"Both major gubernatorial candidates
visited the East Bay on Tuesday, playing to their strengths with just two weeks to go until Election Day," reports Josh Richman in the Oakland Tribune.
"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger made his second visit this year to Oakland's American Indian Public Charter School — known for top-notch test scores on a shoestring budget under a principal now appearing in one of the governor's campaign commercials — to tout the $10.4 billion school-construction bond on November's ballot."
"'They can't do the studying if they're not in good facilities, they can't do the studying if they don't have great teachers,' said Schwarzenegger, backed by a phalanx of sixth-graders."
"Hours later, Democratic gubernatorial nominee
Phil Angelides was in Hayward, bringing a United Food and Commercial Workers Union stewards' meeting to its feet in cheers as he excoriated the governor for trampling California's middle class underfoot."
While Angelides rallies labor, the governor has time for cocktails with Da Mayor emeritus, report Matier and Ross. "Yes, that was Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger huddled with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown at the bar at the St. Regis Hotel on Friday."
Well, at least it was low profile...
"Seems the governor, who was in the Bay Area making campaign appearances, had some spare time between events. One of his aides phoned Willie at the St. Regis to ask if he was busy."
"Within five minutes, the governor showed up, and the two spent the next 45 minutes bantering -- about movies, politics and presumably a few choice topics they don't want us to know about."
"'
He probably had an hour to kill,' Brown said of Arnold's impromptu visit, '
and I'm always good for killing an hour.'"
Meanwhile, the governor borrowed another strategy from Angelides--attacking Bush.
Michael Finnegan and Scott Martelle write: "After weeks of subtle jabs at fellow Republicans in Congress and the White House, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger turned more blunt Tuesday
in a tart letter to President Bush. Chiding the president for ignoring his plea for more leeway to toughen California's vehicle exhaust standards, Schwarzenegger complained about 'the absence of a coherent federal policy' to stop global warming."
"At the same time, Schwarzenegger's Democratic challenger, state Treasurer
Phil Angelides, dismissed the governor's detachment from Bush as a ruse. '
Look, the Republicans are going down in this election, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is going with them, because he is part of the same team and has the same agenda,' Angelides said Tuesday after a Bay Area speech to a raucous union crowd."
Angelides "has begun keeping a frenetic pace of public events to draw local media coverage to try to help compensate for his more modest TV ad presence. He has campaigned this week in Hollywood, Arcadia, Baldwin Park, Pasadena, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, Hayward and San Francisco."
"Angelides has also toughened his rhetoric in
attacking Schwarzenegger's character. At a Santa Barbara park, where he gathered beneath oak trees with firefighters and other supporters, he
denounced the governor's campaign fundraising as 'a special interest pig fest' that belied his vow to clean up Sacramento."
"'Gov. Schwarzenegger wants you to all believe he's changed,' Angelides told the crowd. '
You and I know men our age don't really ever change.'"
Meanwhile, there's a
new pocket of critics of the governor--Chileans. The LAT's Marc Lifsher reports: "First, a daily newspaper in Chile reported that the governor, as part of his reelection effort, was looking for the farm vote by backing a 'Buy Only California' campaign."
"The news was quickly picked up by other South American media in what one reporter called "journalism mayhem." The story suggested that Schwarzenegger was urging voters to eat home-grown produce and spurn Chilean avocados, peaches and table grapes."
"On Tuesday, the newspaper El Mercurio of Santiago ran a cartoon showing Schwarzenegger as the "Terminator" movie character, busting up a box of Chilean grapes. '
The Terminator Attacks Chilean Fruit,' read a front-page headline."
"The reaction was swift in Santiago, the capital city of Chile, where agriculture is a pillar of the economy."
"'People are very, very upset,' said
Michael Grasty, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Chile."
"'The Schwarzenegger administration, meanwhile, scrambled to quell the criticism. "
'The governor is a great champion of California produce, but there's no such commercial that criticizes another country's produce,' spokeswoman
Margita Thompson said."
The Merc News's Kate Folmar puts the governor
on the couch of political psychology. "'Success is everything to him,' said
Don Sipple, who was Schwarzenegger's media strategist for years. 'Re-election will mean he was a successful political figure. That's what drives him.'"
"On the road to redemption, the Republican governor relied on a personal philosophy of constant self-improvement; an actor's ability to shift personae; recommendations from a new cadre of advisers; and the public's willingness to forgive -- or, perhaps, forget -- the past and embrace him again."
"The change has dizzied some political consultants and voters. Even as the governor's job performance ratings have improved, voters aren't sure what motivates him -- his beliefs, or a desire for approval. A September Field Poll found that nearly half of registered voters now believe the governor chooses what is politically popular rather than what he believes is right."
"'The question is on the table about who Gov. Schwarzenegger will be in a second term,' said
Phil Trounstine, who runs the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State. 'If past is prologue, we truly don't know.'"
"A judge on Tuesday
ruled that votes for Jerry Brown for attorney general should be counted, delivering a blow to a long-shot bid by Republican officials to have the Democratic Oakland mayor declared ineligible for the office," writes E.J. Schultz in the Bee.
"Brown, the front-runner in the race against state Sen.
Chuck Poochigian, R-Fresno, hailed the decision as proof that the Republican lawsuit was a political stunt."
"It's an 'incompetent effort to sabotage the democratic process and the judge summarily threw it out by saying come in after the election,' he said in a phone interview."
"But the five Republican officials suing promised to press forward."
"'We see a wrong happening -- you have to do something about it,' said
Mark Pruner, chairman of the Yolo County Republican Party."
"While union officials said they are continuing efforts for Angelides against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, they are
increasingly worried about the governor's coattails because of his double-digit lead in the polls," report Tom Chorneau and Greg Lucas in the Chron.
"'Labor is very interested in several down-ballot races -- particularly lieutenant governor,' said
Steve Smith, a veteran Democratic consultant working with the labor coalition."
"'One candidate,
John Garamendi, has a long positive relationship with labor. The other,
Tom McClintock, from our perspective is completely outside the mainstream,' Smith said. 'We would prefer not to see him advance.'"
"Reports filed with the secretary of state show that the labor groups have already spent $300,000 for ads, polling and voter outreach in support of Garamendi. Another $260,000 has gone to radio ads for [
John] Chiang."
While Chiang is getting support from labor, opponent
Tony Strickland is getting some serious love from the tribes.
"A group of Indian gambling tribes
has bought nearly $1 million in television time for the Republican candidate for state controller with two weeks to go in a close contest," report Judy Lin and Clea Benson in the Bee.
"
Tony Strickland, a former member of the state Assembly known for being outspoken on his conservative views, received the boost Monday from Team 2006, an independent campaign committee formed by six Southern California gambling tribes that have been seeking to expand their operations. The committee had raised more than $9 million, according to disclosure reports filed Tuesday."
And, the tribes
spent $100,000 on Tony's wife, Audra.
"The large contribution drew immediate criticism from Strickland's Democratic opponent,
John Chiang, a member of the state Board of Equalization, even as a committee of public employee unions chipped in $262,000 on his behalf."
"Also on Tuesday, software maker Intuit placed $1 million into a committee called the Alliance for California's Tomorrow and spent $66,000 on a television buy for Strickland. Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, opposes the state's ReadyReturn program, a popular precompleted tax filing system."
The Bee's Clea Benson
takes a look at Prop. 86. "California smokers will be paying an average of $6.60 for a pack of cigarettes if voters approve Proposition 86 on the Nov. 7 ballot."
"The measure would add a $2.60-per-pack tax on top of the current state levy of 87 cents, giving California the highest tobacco tax in the nation."
"Supporters of Proposition 86, a coalition of hospitals and health groups, say that's part of the point: Higher prices would discourage smoking, saving hundreds of thousands of lives while funneling tax proceeds into health care efforts."
"But in a turnabout for an industry often portrayed as an example of corporate greed at the public's expense, tobacco companies are arguing that Proposition 86 is a money grab by the hospital industry."
"Republican Orange County supervisors on Tuesday
rejected a plan by the board's only Democrat to send an official letter correcting misinformation aimed at immigrants and spread by GOP candidate
Tan Nguyen," reports Peggy Lowe in the Register.
"
But the 14,000 registered voters who were targeted by Nguyen's campaign will soon be receiving a letter from the California secretary of state. Those letters – in both English and Spanish – could be sent as early as today."
Will those letters be signed "
Love, Bruce McPherson"? Just askin'...
"The state letter was one of the reasons the four GOP supervisors said there was no need to send anything from the county Registrar of Voters, despite the "serious transgressions" in Nguyen's mailer."
Dan Walters writes about the Real Race of Orange County. "While the Nguyen incident plays itself out in the dying days of the campaign, the
more serious question about Orange County this year is whether Republicans will capture a local state Senate seat that had been one of the Democrats' few possessions. The 34th Senate District encompasses much of the same territory as Sanchez's congressional district and is considered to be one of the very few districts in California that could change parties this year."
"With its once-substantial Democratic voter registration margin reduced to near-zero, the duel between Republican Assemblywoman
Lynn Daucher and Democratic county Supervisor
Lou Correa -- both political moderates -- is drawing millions of dollars from party leaders and interest groups with few other opportunities for spending money. Earlier in the year, when the two parties were conducting massive voter registration drives in the district in anticipation of the duel, there were some allegations of phony names being added to the voter rolls."
"It is, after all, Orange County."
Speaking of the OC, "California prosecutors are considering filing charges against
Snoop Dogg for
carrying a 21-inch collapsible baton onboard a New York-bound aircraft," reports Shayla Bird on Vibe.com.
"'He had a collapsible baton, and it is classified as a dangerous weapon,'
Jim Amormino, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, told The Associated Press."
"Snoop had the baton in his laptop case as he went through a security checkpoint at John Wayne International Airport on September 27,
but told authorities that it was a prop for a movie he was filming in New York and that he had no idea that it was an illegal item. According to eonline.com, the baton was confiscated and Snoop was allowed to board his flight without being cited."
"The Orange County sheriff’s office is still investigating the case."
Mike Carona takes on the one-and-only Dee Oh Double Gee. Now, that could be a reality show.
Meanwhile, the LAT's Sharon Bernstein and Martha Groves report its looking like
the Jews against the Coastal Commission in southern California.
The early line has the Commission, minus four points.
"An Orthodox synagogue with the ambitious desire to enclose much of Santa Monica, Venice and Marina del Rey within a religious boundary known as an eruv has come up against
a barrier some say is as immutable as the Torah itself: the California Coastal Commission."
"The Pacific Jewish Center in Venice wants to string fishing line between lampposts and sign poles for several miles through the coastal communities, creating a symbolic unbroken boundary."
"Orthodox Jews within the boundary can consider themselves to be 'at home' on the Sabbath. That eases restrictions of the holy day and allows people to carry food, push strollers and bring their house keys with them when they go out."
Now
that's a clash of civilizations...
