The fight for the special election got a little more animated yesterday as the Schwarzenegger team released a
new flash animated campaign ad. The piece shows "union bosses" "shaking down" teachers to fight the governor's "reform" package. The piece ends with a dollar figure of how much unions have spent against the govenror's initiatives. The Schwarzenegger team now puts that number at $100,000,000, and they say they will update the figure as new stats become available.
For what it's worth, the LA Times
puts the unions' spending figure at $80 million, but says the No on 75 campaign is on track to "set a record." They say the Recovery Team's figures include money raised by Democratic legislators and others to defeat the governor's initiatives.
"Schwarzenegger has raised $34 million to promote his initiatives this year, plus $2.1 million for his 2006 reelection effort. Separate campaigns for initiatives he is pushing have raised about $8 million more."
"In California's initiative battles, the
biggest spenders generally win. The governor's aides said Tuesday that the magnitude of labor's assault could sour the public on the unions' cause. "There is a tipping point," Harris said. "
We believe the union bosses have far surpassed the tipping point."
If that's true, where does that place the pharmaceutical companies?
Speaking of money, the Stockton Record takes a look at
one of the govenror's big donors, Alex Spanos. "Spanos is one of the Republican Party's biggest campaign contributors, and this fall his focus is on Proposition 77, an initiative that would strip lawmakers' power to create their own districts and give it to a panel of retired judges. On Friday, Spanos contributed $500,000 to Redistrict California and
$500,000 to Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team, a political action committee fighting to pass ballot initiatives that the governor calls his "reform agenda.
The governor's team also released a new television spot to push Prop. 76, which unions have demanded be taken off the air. Democratic attorney
Lance Olson sent a letter to television station managers, and to the press, taking umbrage with the ad's claim that Prop. 76 will "increase funding available to school districts."
And while the Yes on 79 campaign has struggled for cash, they, too, have gone the online animation route to show what lengths drug companies will go to
advertise their pills, and their propositions. Speaking of cartoons, From our
"Leads We Wished We Wrote" files there's
this article about a new, UNICEF anti-war campaign: "Smurfette is left for dead. Baby Smurf is left crying and orphaned as the Smurf's village is carpet bombed by warplanes -- a horrific scene and imagery not normally associated with the lovable blue-skinned cartoon characters.
The Chron points out that while
Maria Shriver supported her husband's election bid, she has been
eerily silent on her husband's initiative package. "Shriver currently has
no plans to campaign in the special election -- and has not even hinted publicly at how she will vote on the ballot measures backed by Schwarzenegger, which include calls for tougher teacher tenure (Prop. 74), restricting public employees union dues for political purposes (Prop. 75), budget reform (Prop. 76), and legislative redistricting (Prop. 77).
"
Todd Harris, a spokesman for the governor's initiative campaign, declined to comment Monday about whether the state's first lady might endorse any of the measures, or what role Shriver might play in the campaign."
Former Gov.
Pete Wilson released a statement, through the governor's campaign office, denouncing his former finance director,
Craig Brown, for
appearing in the No on 76 campaign ads. "could not disagree more strongly," Wilson said in a statement released by the Schwarzenegger campaign. "Craig must be suffering from amnesia."
The governor continues his "town-hall" tour in Santa Barbara this morning.
The Assembly Republican Caucus rallied to send a message to the Bush Administration and to Pierre-Richard Prosper, the former war crimes prosecutor said to be mulling a bid for state attorney general. The entire caucus announced its unanimous endorsement of Sen.
Chuck Poochigian for AG in a statement released yesterday.
Cartoon on Join Arnold.
With some extra time on his hands now that the Legislature is in recess, Kevin McCarthy's spokesman Morgan Crinklaw channels GOP press release queen
Karen Hanretty in the latest GOP attack on
Fabian Nuņez. The release attacks the Speaker's weekend radio address on this year's legislative accomplishments, which Nuņez says were forged with "bipartisan cooperation." Crinklaw says that assertion amounts to Nuņez taking "a ride on the crazy train."
Karen must be so proud.
Finally, from our
Look, But Don't Touch Files, the LA Police Commission is once again
considering a ban on lap dancing. "
The controversial no-touch regulation, which first roiled city politics two years ago, was revived Tuesday when the Los Angeles Police Commission recommended passage of a measure that would effectively end the practice of nude or lightly clad dancers writhing in customers' laps."
'Attorney John Weston, spokesman for some 20 proprietors who are fighting the measure, called the proposal unnecessary and predicted it would waste police time. 'Restricting dancers to a stage is "like saying all television has to go back to black-and-white,' Weston said."
