** Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke late this morning about his economic policies and the overall pretty good state of the economy on his watch and launched the California Business Portal in an address at the World Trade Club in San Francisco. I watched on a webcast nicely done by his office, which does these not infrequently. He looked and sounded good and upbeat. During the question-and-answer session, he was asked about the failure of his bid to place some version of his Big Bang Bonds infrastructure package on California’s June ballot. His response was telling.
“It was not a failure,” he said. “We came very far in only three weeks,” he said, dismissing talk that the protean proposal had been sabotaged by either Democrats or Republicans. There were “conceptual differences,” he said, that prevented the coming to fruition of a deal in such a short period of time. The distance he and legislators came together, he argued, was a real achievement. It’s an interesting way of looking at things. Not unlike running for a train leaving the station and narrowly missing getting on board. Quite an effort, to be sure, but perhaps it came up short because it was started too late.
** DAILY NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF THAT ARNOLD TV AD BUY was interesting. Much of the coverage reflected the reality of the very intriguing emphasis on pretty footage of San Francisco by Arnold’s new George W. Bush crew. No mystery there, my hometown San Francisco is one of the world’s greatest tourist meccas …
What was lacking was much recognition of how minuscule the time buy behind this ad is. It was in the $20,000 ball park, as I’ve been reporting. More to the point, new Arnold chief political strategist Matthew Dowd admitted during yesterday’s media conference call that it was not a major buy. I posed the specific question of whether this is a demonstration buy or an attempt to move real numbers in the governor’s direction. Here is his answer: “All the early buys are done with no expectation to move numbers. The dynamic of the campaign won’t adjust until there is a choice between the governor and the Democrat.” That is quite clear cut.
** Meanwhile, the Democrats … State Treasurer Phil Angelides took a pounding this morning on San Francisco liberal KGO radio host Ronn Owens‘ show. His biggest problem? Illegal immigration. The host and his callers went after the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s insistence that illegal immigrants living in California be able to pay the lower in-state tuition if they attend California State University or University of California campuses. Out-of-state students who are citizens have to pay much higher fees.
If one is running for governor of the not so Golden State these days, maybe it’s better to be in stealth mode, like the other Democratic candidate, state Controller Steve Westly. A couple of weeks of being out of the public eye have worked well for him. Though he did surface over the weekend with an ebullient appearance at the annual Chinese American Democratic Club dinner in San Francisco, where he laughed louder than anyone at his introduction as, among other things, the candidate who was elected state controller “after outspending his opponent by five to one and winning by one point.”
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And yet the media followed like sheep, which is exactly what they expected. Otherwise this would be a pointless buy, in markets that don’t make sense for the governor to be spending money in right now.
The media are not like sheep, the media are sheep. Baa baa baa until 5 pm and then on home.
It’s an interesting situation. I don’t quite know how to account for it.
They just showed Governor Schwarzenegger’s new ad on Chris Matthews’ MSNBC show. They show it in a box, as part of the show, so it was free.
Yes, a win for the ploy. On the other hand, I don’t the ad works too well.
Like him or not, at least Angelides is going out there, appearing on shows, and speaking for himself. Yes, he took a lot of heat on that show yesterday, but my understanding is that Westly’s position on in-state tuition is the same. I guess Westly will eventually emerge from his undisclosed location and speak up for himself on the pressing issues. That would be most welcome.
On the other hand, Angelides refused to talk about the central issue of illegal immigration right before the big march, claiming not to know about the bill in question, as I reported Monday.
You may notice in my new column that the national AFL-CIO came out against a guest worker program …
Yes, exactly, the AFl-CIO statement puts both Dems on the spot. The use of undocumented workers does depress wages. And these workers have no employment rights. These are important aspect of the issue that need to be honestly addressed.
I hope we’ll hear both candidates speak out on this issue and clearly lay out what they think should be done and not simply pass the buck to the Feds. It’s a tough issue, but being Guv is a tough job.
I just can’t admire a ‘stealth strategy’ anymore than I admire someone not being ready to discuss a crucial issue. As good a spokesperson as Nick Velasquez is, it’s Steve Westly who wants to be Guv.
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