So much for a post-primary pause. Robin Abcarian reports the general election is off to a quick, and nasty,
start.
"Voters barely had time to absorb the historic nomination
of two women to
the top of the statewide Republican ticket before
the insults began to
fly.
A day after the primary, Republican Senate candidate
Carly Fiorina, the
former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, was caught on an open microphone
making a remark worthy of an insecure seventh-grader about her
Democratic opponent, Sen. Barbara Boxer: "God, what is that hair? Sooooo
yesterday."
"Moments later, Fiorina's campaign sent its first e-mail blast of a new
regular feature: "Boxer Bites."
"Then Jerry Brown, the Democrats' candidate for governor,
weighed in,
making a heavy-handed comparison between the campaign tactics of
his
opponent, Meg Whitman, and Nazi propaganda chief
Joseph Goebbels.
"High-profile campaigns spend fortunes constructing the policy
positions
and political strategies they think will carry them
to victory. But the
events of the last week show how quickly issues of
style, gaffes and
the like can complicate the plans of even the best-financed or most
experienced campaigns."
Dan Morain sees the governor's race as an "epic class struggle." We're still betting that no class wins in the end.
"In style and substance, California's race for governor
will be
an us-against-them clash, a struggle between the classes with organized
labor at the center.
"Attorney General Jerry Brown is the crafty
politician with four decades in the public arena who,
along with his
labor allies, will try to convince us that billionaire
Meg Whitman does
not have Californians' interests at heart.
"Whitman, who won the
GOP primary Tuesday, has a lengthy business pedigree,
which includes
Hasbro, Disney and, most famously, eBay. Each company
has an Everyman
appeal. But expect Democrats to talk about how she
sat on the board of
Goldman Sachs, a company that has come to symbolize
Wall Street avarice."
In the Capitol, the electoral focus turns to the race
to replace Abel Maldonado. Malcolm Maclachlan reports
Democratic and Republican staff alike have been dispatched
to the Central Coast in a contested contest for a vacant state
Senate seat. The result of that election may play a
key role in this
summer's budget negotiations.
"On Tuesday, the Senate Democratic Caucus sent out
an
email to staffers encouraging people to sign up for
phone banking and precinct walking. According to the
email, these efforts were focused on “Monterey, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz,
or San Luis Obispo” — middle class enclaves, mostly coastal and
relatively
urban.
"The Democrats are specifically seeking Spanish speakers
to walk precincts in certain areas. They’re hoping to turn some of the
Latino voters who helped
Maldonado win by comfortable margins in 2004 and 2008. He was the only
moderate and only Latino in the Republican
Caucus prior to leaving the Senate in April.
"The Laird campaign also sponsored events such as the
“Young Dems invasion” in Santa Clara on Saturday “walk and daiquiris”
event on Sunday in Monterey. The request also asked
for people to volunteer for a two-week phone banking effort.
Shane Goldmacher catches up with Brian Fitzgerald,
the upset victor in the GOP primary for insurance commissioner.
"In 25 years of running campaigns in California, certainly
at the
statewide level, I cannot think of a precedent," said
Darry Sragow, a
Democratic strategist.
"FitzGerald's showing was so unexpected that the chairman
of the
California Republican Party, Ron Nehring, issued a
statement on election
night welcoming FitzGerald's better-known opponent, former Assembly GOP
leader Michael Villines (R- Clovis), to the GOP ticket. Asked Thursday
whether he had ever spoken to FitzGerald, Nehring
chuckled for 10
seconds before saying, "I'm looking forward to getting
to know him."
"A 16-year veteran lawyer in the state Department of Insurance,
FitzGerald commutes from Napa, via ferry, to San Francisco
each day. The
father of two said he ran — this is his first ever bid for public
office — because "what the department needs is a good administrator."
"His spending was so scant he did not have to file
an electronic spending
report; he has had no donors but himself. His state salary
is roughly
$113,000.
"FitzGerald laid out his plainspoken "Mani-fitz-o," as he called his
platform on his blog, in the official voter guide at
a cost of $25 per
word."
The bad pun alone should be enough to disqualify him
from the race.
George Skelton says two big changes past by voters
reflect Californians' frustration with Sacramento.
"Step by step, California voters are overhauling a
state political system
that produces hyper-partisanship and gridlock in Sacramento.
"There's nothing to show for it yet but there will
be, starting with the
2012 elections — assuming California government can survive that long.
"It's also assuming that frightened defenders of the
status quo — party
leaders, ideological extremists — fail in their efforts to reverse the
reforms."
Looks like Schwarzenegger may have a legacy after all.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spent last week in Washington
D.C. on a victory lap of sorts after a win at the ballot box.
"The governor played coy Thursday about whether he
would endorse GOP
standard-bearer Meg Whitman to succeed him. He told the Washington
Post
that the person he supports "most likely will be Republican,
but not
necessarily."
"In an interview with National Public Radio, Schwarzenegger
spoke of the
importance of the new primary system, which, like the
recall election
that vaulted him into the governorship, lumps all candidates
into one
electoral pool.
"That's how I got elected, because I appealed to Democrats
and
Republicans, independents ... everybody," Schwarzenegger
said. "If there
would have been no recall election, I wouldn't have
been able to win,
because I would not have been able to win a Republican
primary because
I'm too much in the center and I'm not that far to
the right."
And finally, if you're still looking for summer vacation
plans, "Norway's newest resort opens for business -- but to book a
reservation, you have to commit a crime.
It's clear, based on a May Time magazine
dispatch, that Norway's felons and miscreants are
of a superior class
than America's. When Norway's brand-new Halden prison opened in April,
the country's King Harald V headlined a glitzy gala
that celebrated what
has been called the world's "most humane" lockup.
Among the facilities:
a sound studio, jogging trails, a guest house for
inmates' visitors,
and a scrumptious-smelling "kitchen laboratory" where murderers and
bandits can learn to cook. Guards are unarmed (half are women) and
intermingle with the rapists, drug dealers
and others, dining with them and joining them in intramural
sports."
