"Oil and tobacco tax initiatives that are the subject of multimillion-dollar television advertising campaigns
are losing support as Tuesday's election approaches, according to a
new Field Poll," reports John Maurelius in the Union-Tribune.
"The poll showed likely voters are evenly split over Proposition 86, which would raise tobacco taxes to pay for hospital and medical services."
Prop. 85 (parental notification):
46% Yes
43% No
Prop. 86 (cigarette tax):
45% Yes
45% No
Prop. 87 (oil tax):
40% Yes
44% No
Prop. 90 (eminent domain):
35% Yes
42% No
"In the past month, Proposition 87 has attracted the star power of former
President Clinton, former Vice President
Al Gore and a number of Hollywood celebrities. And yet it has lost ground under a withering opposition campaign suggesting it would increase gasoline prices."
"'These are the kind of spokespersons that really have credibility and influence in coastal California,' Field Poll Director
Mark DiCamillo said of Clinton and Gore. 'They don't have influence – and they were not supported when they ran for election – in inland California.'"
"DiCamillo said Proposition 90's complexity appears to be working against it because voters tend to vote 'no' when they don't fully understand a ballot measure."
"'It's one of those propositions that voters are really having a hard time coming to grips with,' the pollster said. 'They don't really know what the implications are when they're passing something like this. When you're in that kind of predicament and you're not really sure what it will do, the safer vote is the 'no' vote.'"
That doesn't seem to stop them from voting for more statewide offices. Speaking of which...
"Democratic gubernatorial challenger
Phil Angelides swept through two Los Angeles neighborhoods Wednesday urging supporters to look at the broad themes of the fall campaign — and
shrugged off a new poll that shows his candidacy foundering less than a week before the vote," write Scott Martelle and Dan Morain in the Times.
"'A poll's a poll,' Angelides told reporters during a visit to the St. John's Well Child and Family Center clinic in South Los Angeles, where he stressed his support for broadening access to healthcare and education for working-class families."
"'I just don't believe that in the end people are going to go for a governor who stood up each and every day for the most powerful of interests,' Angelides said. 'This is a very fundamental-choice election.'"
"Schwarzenegger's one public appearance Wednesday was at the Jack L. Schuetz Career Center, a vocational education school in Bakersfield, where the governor campaigned with Assemblyman
Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) on behalf of the Propositions 1A through 1E construction bond issues on Tuesday's ballot. Angelides also has campaigned for the measures."
"The bonds are also to be the subject of a new television ad hyping bipartisan support for the initiatives — including by Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen.
Dianne Feinstein. The ad is to be unveiled today, but it was unknown how much money was behind it. An organizer for the ad campaign did not return messages seeking details, and a Feinstein advisor said she did not cooperate in the making of the ad."
CW's Shane Goldmacher reports on
yet another creative exploitation of a loophole in state campaign finance laws this year.
"Pioneering a new loophole in California's campaign-finance law, Republican political operatives have used state and local GOP committees to create thinly guised issue ads that never are reported as political spending on behalf of a legislative candidate."
"Unlike a candidate's official campaign ads, these ads can be paid for by donations of any size, despite the $3,300 voter-approved contribution cap to legislative candidates."
"And unlike independent-expenditure campaigns, which must be run independently, a candidate's own political consultants can create the party-paid-for ads."
"An exhaustive review of campaign finance records by The Associated Press reveals that Schwarzenegger is
on pace to become the most prolific fundraiser in California history. He has raised $113.4 million in the little more than three years since he launched his campaign to replace Democrat Gray Davis, who often was accused of having a ''pay to play'' approach to governing that favored his donors," reports the AP's Steve Lawrence.
"That amount is nearly as much as the $120 million Davis raised over seven years for two gubernatorial campaigns and to fight the recall effort. It also is more than three times as much as Schwarzenegger's Democratic opponent in Tuesday's election, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, has received during roughly the same period."
"Schwarzenegger has done it despite having voter-imposed contribution limits on some of his campaign committees that Davis did not face until the 2003 recall campaign."
"Republican Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has
reaped big political dividends from a string of high-profile environmental initiatives that have neutralized a campaign issue usually owned by Democrats in green-leaning California," reports Michael Gardner in the Union-Tribune.
"But while the governor held star-studded ceremonies related to curbing global warming and challenging federal policies on offshore oil drilling and roads in national forests, Schwarzenegger also acted often this year to protect one of his closest allies – big business."
"'The governor paints the prettiest picture and makes the speech, but when it comes time to do the push-ups, he's just not there,' said
Gary Patton, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League."
"More recently, some environmentalists and legislative leaders claim Schwarzenegger betrayed them by issuing a business-friendly executive order to jump-start the state's landmark law to cut greenhouse gas emissions."
"'
For being a Republican, you can say he's pro-environment,' said Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles. '
If you judge him as a Democrat, give him a D-minus.'"
CW's Malcolm Maclachlan takes a look
at the next big environmental fight.
The main event may be "a package of bills being prepared by Senator
Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, that would change how the chemical industry is regulated. Simitian chairs the Senate Environmental Quality Committee."
"Simitian said that he and his staff still are working out many of the particulars of their 'green chemistry' legislation. However, he did say that it would likely rely on the "precautionary principle." This standard, widely cited in the global-warming debate, states that if an action has a significant potential to cause widespread harm, the burden is on producers to show that it is safe, rather than on critics to prove that it is harmful."
"'It's a big hill to climb,' Simitian said. 'The struggle will be to bring the industrial concerns into the conversation."
From our
Beware of the Reach-around Files, "Days before the election, state officials have learned that California's most widely used electronic voting machine contains
a button in back that can allow someone to vote multiple times," reports Ian Hoffman in the Contra Costa Times.
"Several computer scientists said Wednesday that the vulnerability found in all touch-screen machines sold by Oakland-based Sequoia Voting Systems was not especially great because using the yellow button for vote fraud would require reaching far behind the voting machine twice and triggering two beeps."
"'If the machine beeps loudly and someone has their arms wrapped around the machine, the poll workers are going to become suspicious,' said
David Wagner, a computer security and voting system expert at UC Berkeley."
Has Mr. Wagner ever met a poll worker?
"'It's kind of hard for me to see how this could be used very widely,' he said. 'It's retail fraud, so it's onesies and twosies and can only affect very close races.'" Speaking of which...
"With less then a week left before the Nov. 7 midterm elections, 80th District Assemblywoman
Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, and her Democratic challenger
Steve Clute faced off in a debate that focused on issues ranging from how to improve Riverside and Imperial counties to the accusations they've thrown at each other in their campaign for office," reports Colin Atagi in the Desert Sun.
"In between answering questions from CBS2 reporters, neither candidate shied away from accusing the other of misrepresentation while denying any rumors of wrongdoing on their own part."
"The debate opened with moderators inquiring about the candidates' opinions on whether the election has had more than its share of mudslinging and has become dirty. The CBS2 representatives brought up Garcia's recent comment about not being inclined to kick Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger out of her bed as well as questions about Clute renting a room in Palm Desert for $200 in order to qualify as an 80th District resident."
"
Terry Coleman, who is trying to unseat
Guy Houston in Assembly District 15, was recommended to readers in an editorial published by the newspaper on Friday. But Houston's Web site for at least several days
listed The [Stockton] Record as among his endorsers," reports the Record's Alex Breitler.
"The Web site was fixed late Wednesday afternoon after the newspaper inquired of Houston staffers. But Coleman claims his campaign manager alerted Houston's camp to the error as early as Friday."
"'Not doing anything about it after being specifically advised of the situation to me is unacceptable,' Coleman said Wednesday. 'I earned the endorsement. I'm proud of it.'"
