Aug 18, 2006

Conventional wisdom

Could right-wing apathy lead to a Schwarzenegger defeat? On the eve of the state GOP convention, LAT's Michael Finnegan and the Chron's Tom Chorneau explore. "With the vote on his reelection just over 12 weeks away, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces a wave of conservative unrest that threatens the steady political recovery he has made this year by widening his appeal beyond his base of Republican supporters," Finnegan writes.

"To keep conservatives in line, Schwarzenegger campaign operatives have quietly launched efforts to rally support among Christian fundamentalists, gun owners and other Republicans who have long been wary of the governor and backed him only grudgingly."

"'He's not a fiscal conservative, and he's not a social conservative, so there's a lot of uneasiness," said Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly, a conservative state party offshoot."

Chorneau says the guv may not be as moderate as people think. "A close review, however, shows the governor's record is far more mixed: some positions have clearly changed, others have merely evolved, and some have remained consistent but the rhetoric surrounding the subject has changed.

Still, even the perception that a candidate has flip-flopped on issues is a big danger and something Schwarzenegger will be looking to quell this weekend among party loyalists and later as he tries to appeal to Democrats and independents.

This ongoing melodrama will play out at the state GOP convention this weekend in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the guv toured the state with presidential wannabe Rudy Guiliani Thursday, capping the evening with a fundraiser at the Sacramento Sheraton.

Angelides was touring the state with the LAT's Bob Salladay in tow. "With about 12 weeks before election day, Angelides, the state treasurer, launched a new tax plan Wednesday that offers goodies for the middle class. He wants to roll back college fees, expand tax credits for families, cut taxes for small businesses and offer property tax and rent relief for the poor.

He is using the plan to paint himself as a common man, while characterizing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as being out of touch. On Thursday, he called the governor "clueless' and 'from another planet,' and told folksy stories about his own middle-class parents.

'This looks just like the place I grew up,' Angelides, a millionaire, said as he walked up the steep driveway of a modest hillside home owned by two teachers in San Bernardino."

From our Sun Rises in the East Files the Bee's Jim Sanders reports on the death of redistricting reform. "A flurry of Capitol gamesmanship, finger-pointing and accusations ended Thursday with lawmakers failing to place onto the November ballot a proposal to change how California draws political districts.

When the dust settled, there was plenty of blame going around -- with Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez chastising the Senate, Republicans pointing at Democrats, and supporters of redistricting claiming sabotage.

Also dying yesterday were bills to give drivers' licenses to undocumented residents and to create more legislative oversight over a state stem cell commission.

While the state may not have any more say in its $3 billion investment into stem cell research, at least we'll have more control over pet stores.

"Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Leimert Park (Los Angeles County) authored the bill after an animal rights group reported an undercover investigation found that some pet stores failed to provide animals with sufficient space and clean water and didn't keep their enclosures sanitary."

"Legislation to combat chronic homelessness on Los Angeles' skid row and in other places around California where the dispossessed congregate is on track to become law after receiving approval from a key Assembly panel Thursday," reports the LAT's Jordan Rau and Cara Mia DiMassa.

"The package of bills includes a $150,000 pilot program in Los Angeles County Superior Court for probation supervision and treatment of nonviolent offenders with mental health or substance abuse problems or both. The legislation would also require all municipalities to devise plans to help their homeless population rather than dump them in other areas where treatment programs already exist."

Finally, from our When Mannequins Attack Files,

Diana Newton, 51, of Westminster sued the J.C. Penney Co. last month after she was allegedly thwacked on the head by a department store dummy .Newton said she was ambushed by a legless female mannequin at the company's Westminster Mall store, a skirmish that left her with a bloodied scalp, a cracked tooth, recurring shoulder pain and numbness in her fingers.

"There are a slew of lawsuits like this," said mannequin manufacturer Barry Rosenberg, who joked that stores should run background checks on dummies before letting them mingle with shoppers.

Most of the cases involved mannequins toppling over onto customers, but an Indiana woman claimed she caught herpes from the lips of a CPR training dummy. She dropped her lawsuit against the American Red Cross in 2000 after further tests revealed that she didn't have the disease, according to news reports.