Meg
Whitman targets television and Jerry Brown rolls through
L.A. and the Bay
Area in the last two weeks of a roller coaster campaign.
The LAT’s Seema Mehta and
Mike Mishak tell the tale.
“Republican Whitman is aggressively courting independent
voters
across the state. She aired four new anti-Brown ads in the last week. She is
campaigning in media markets large and small every
day and cluttering mailboxes
around the state. A recent mailing — a glossy 24-page brochure — went to nearly
1 million independent voters. Whitman is targeting specific
groups on the
theory that even a motivated Republican base is not
enough to guarantee her
election."
"Democratic nominee Brown is not nearly as
visible but has concentrated his actions in Los Angeles
and the Bay Area, the
party's twin power centers, trying to motivate core
voters with visits from
popular
Democrats such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. With his party less enthused than the GOP, Brown is also pressing independent voters with his
assertions that Whitman is seeking office to benefit
herself and California's
privileged class."
The word “whore” reverberated through the governor’s race, but
Brown made a similar, public assessment about Whitman – without the coarse
language.
From
the Ventura County Star’s Timm Herdt: “Noting
that Whitman’s proposal to convert public employee pension plans
to 401(k)-like
retirement accounts would exempt police officers and
firefighters, Brown noted
that the unions which represent those workers are generally
more powerful than
those representing, say, DMV clerks or Caltrans road
crews.”
Whitman’s position, Brown said, showed that
“when powerful forces come, she’ll cave.”
Off the campaign trail for a moment, the Graton
tribe has received the go-ahead to open a casino in Rohnert Park – without the
need to sign a gaming compact.
From Capitol Weekly’s Malcolm
Maclachlan: “On Oct. 1, National Indian Gaming
Commission chairwoman Tracie Stevens sent a letter
to the tribe and to Stations
Casino, approving their Class II management contract.
This means that the tribe
can open up a gaming facility on its land in Rohnert
Park, a city of 41,000
located 50 miles north of Sacramento. The tribe and Stations
Casino representatives
were not immediately available for comment.”
“Meanwhile, a local anti-casino group
vowed to block the facility in court.”
The Giants rule, at least in San Francisco: A
fundraiser featuring President Obama was shifted from
The City down to the peninsula
to avoid playoff game traffic, reported Matier & Ross in the Chronicle.
“Now, Obama will attend the $30,000-a-head fundraiser for 50
high-roller Democrats at the Palo Alto home of Google executive Marissa Mayer rather than
at her apartment at the Four Seasons Hotel on Market
Street. The president will
also host a Democratic National Committee reception
at former state Controller Steve Westly's house in Atherton."
“And
while Obama doesn't make a habit of raising money for
down-ballot candidates in
state races, we're told he has agreed to host a $6,500-a-person photo op for
Democratic attorney general candidate Kamala Harris, one of his earliest and hardest-working supporters
during his presidential campaign.”
In
the latest round of ads,
Brown and Whitman are trading jabs that the other is
a puppet of special
interests.
From Ken McLaughlin in the Mercury News: “Whitman's 15-second
advertisement highlights the more than $20 million unions are spending to
bolster Brown's candidacy. Brown is pictured as a marionette,
and a narrator
concludes: "Jerry Brown again? He sure comes with strings attached."
“But political analysts
said Tuesday that the more powerful ad is Brown's,
a 60-second spot that shows
video clips from Whitman and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Placed side by side,
they use nearly identical lines in campaign appearances
and ads to try to
convince voters they're independent business people
who would shake up
Sacramento.”
Meanwhile, celebrities
are buzzing about marijuana legislations, reports John Hoeffel in the LAT.
“The
debate over Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in California, will
acquire some celebrity glitter on Thursday."
Actors Danny Glover and Hal Sparks, and musician Melissa
Etheridge
are scheduled to speak in favor of marijuana legalization
at a news conference
in Los Angeles.
The three will join supporters of the initiative, including
former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. The measure would
allow adults 21 and
older to grow and possess marijuana, and would authorize
cities and counties to
approve cultivation, sale and taxation.
And finally, from our “Makin’
Bacon” file, comes the tale of a sizzling fundraiser at a
New York gallery.
“John Ordover, who runs the SoHo Gallery for Digital
Art, says he decided on the bacon theme because — except for those with a
religious requirement against pork — everybody he knows loves bacon. "It
crossed all the social lines — rich, poor, happy, sad, outgoing,
introverted," he says.
"If there is one thing that everyone can
agree on, it's bacon."
“There was balsamic bacon-wrapped shrimp with
chipotle sauce, bacon sweet potato hash, bacon-wrapped dates, bacon
dipped in chocolate — to mention a few. Then there were the drinks: a BLT with
bacon vodka, tomato juice and a sprig of lettuce, and
a bacon egg cream, which
consisted of bacon vodka, chocolate syrup, seltzer and milk.”
“Attendee
Danny Comer tried the egg cream. "I can't taste too
much bacon-flavored
vodka," he said, "but I could drink these things all
night, pretty
delicious."
