"With Election Day less than a week away, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has apparently blown the race for governor wide open as a new Field Poll
shows him leading Democrat Phil Angelides by 16 percentage points," reports John Maurelius in the Union Tribune.
Here's
the poll.
"The nonpartisan survey shows a steady upward progression for the Republican governor since a year ago when he trailed Angelides 47 percent to 41 percent in a trial election matchup."
"The latest poll shows
Schwarzenegger with 49 percent of the vote to 33 percent for Angelides, 6 percent for minor-party candidates and the remaining 12 percent undecided. That is up from a month ago, when the poll showed Schwarzenegger leading 44 percent to 34 percent.
It's an incredible turnaround,' said Field Poll director
Mark DiCamillo. '
He's peaking at the right time. He's got his biggest lead ever. It looks like a very comfortable re-election victory for him.'
"Among Republican likely voters, 85 percent said they would vote for Schwarzenegger to only 7 percent for Angelides.
Only 59 percent of the Democrats had settled on Angelides to 21 percent favoring the Republican. Voters not affiliated with either major party are also breaking for Schwarzenegger, 39 percent to 28 percent."
Dan Walters writes: "A candidate who knows he's destined to lose a high-profile political contest
lives in a special kind of purgatory -- compelled to maintain an upbeat public demeanor while privately agonizing over what went wrong."
"To those who know the ways of politicians, Phil Angelides' body language and utterances betray his knowledge that his three-decade-long quest for high office not only will fall short next Tuesday, but that he's likely to be buried in a landslide for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger."
Meanwhile,
Jerry Brown and Chuck Poochigian keep wailing away at each other, reports the LAT's Eric Bailey. "Dissimilarities etch the lives and policy positions of Republican state Sen. Chuck Poochigian and his Democratic opponent in the campaign for state attorney general, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, the mercurial former California governor and frequent presidential aspirant.
"The pair have waged
this election season's most clamorous battle. They've accused each other of flip-flops befitting a big-time wrestling match. Crime-fighting chops and character questions have become central themes in the contest to command the 1,100 attorneys in the state's Department of Justice."
"In the homestretch, the 68-year-old Brown has ridden his status as a venerable political celebrity to a healthy lead 15 points among likely voters in the most recent public polls."
"But in Poochigian the GOP has a campaigner who vows to stay on the attack until election day Tuesday, despite dwindling funds for advertising and a reputation as a nice guy reluctant to throw mud."
Meanwhile, "In the barely visible U.S. Senate campaign, the Field Poll shows Democratic incumbent
Dianne Feinstein with a commanding lead over her Republican opponent, former state Sen.
Dick Mountjoy of Arcadia,
55 percent to 33 percent."
The Bee's Judy Lin reports on the
battle between Indian tribes and organized labor that has
spilled over to the ballot box.
"The tribes' independent committee, Team 2006, has spent heavily on behalf of a handful of GOP lawmakers who supported their new compacts. And they have launched nearly a million-dollar effort on behalf of the Republican candidate for state controller, former Assemblyman
Tony Strickland, in his race against Democrat
John Chiang. The committee has
$7.5 million remaining."
"Whether the strategy will pay off remains to be seen."
(Insert bad gambling joke here.) Not all Indian tribes have jumped on board. In fact, labor, unionized Indian casinos and Asian American small businesses have responded with their own independent committee on Chiang's behalf, as the labor-tribal dispute has moved from the Capitol to the campaign trail."
"Until now, Indian tribes had worked well with both Democrats and Republicans, said Republican political analyst
Dan Schnur, who has worked for tribes before. But when Schwarzenegger struck an expansion deal earlier this year, Democrats sided with labor leaders who balked at missing provisions that would have made it easier for casino workers to organize."
The Times' Dan Morain looks at the
new state audit of Rob Reiner's Proposition 10. "A state commission chaired by Hollywood entertainer Rob Reiner
violated no laws but failed to properly award millions of dollars in contracts and did not adequately justify many payments, a state audit released Tuesday shows.
"The nonpartisan California Bureau of State Audits said the commission had 'clear legal authority' to spend public money on television commercials last winter touting the benefits of preschool, at the same time Reiner opened a campaign to place an initiative on the state ballot to create universal preschool. Voters rejected that initiative, Proposition 82, in June."
But the rock turning isn't quite over. "The Sacramento County district attorney's office continues to investigate the matter, a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty.
Jan Scully said Tuesday. State law bars the use of public money for political endeavors."
From our
Check is in the Mail Files: "A highly publicized $150 million state loan that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised California's cash-strapped stem cell agency in July
has yet to materialize, a delay apparently caused by red tape and election-year politics," reports Paul Elias for the AP.
"Schwarzenegger's announcement July 21 that 'they need the money now' came the day after President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded federal funding of stem cell research, which many political conservatives oppose because days-old embryos are destroyed. At an emotional August meeting of the committee that manages the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, members praised Schwarzenegger for his political courage and were told by an aide to expect the money by the end of that month."
"'This is a unique and extremely complicated financial transaction with a lot of moving parts," said California Department of Finance spokesman
H.D. Palmer. 'It has taken a little bit longer than anticipated, but nobody has been slow on this.'"
"The governor
lacked evidence to deny parole last year to a Pleasanton man convicted of beating a former classmate to death with a baseball bat in 1979, the state Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday," reports Josh Richman in the Contra Costa Times.
"Unless stayed, the ruling means
Jeffrey David Elkins, 46 -- who has been behind bars for more than half his life -- should be released immediately from San Quentin State Prison, attorney
Michael Satris said."
"Attorney General
Bill Lockyer's office did not return phone calls Tuesday seeking comment on whether the state will seek the California Supreme Court's review."
From our
If You're Going to Stab The King, You Better Kill The King Files, looks like
losing a political race in Orange County can get you demoted. "The lieutenant who took on Orange County Sheriff
Michael S. Carona in this year's heated primary election should be demoted for statements he made during the campaign and other allegedly unprofessional conduct, according to a letter he received Tuesday."
"Lt.
Bill Hunt, who has been suspended from his job as the sheriff's chief of police services in San Clemente for more than four months, was summoned to department headquarters to pick up the Notice of Proposed Discipline."
The star-studded campaign for Prop. 87 continues today at an event featuring
Bill Clinton.
Gavin Newsom and Eva Longoria will also be on hand. Not together, of course. She's much too old for the mayor...
