Strategist Mike Murphy's handling of Meg Whitman's failed campaign
for governor and his response to criticism gets a scathing look
from
the Bee's Dan Walters.
"The campaign that Murphy and company executed was
pedestrian at best, saturating the airwaves with advertising
that never really said anything or persuaded voters
that Whitman could make their lives better. Even the
negative ads on Brown were lackluster, even though
his long political history was a potential gold mine."
"One of Murphy's excuses for failure, aired on "Meet
the Press," was that Whitman was a victim of public- employee unions who "run California politics" and spent heavily during the summer
to counter Whitman's ads and protect Brown from spending
his own limited resources...Poor Murphy. He was given
a virtually unlimited budget to run a campaign against
a 72-year-old former governor with a relatively tiny campaign
treasury. "
Back on the campaign trail that never ends, the count
continues. First, we look at the Costa-Vidak contest, which has narrowed dramatically.
From John Ellis in the Fresnon Bee: "Political newcomer Andy Vidak continues to lead incumbent
Democrat Jim Costa in the battle for the 20th Congressional District seat, but the Hanford Republican's
lead is now a razor-thin 145 votes. In the initial vote count after last Tuesday's election,
Vidak led Costa by 1,823 votes. By Friday, that lead was down to 648 votes. If that trend continues, Costa likely will
take the lead from Vidak when Fresno County updates
its voting numbers Wednesday."
In the McNerney-Harmer contest in the 11th Congressional District, a tiny margin separates the two, and a judge said don't
settle the issue in court, reports Lisa Vorderbrueggen in the Contra Costa Times.
And the race for attorney general between Kamala Harris and Steve Cooley is still too
close to call -- after more than 7.1 million ballots cast, notes the Chronicle's Marisa
Lagos.
"As of late Monday, Republican Cooley led Democrat Harris
by a fraction of a percentage point. Since last week, the results have yo-yoed almost daily. Cooley, the district attorney in Los Angeles, claimed a large lead out of the gate Tuesday
night, but by Wednesday morning Harris, San Francisco's
top prosecutor, had pulled ahead. Over the weekend,
Cooley again was on top."
Inside the Capitol, there also were cash-driven campaigns -- for party leadership. Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan has the story.
"All told, Garrick gave $3,900 maximum donations to 14 Assembly Republicans candidates. But Assemblywoman Connie Conway, R-Visalia, gave to 17 such candidates. In each case, she maxed out in either
the primary or general election, if not both. Garrick
gave to all 11 freshman Republican Assembly members elected this
year, while Conway donated to seven of them."
"On Thursday, Conway replaced Garrick as Assembly Republican
leader. The Caucus reported that the change came in
a unanimous vote by members, and that Garrick stepped
down voluntarily. But Conway had been gunning for the
job for weeks, and had mounted at least one other serious
attempt at forcing a leadership vote."
The words "University of California" and "tuition increase"
have seemed joined at the hip in recent years, and this year is no exception: UC wants an 8 percent increase.
From Carla Rivera in the Los Angeles Times: "Under the plan, undergraduate student fees for 2011-12 would rise by $822 to $11,124 annually — about $12,150 when campus-based fees are included. Some professional school fees
would also rise, depending on campus and program. The
fee hikes would generate about $180 million in annual revenue."
"The UC Board of Regents will consider the plan when
it meets Nov. 16 to 18 in San Francisco. The university raised fees 32% for the current academic year, sparking student protests."
And finally, we turn to our "We're From the Government and You Can Trust Us" file to learn that the names and Social Security numbers
of the entire staff of the federal General Services
Administration were mistakenly sent to a private email
address.
"The agency, which manages federal property, employs
more than 12,000 people. Officials apologized to employees for the
incident in a letter dated Oct. 25 - almost six weeks after the breach occurred. The agency
said it had paid for employees to enroll in a one-year program to monitor their credit reports, along
with up to $25,000 in identity theft insurance coverage."
According to interviews and documents obtained by the New York Times, technicians discovered the e-mail with names and Social Security numbers while reviewing
logs on Sept. 22, a week after the message was sent, and deleted it
from the recipient's e-mail account and laptop."
"The agency explained to employees that one worker
had apparently transmitted the file containing the
personal data by accident. Those involved cooperated,
and the computer that received the data was scrubbed
clean by agency technicians."
Whoops...
.
