and you have to give them credit.'"
See, South can say nice things about other candidates, just not Phil Angelides...
"Roiling the runaway race for state attorney general, Republicans yesterday filed a lawsuit alleging that Democrat
Jerry Brown, the front-runner in the campaign,
is unqualified for the office," reports James Sweeney in the Union-Tribune.
"The suit contends that Brown
failed to meet a requirement that attorney general candidates be 'admitted to practice' before the California Supreme Court for at least five years immediately preceding the election."
"Brown, the mayor of Oakland, passed the bar and was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court in 1965.
But he has allowed his bar membership to lapse to inactive status at different times and had been an inactive member for several years up until May 2003."
"'It amounts to nothing more than using the courts to carry out a political dirty trick,' said
Ace Smith, Brown's campaign consultant. 'It's a frivolous lawsuit filed by a campaign that is down by 20 points.'”
"Several legal experts, however, said the lawsuit raises a legitimate question, although none expects it to prevail."
Didn't Bill Lockyer finish law school right before he decided to run?
"A new state auditor's report concludes that Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi recovered $1.1 billion in litigation over the failed Executive Life Insurance Co. but it
fails to address hotly contested questions over whether he achieved the best results for policyholders," writes Peter Hecht in the Bee.
"
Maureen Marr, a spokeswoman for a policyholders' group, Executive Life Action Network, said she was frustrated by the incomplete audit released Thursday."
"'This doesn't answer the question about policyholder losses,' protested Marr, who claims Executive Life policyholders may have lost as much as $4 billion. 'I think this report so far is a 'non-audit.' ' "
"In 1991, during Garamendi's first stint as insurance commissioner, he seized control of Executive Life to protect its 330,000 policyholders because of heavy losses in the company's multibillion-dollar junk bond portfolio."
Dan Walters says that the audit
only superficially examined Garamendi's actions.
Walters writing on Executive Life? Next, you're going to tell me there's a Dan Morain story about campaign money.
"Political consultants and wealthy interest groups
are skirting contribution caps and disclosure requirements as they pump millions of dollars into last-ditch attempts to sway the electorate," writes Dan Morain in the Times.
"In some instances,
donors are loading independent campaign war chests with six-figure checks — far more than the law allows them to give directly to candidates. The money is paying for mailings and television ads that promote friendly politicians and attack others who may disagree with them."
"In other instances,
contributors are giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to little-noticed county campaign committees that are controlled by political parties. The committees, in turn, are transferring money to candidates in tough races at opposite ends of the state."
"'It's the same reason the U.S. military develops stealth bombers,' said Republican
Rob Stutzman, who, like many Sacramento consultants, is working on such a campaign, details of which he would not disclose. '
You don't want your opponents to see you coming.'"
"Four Southern California Indian tribes that own casinos poured $3.1 million into a new independent campaign committee in recent days, filings with the California secretary of state's office show. The tribes had sought major expansion of their gambling operations in late August, only to be rebuffed by Assembly Democrats."
"In public filings with the secretary of state, the committee disclosed spending $20,000 on behalf of one Assembly Democrat who voted for the gambling expansion, $260,000 on behalf of four Assembly Republican incumbents and $493,000 on behalf of Sen.
Jeff Denham (R-Salinas), who faces a challenge from a well-funded Democrat."
"Political consultants believe that the tribes are about to spend additional sums on behalf of
Tony Strickland, the Republican nominee for state controller, and Sen.
Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), who is running for lieutenant governor. Both candidates have voted with the tribes in the past. At the same time, public employee unions have spent more than $360,000 on behalf of McClintock's foe, Democratic Insurance Commissioner
John Garamendi."
"Surging demand to vote by mail could mean that for the first time in state history,
more Californians will cast absentee ballots this November than will actually vote at the polls on Election Day."
"'As we all get more and more hectic lives, absentee is a very attractive way to vote,' said
Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at California State University-Sacramento. Two decades ago, only 9 percent of general-election voting was by absentee ballot. By last year's special election, absentee voting was up to 40 percent and in the June primary, nearly 47 percent of votes cast were absentee."
"'We can expect the November general election will have even higher numbers requesting and subsequently casting absentee ballots throughout the state,' Secretary of State
Bruce McPherson wrote last week."
The U-T's Ed Mendel
looks at Proposition 1D, the school bond. "[V]oters are being asked to approve a $10.4 billion school bond, Proposition 1D, that appears on the Nov. 7 ballot among a package of five bonds totaling a record $43 billion."
"'The last polling that we did had it (passing) at 52 percent,'
David Sanchez, vice president of the California Teachers Association, said this month."
"'It could very easily be defeated,' he said. 'We are hoping that people pick and choose and make the right decision based on what is best for our future.'"
That cloud of dust you see is Orange County Republican leaders
sprinting away from Congressional candidates Tan Hguyen.
"Condemnation of an intimidating mailer from congressional candidate Tan Nguyen's campaign swelled Thursday, as state investigators continued interviews in the county and the U.S. Justice Department joined the probe.
State Attorney General Bill Lockyer told Nguyen's opponent, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, that details should become clearer in the next few days and that his office "would be making arrests," Sanchez said.
Nguyen, a Republican, said Thursday that a campaign worker helped put out the letter without his knowledge and that she had been fired. He called the letter, which targeted immigrant voters, "flawed and ill-conceived."
Wow. Strong language. Go easy, there, Tan.