Candidates on the stump crisscross the state as Election Day looms ever nearer, and their allies pull out all the stops. From the L.A. Times' Seema Mehta and MIke Mishak, somewhere on the campaign trail.
"As the candidates sped around the state, thousands
of volunteers used telephones, the Internet and their
feet to try to reach voters, motivated by the potential
for surprise on Tuesday."
"Seeking to boost Democratic candidates, the California
Labor Federation reached out to millions of union voters
and sympathetic non-union workers. The Service Employees International
union aired Spanish-language ads and knocked on half a million doors. Leaders
of its home healthcare workers local said they registered
14,000 new voters in Los Angeles County alone, many of them
African Americans, as they pushed for Democratic candidates."
The final days of the campaign are intense and Whitman remains upbeat, despite a Field Poll giving Brown a 10-point edge.
The Press Enterprise's Duane Gang reports: "The two candidates are barnstorming the state in the remaining days before Tuesday's election, making their final appeals to voters on why their competing visions are the best for the Golden State."
"A Field Poll released Thursday showed Brown leading Whitman 49 percent to 39 percent. But the poll found Whitman ahead in the part of Southern California that includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties and her campaign pointed to other surveys that show just a single-digit gap between the two candidates."
One interesting campaign is that of Abel Maldonado, who is performing something of a balancing act as he runs for lieutenant governor.
From Gerry Shih of The Bay Citizen: "Maldonado’s meteoric rise from the balmy fields of Santa Maria to the halls of power in Sacramento, his supporters say, has been greased by his ferocious work ethic, unique life story and a desire within the Republican Party to promote its affable Latino star — despite his tendency to occasionally break party lines — in a state where the booming Latino population is threatening to widen the Democrats’ advantage in voter registration over the coming decades."
"But in the final stretch of a tight re-election race against Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco,
his Democratic challenger, Maldonado has watched a
host of Latino organizations and politicians endorse
his opponent while bitterly criticizing him for what
they say has been his hard-line record on — of all things — farmworker rights and immigration."
In the battle over the ballot measures, Proposition 19 is trailing -- a reversal of its poll numbers in September. The Chronicle's Erin Allday reports.
"Of 1,501 registered voters who participated in the Field Poll, 49 percent said they oppose Prop. 19 and 42 percent said they are in favor of it - that's a complete reversal from the poll in September."
"Voter opinions tend to shift during a campaign season, becoming more refined as the election draws closer, especially on issues that get a lot of media attention and last-minute campaign pushes, Field Poll officials said. In fact, poll results on Prop. 19 have shifted continuously over the course of the campaign. In July, 48 percent of people polled were against Prop. 19. In September, 49 percent were in favor of it. Now, the opposition is leading again."
Regardng the ballot props, the LAT's Margot Roosevelt looks at Proposition 23, which would suspend California's greenhouse gas law. Why did the oil company Valero back the proposal?
"It's really an anti-fossil fuel law," Klesse told Wall Street analysts on a recent conference call. And Valero's business is fossil fuels. But lost in the uproar over the initiative, which has attracted more contributions for and against than any measure on the ballot, is a basic issue: What would it take for Valero to comply with AB 32, California's Global Warming Solutions Act?"
"Would it cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars? Would it force the closure of California refineries? Would it mean passing huge costs onto the consumer? Would it mean shipping in gasoline to the West Coast from Asian refineries?"
Speaking of fossils, if Brown gets elected, he won't be having Gray Davis running the transition team, quashing a rumor that has circulated for weeks in the Capitol.
From the Chronicle's Carla Marinucci: "On the runway in Sacramento as he prepared to head off to Riverside for a final Sunday campaign event, Brown just shook his head at that notion."
"I talk to a lot of people,'' he said, adding he is asking for opinions, views and advice from folks all over California every day. But that, he said, is just his style. "You can give me your opinion too,'' he laughed."
And finally, looking for relief from the hectic campaigns, we turn to our "How to Manage Your Money" file to find the case of the bank robber who slipped some dough to a bystander to help with the getaway. This tale is from Santa Cruz County, but you probably already guessed that.
"Around 11:40 a.m., the man entered a bank on 38th Avenue and demanded $20 and $100 bills from a teller, police said. The man then jumped onto the counter and pushed the teller, opened the till and stole an undisclosed amount of money, police said. Police said the man was not armed."
"Witnesses told police a man less than a block away from the bank around the time of the robbery was acting suspiciously and offering $1,000 for a ride to Santa Cruz.
Capitola Police, California Highway Patrol, sheriff's deputies and Santa Cruz Police searched the surrounding area but did not find the man, police said. They are also looking for anyone who may have given the man a ride."
"That $1,000 belongs to the bank," Capitola Sgt. Mark Gonzalez said."
Did W.C. Fields make a movie about this?