"Candid if not popular, Democratic gubernatorial candidate
Phil Angelides told the state's business leaders Tuesday that if he's elected, he'll be asking them to 'invest in our people' by paying more taxes - a campaign pledge that didn't exactly play well with his audience.
It even caused a few in the crowd to walk out," reports Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"'So today, I'm going to be forthright,' Angelides
told the California Chamber of Commerce's legislative summit at the Sacramento Convention Center. '
I'm going to ask corporations and the most fortunate among us, those who make a half-million dollars or more a year, to join with me in meeting our challenges."
"'And that means rolling back less than one-third of the $17 billion in new (federal) tax breaks - that's 17 billion, with a 'b' - that go to the wealthiest 1 percent and large corporations every single year.'"
Expect to hear "$5 billion tax increase" repeatedly this year in some not-so-flattering commercials.
Don't expect those business leaders that walked out on the Angelides speech to turn to
Peter Camejo,
who is profiled in the Chico Enterprise. "To listen to Peter Camejo is to step through the looking-glass into a reality different from that described by most politicians," writes Larry Mitchell.
"In the world of Camejo, the Green Party candidate for governor, the state government hasn't been spending too much, illegal immigration is not a problem, and Democrats and Republicans aren't arch-enemies."
"Camejo described Democrats and Republicans as two faces of the same coin. '
The worst is the Democrats,' he said. 'The Republicans are just wrong. They say what they believe. The Democrats -- their job is to get you to accept the Republican platform.'"
Dan Walters
believes the Angelides-as-underdog mantra. "Angelides, the two-term state treasurer, seemingly had a clear path to the Democratic nomination once Attorney General Bill Lockyer opted out, cashing in on his early decision to position himself as the anti-Schwarzenegger even when the governor's popularity was sky-high."
"Angelides locked up all the important endorsements from major Democratic politicians and interest groups, especially the powerful public employees unions, but - in what may turn out to be a world-class goof - spent very little time or money on real campaigning in the early months of this election year, save for a brief spate of rather ineffectual television spots."
...until Westly's bank account came to town.
"The next few days may indicate whether Angelides can regain traction. The state Democratic Party's convention will be staged next weekend in Sacramento. Angelides once hoped to gain the party's official endorsement, but that would take a 60 percent delegate vote, and given his nosedive in the polls,
that's far from the near-certainty it once appeared to be."
Though the governor criticized oil companies over the weekend, and called for a state investigation into soaring gas prices, Matier and Ross report
"big oil" donated big bucks to the governor. "The 'no special-interest money' governor has taken nearly $2 million in campaign contributions from the very oil companies he wants investigated. '
Arnold's latest slick stunt, pretending to care about soaring costs of gas prices, rings hollower than a Krispy Kreme doughnut,' said the anti-Arnold labor folks at the Alliance for a Better California."
Meanwhile, Shane Goldmacher
looks at the governor's investigation into possible gas price gouging. "Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger this week called on California Energy Commission Chairman
Joe Desmond to investigate possible price gouging by big oil companies, as gasoline prices across much of the state topped $3 a gallon. But Desmond has only two weeks left on the job—and likely won’t be there to see the investigation through.
"Desmond’s nomination must be confirmed by both the Senate Rules Committee and the full Senate before May 10 in order for him to keep his post. But the Senate, led by President Pro Tem
Don Perata, D-Oakland, has refused to even schedule a confirmation hearing. Without such a confirmation, Desmond will be forced to resign on May 11th."
It's never too early to think about the next presidential election, and the AP's Steve Lawrence writes up
two bills that would move California's primary to the front of the season. "The bills' author, [Elections] committee chairman Tom Umberg, D-Anaheim, said the measures were designed to increase California's clout in determining who sits in the Oval Office."
"
One of the bills would put California in competition with New Hampshire to have the earliest presidential primary elections in the nation."
"It would require the secretary of state to schedule a vote-by-mail California presidential primary as early as Jan. 2 or at least on the same day as the first primary held that year by any other state."
Heck why not just start voting now?
"The
second bill would ratify an interstate compact under which California's 55 Electoral College members would agree to support the winner of the national popular vote for president, regardless of the outcome of the election in California."
Proving that the incumbent advantage doesn't help with all constituencies, "[t]he Schwarzenegger administration yesterday
closed a pension loophole that would have allowed some state firefighters to retire with pensions higher than their final salaries," reports Ed Mendel in the Union Tribune.
"The excessive pensions, which may have been limited to about a dozen people, stem from the same lucrative labor contract that gives rank-and-file firefighters more pay than supervisors, making the top jobs hard to fill."
So, what exactly does one have to do to
get a star on the Anaheim Walk of Fame? " Nominees will be inducted if they accept and if they or their sponsors foot the $15,000 tab, the same price as a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, said Carolyn Yellis, a member of Anaheim's anniversary commission who helped craft the list.
Names will be water-blasted onto 3-foot-square slabs of polished red Indian granite. Each slab will weigh about 180 pounds."
Oh, and for the record, "Yorba Linda native
Richard Nixon is a nominee, though politicians, for the most part, were cut from the list."
Would you pay $1,000 for a Green Day show? Actually, it's a bit unclear from the invite whether Green Day will actually take the stage, but the East Bay band is "hosting" a $1,000 fundraiser for
Jerry Brown. We're guessing they won't be covering
California Uber Alles.
Speaking of the AG's race,
Rocky Delgadillo will take to the airwaves to criticize Brown's record on abortion, reports the Times' Eric Bailey. "But the 30-second TV spot, which features the Los Angeles city attorney declaring that he and Brown are "miles apart" on abortion, might be hard to find. Delgadillo bought just $30,000 of air time during the coming week, prompting Brown strategist
Ace Smith to say that the commercial amounts to 'a pebble in the ocean.' The ad, Smith predicted, would fail to dent the Oakland mayor's lead, which soared to
more than 40 points in a statewide poll last week."
From our
Give Me Back My Delegation Files with Party Chairman
Art Torres recovering from cancer surgery, this weekend's Democratic confab in Sacramento will be hosted by former San Francisco Mayor
Willie Brown. Well, even if there is little to no news, maybe now the quotes from this weekend will be a little better...
