In his uphill fight in the Democratic primary for California attorney general against former Governor and presidential candidate/current Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo will announce that top media consultants David Doak and Tom O’Donnell are joining his campaign. Doak and O’Donnell were a key part of the team of killers around former Governor Gray Davis, and have worked in many campaigns around the country. But will Delgadillo have the money to allow them to do their thing, and will it make any difference against the legendary Brown?
Weekends are a time for entertainment and with the election season not yet in full stride it’s a good time to watch the NFL play-offs tomorrow or go see Brokeback Mountain or Underworld, King Kong or New World, whatever floats your boat. Or, if you want some real entertainment, check out Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik’s ill-fated attack on me from early in the week.
Hiltzik, a Pulitzer Prize winner no less, inadvertently shows that all those researchers and editors at his big corporate newspaper must do a lot more good than all the professional Times critics out there think. And that bad things can happen when he’s not using them. (I assume he was flying solo for a change or it’s even more embarrassing.) He really didn’t like my column, “Is That A Ski Rack On That Hummer Or A Solar Array?” Or Slate’s Mickey Kaus picking up the story.
Why not? His doctrinaire liberalism is so intense and his hatred of the man so great that he simply can’t stand that Arnold Schwarzenegger actually won one with his “Million Solar Roofs” proposal. He especially doesn’t like that I point out that labor and some legislative Democrats killed the plan last year in order to deny Schwarzenegger an image boost going into his foolish waste-of-a-year special election. Hiltzik reveals not what he thought he was revealing but something else entirely. Namely, that he has no idea what he is talking about, either on the solar program or, more amusingly, on the special election itself. Enjoy. I did.
As predicted here three days ago in “The Late Mr. Allen,” Democratic legislative leaders squashed the drive for a death penalty moratorium that so many experts thought would be a big issue for Republicans in the California elections. What I did not predict was that they would do it yesterday. I thought it might take more time to happen. But the Assembly Appropriations Committee swiftly put a hold on the bill yesterday, effectively sidelining it. Its author, West Hollywood Assemblyman Paul Koretz, may try to revive it by amending it into another bill, but he should expect similar roadblocks should he make the attempt.
This just in, Associated Press out of Boston has a report confirming previous rumors that strategist Mike Murphy’s consulting relationship with Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a likely 2008 Republican presidential candidate, is ending. In it, Romney’s office says that since the governor is not running for re-election there is no campaign and hence no further need for the services of Murphy’s firm, D.C. Navigators, which was paid over $200K last year by Romney. Of course, there is a likely campaign for the presidency. For his part, Murphy says that he felt awkward working with a prospective rival to his old boss, Arizona Senator John McCain. Of course, it’s been pretty damned obvious for a long time that McCain is running for president again. He leads Hillary Clinton in all the polls. My sources say Murphy’s status with McCain is uncertain. That’s not “uncertain” as in “don’t know.”
Quite a few people wonder about some of the recent cultural references. Get Carter is the classic 1971 British crime flick starring the great Michael Caine as a gangster named Jack Carter dealing with his brother’s murder. It was less successfully remade as a vehicle for the governor’s erstwhile rival for the action movie throne, Sylvester Stallone. The title character, of course, has the same name as the former First Son and now Nevada Senate candidate.
“London Calling” is the classic punk rock song by the great Brit band, The Clash. In its subversive momentousness, it seemed cheekily appropriate for the reveal of the previously secret conference calls among Schwarzenegger’s new core group.
Agent Jack Bauer is the hero/anti-hero of the best series on television, 24. He has an aggressive approach. Asks, let’s say, pointed questions. Important point. Never expect to reach me, by any means and for any reason, when that show is on Monday nights. It won’t happen.
“’Not entirely stable.’ I’m glad the professor is here to tell us these things.” That’s Han Solo’s sardonic line in The Empire Strikes Back, responding to the pedantic C-3PO’s observation of the obvious. Namely, that the violent shaking being endured by the Millennium Falcon meant that the asteroid it was on was, yes, not entirely stable. It seemed appropriate in commenting on the LA Times’s breathless Page One revelation of something — double-dipping by top Arnold aides from public and private payrolls — the San Jose Mercury News already revealed last summer. Of course, no sooner do I point out that the Merc had already broken that story than the Merc turns around and …
Eagle-eyed readers of yesterday’s “London Calling” item noticed not only the names of the participants in the heretofore secret political strategy conference calls on behalf of Arnold Schwarzenegger but also the name that was missing from the new inner circle. Longtime chief strategist Mike Murphy. Which was a “tell” in itself. What was even more telling was this. I had been told Murphy had been invited to participate, but demurred. He was unhappy about being replaced as Arnold’s chief strategist by Democrat-turned-Republican Matthew Dowd. Even though his actual role in Arnold’s 2003 election campaign, while central, was more amorphous than his later role as chief strategist after the former action superstar became governor.
After I reported just past midnight, at 12:30 AM, yesterday that none of the high-ranking Arnistas I was talking to would deny my January 13th report about Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver preferring Dowd to be the governor’s new chief strategist, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci and San Jose Mercury News reporter Laura Kurtzman called around to see if they could perform the subtle transmutation of anonymous refusals to deny Dowd’s role into anonymous confirmations. Kurtzman got an answer from Murphy — who had declined to reply to a very specific e-mail from me last week and two messages on his cell phone, along with a later hangup call from me which confirmed that he was available, just not to deny my report — by e-mail and he gave her an on-the-record quote. He denied it. “I’m chief,” he replied, referring, according to Kurtzman, to a continuing role as Schwarzenegger’s chief strategist. That stance changed today.
What a difference 18 hours makes. In an unusual move for the paper, the Sacramento Bee just published a middle-of-the-day story written by reporter Gary Delsohn, for whom Murphy has been a very frequent source. In it, Murphy declares that he has decided to step way back from the Schwarzenegger operation. He will not be the very highly-paid “chief,” he will be a part-time “volunteer.” Although he will continue to give advice to the governor, he will focus more of his efforts in Hollywood, where he is developing a project with Comedy Central. That is not a punch line.
None of which should be a surprise, since I reported in my November election night piece for the Weekly that, based on intel from Arnold’s election night HQ at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Murphy would be out as Schwarzenegger’s chief strategist. That report included on-the-spot reaction from the winning strategist in last year’s special election, Democrat Gale Kaufman (bemused throughout by the approach of then Team Schwarzenegger), who quipped: “Ya think?”
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports today that Jack Carter, son of former President Jimmy Carter, will make his candidacy for a Nevada seat in the U.S. Senate official at a February 6th rally in Carson City featuring his mother, former First Lady Rosalyn Carter. This is a week or two later than the original plan I reported. Carter, an investment consultant who moved to Las Vegas from Bermuda in 2003, drew good crowds around the state during the unofficial phase of his candidacy but went dark for a while as speculation mounted about the potential candidacy of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman for the seat currently held by Republican John Ensign.
And what of Goodman, a brilliant former defense lawyer for Meyer Lansky et al? Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, a fellow Nevadan, has told people that he thinks the chance of a Goodman candidacy has increased. The colorful Vegas mayor is nowhere near the hustings yet, however. This week he has one of those onerous chores that most mayors would surely dread. He’s hosting a pageant, which relocated to Vegas this year after a century or so in Atlantic City. Which pageant? Miss America.
As some of you have mentioned to me, New West Notes was offline overnight and earlier this morning. For about 12 hours. The LA Weekly, which presents NWN and hosts it on its server, was in the final stages of the long-in-the-works revamp of the newspaper’s site. (Still underway.) Things went wrong. So, no, the service outage was not the result of action by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Amalgamated Special Interests Union, or a Midwestern media conglomerate that wonders why there are no woods in Westwood. No need to detail Agent Jack Bauer to, you know, ask around a little. Although things may be a bit too nice here.
Never let it be said that the world of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is not interesting. In the intriguing way in which the swirling royal court works, word has reached me of regular strategic conference calls on the governor’s behalf. The participants on these calls are said to be Maria Shriver, Susan Kennedy, Daniel Zingale, Adam Mendelsohn, Steve Schmidt, and Matthew Dowd.
Shriver, of course, the First Lady, Kennedy family member, veteran NBC broadcaster, and longtime troubleshooter in her husband’s career. Kennedy, the longtime Democrat and former top Gray Davis aide now Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff. Zingale, the longtime Democrat and former top Davis aide now Shriver’s chief of staff. Mendelsohn, who has worked with a variety of mostly relative moderate Republicans, now Schwarzenegger’s communications director. Schmidt, the counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney who worked with Bush chief strategist Matthew Dowd and other top Bushies in helping run the 2004 Bush campaign war room. And Dowd, the one-time top Texas Democratic consultant who became Bush’s 2000 campaign pollster and 2004 campaign strategist.
Never let it be said that the world of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is not interesting. In the intriguing way in which the swirling royal court works, word has reached me of regular strategic conference calls on the governor’s behalf. The participants on these calls are said to be Maria Shriver, Susan Kennedy, Daniel Zingale, Adam Mendelsohn, Steve Schmidt, and Matthew Dowd.
Shriver, of course, the First Lady, Kennedy family member, veteran NBC broadcaster, and longtime troubleshooter in her husband’s career. Kennedy, the longtime Democrat and former top Gray Davis aide now Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff. Zingale, the longtime Democrat and former top Davis aide now Shriver’s chief of staff. Mendelsohn, who has worked with a variety of mostly relative moderate Republicans, now Schwarzenegger’s communications director. Schmidt, the counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney who worked with Bush chief strategist Matthew Dowd and other top Bushies in helping run the 2004 Bush campaign war room. And Dowd, the one-time top Texas Democratic consultant who became Bush’s 2000 campaign pollster and 2004 campaign strategist.
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