New West Notes

ANGELO TSAKOPOULOS SPEAKS

The campaign reports make something very clear. Without Angelo Tsakopoulos, the Democratic gubernatorial primary would already be over. Which is why I gave the decades long patron and partner of Treasurer Phil Angelides, finance co-chairman of the candidate’s campaign, a call yesterday at his home. Tsakopoulos had been very successful at avoiding speaking to any journalist about his independent expenditure campaign on Angelides’ behalf.

Steve Westly had $3.6 million left after spending $30 million between March 18 and May 20. He had $12 million in contributions, largely from himself, during the two-month period. Phil Angelides had $2.9 million left after spending $14.7 million between March 18 and May 20. He raised $2.9 million during the two-month period. Clearly, this dead heat race between the two would be over were it not for the heavy spending on Angelides’ behalf of the independent expenditure campaign fueled by his close friend Tsakopoulos. (Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger raised $9.6 million during the two-month period. After spending $4.1 million during the period, he had $9.7 million cash on hand. He has contributed none of his own money, so far.)

Angelo Tsakopoulos and his daughter, as previously reported here, have just given $2 million to the controversial independent expenditure (IE) campaign, Californians for a Better Government. $1.6 million from Angelo and $400,000 from Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, president of the family development empire AKT Developments, a job previously held by Phil Angelides. Angelo’s title is chairman.

This IE is by far the largest independent expenditure campaign in California’s history.

The latest Tsakopoulos money makes $8.7 million from the Tsakopoulos development empire to the IE, which has put together a little over $9.7 million. The only other sizeable contribution was $1 million from the California Teachers Association (CTA). The other public employee unions involved, the California Professional Firefighters and the Peace Officers Research Association of California, have contributed minimal amounts, only $10,000 from the police group and less than $50,000 in in-kind production costs from the firefighters for use of their Firestar TV production facilities.

I’d heard talk of the IE for months, and having Tsakopoulos play such an overwhelming role was not the idea. While Tsakopoulos was to have been the largest contributor, other developers were to have played major roles in funding the pro-Angelides TV advertising drive, as were public employee unions.

But it did not work out that way, and so 90 percent of the money comes from Tsakopoulos.

Developers not named Tsakopoulos, seeing the controversy surrounding the IE, decided not to contribute, even though a committee official at one point said their money was on the way. “Who needs phone calls like this?,” asked one potential IE contributor who took a pass.

Unions also, aside from CTA, have also passed on providing major contributions. Indeed, $200,000 that I previously reported was coming from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, confirmed as in the works by two well-informed labor sources, has not materialized.

So the existence of the IE, and its standing as by far the largest IE in California history, all comes down to Angelo Tsakopoulos. Without him, there is no IE for Angelides. Without him, Steve Westly has already won this primary.

Reporters have placed dozens of calls to Tsakopoulos to discuss his motivation, whether he is in contact with his protege, whom he has supported since Angelides made his first run for the Sacramento city council at the age of 19. Discussion of the campaign between the two men would raise serious questions about the independence of the IE.

But he has returned no calls to any reporters and issued no statements, other than having his Republican power broker lawyer, former Fair Political Practices Commission chairman Ben Davidian, say that there is no coordination. Davidian says he doesn’t know when Tsakopoulos and Angelides have spoken, but says they have not violated the independence of the committee.

I reached Tsakopoulos yesterday at home. A genial man with a rather inspiring Horatio Alger-style immigrant story, I’ve encountered him over the years, quoted him at some length in a positive profile of the treasurer I wrote several years ago.

He asked why I was calling. After a brief quip about the Sacramento Kings coaching vacancy, I told him the reason. The IE, of course.

“I have no comment about that,” said Tsakopoulos.

Yet we left open the possibility of raising the subject again.

If Angelides survives this primary, it is hard to see how Tsakopoulos can hope to avoid commenting on his motivation and his contacts with the candidate. The competitive situation becomes, if anything, even more aggressive.

It is also hard to see how Democrats who have criticized Schwarzenegger for his allies’ brief forays into IEs but say nothing about this have much of an argument. And if anything, the former action superstar has far more super-rich friends than do Angelides or Westly.

… in the works. An elusive figure reached.

** STEVE WESTLY HAD $3.6 MILLION LEFT AFTER SPENDING $30 MILLION between March 18 and May 20. He had $12 million in contributions, largely from himself, during the two-month period.

What is that you say? Without Angelides’ decades long patron and development business partner and current campaign finance co-chairman, Angelo Tsakopoulos, this race is already over? I hadn’t thought of that.

** PHIL ANGELIDES HAD $2.9 MILLION LEFT AFTER SPENDING $14.7 MILLION between March 18 and May 20. He raised $2.9 million during the two-month period.

** FILING HIS LATEST CAMPAIGN REPORT EARLY, GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER HAS RAISED $9.6 MILLION IN THE LAST TWO MONTHS. After spending $4.1 million during the period, he has $9.7 million cash on hand. He has contributed none of his own money, so far.

** Steve Westly has just put another $2 million into his Democratic gubernatorial campaign.

Rob Reiner has just put another $1.65 million into his Prop 82 initiative campaign.

** I’ll take more of a look at the PPIC poll shortly, but here are some polling reports on Prop 82, the tax-the-rich for universal preschool initiative authored by controversial movie director Rob Reiner. In the Public Policy Institute of California poll, it’s barely ahead, 50% to 43%. In private polling for the No side, both the yes and no votes are now reportedly in the 40s. In private polling for the Yes side, well, the campaign won’t say. A spokesman told me he is not privy to the polling.

** Would-be governors and the governor himself are in different parts of California today.

Treasurer Phil Angelides tours a school in South LA with All-Pro wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson and greets phone bankers at the LA County Federation of Labor.

Controller Steve Westly takes his bus tour to the Central Valley cities of Stockton, Modesto, Fresno, and Tulare.

And Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger hosts the President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, at a variety of events in and around the Capitol, as first reported here a few days ago.

** FOLLOWING PHIL. Here’s something I missed yesterday. Didn’t see it, but I’m told that a car was consistently placed in front of the Steve Westly bus as it was driven from stop to stop yesterday. The car featured a big sign saying: “How Does It Feel To Be Behind Phil?”

** So, the PPIC (Public Policy Institute of California) poll. I lost a little interest in it when that San Diego TV station broke the embargo late yesterday afternoon, and I’m still pretty tired so writing about it has not been the top choice. The poll, of course, shows essentially a dead heat between Angelides and Westly in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, and tie races between Arnold Schwarzenegger and both of his potential Democratic challengers. It shows that the infrastructure bonds and what is the new Schwarzenegger state budget are generally quite popular, and that education and immigration are top issues. And that Prop 82, while still leading, is in serious trouble.

How do the infrastructure bond initiatives for the fall look? The ones for transportation, education construction, and flood management are all strong, over 60 percent. The most liberal initiative, for affordable housing, which only passed after Schwarzenegger prevailed upon a few Republicans to take the bullet from the party, is in deep trouble, narrowly ahead but under 50 percent.

Schwarzenegger is tied in this poll with the Democrats, as he is in other polls. Last month, this poll gave him big leads over the Democrats. Which, you will recall, I did not buy at the time. Why isn’t Schwarzenegger moving into a sizeable lead now with the recent major developments favoring his re-election?

Two reasons, in my view. First, the Democratic campaigns are blanketing the airwaves. Between Steve Westly’s eBay fortune, Phil Angelides’ Democratic fundraising base-derived warchest, and the very deep pockets of Angelides patron Angelo Tsakopoulos, tens of millions of dollars of Democratic advertising has been produced. Schwarzenegger has barely advertised yet, compared to that.

Second, I think many Californians still don’t know about the developments. I personally know more than a few people, who frequently vote (but who, obviously, don’t frequently read me) who know next to nothing about infrastructure bonds, improved state budget news, more funding for education, etc. Some of them still think this year’s Arnold is last year’s Arnold.

Never underestimate, as Robert Redford’s character in The Candidate put it, “the fundamental indifference that made this country great.”

I’m recalling a friend of a friend, who had seen Westly’s early ads, liked them and him, and thought she would vote for him. But there was just one thing. She wanted to know what Westly did when he worked for Bush. Not that it was, you know, a problem for her, unless he had advised Bush on how to administer Iraq or something like that. The ad, of course, noted that Westly had sued Bush, not worked for him. But not everyone pays as close attention to TV ads shown in the real world as we do.

In a very consequential day in California’s hard-fought Democratic gubernatorial primary, developer megabucks flowed for Treasurer Phil Angelides, Controller Steve Westly launched a statewide bus tour, and a new public poll showed a dead heat race between the two candidates.

Highly informed sources told me by noon yesterday that the controversial independent expenditure campaign for Angelides largely funded by his campaign finance co-chairman Angelo Tsakopoulos would be revived with upwards of $2 million and that the candidate would fund his campaign with approximately $2 million. By late yesterday afternoon, that process was confirmed, with Californians for a Better Government spokesman Carroll Wills confirming the $2 million amount, Tsakopoulos’ lead role, and the return of the committee to TV advertising on Friday. And $500,000 from Angelides himself to his own official campaign committee had already been reported to the California Secretary of State.

In a twist, however, for the committee funded by Tsakopoulos, Angelides’ decades long patron and partner, the renewed “IE” TV advertising will not begin until Monday. With the latest money just beginning to flow, the committee missed the day earlier deadline for booking ads on Memorial Day weekend.

With the pressure ratcheting up, Westly and his wife, former high tech exec and Chinese immigrant Anita Yu Westly, seemed pretty relaxed as they launched their statewide bus tour with stops in Chico, Redding, and Sacramento. Angelides’ bus tour was expected to launch this week, but has not. The treasurer is campaigning actively in other events, but without a bus of journalists in tow.

Westly’s events were, by the standards of this campaign, well-attended, with 50 supporters turning out at a mid-morning gathering in Chico, 35 in Redding, and 200 at a 5 PM town hall meeting in Sacramento. In between stops, the controller did one-on-one interviews with all the journalists along for the day.

He was relaxed about the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll, which shows a dead heat race between himself and Angelides, with Angelides’ slight edge of 35% to 32% well within the poll’s margin of error. It tracks with his own internal tracking polls, he says, which show the race essentially even, with one-third of the Democratic electorate going to each of them with another third undecided. He was quite happy about winning most of the newspaper endorsements in inland California, as well as the announced-on-Sunday San Francisco Chronicle and announced today San Jose Mercury News.

“I’m winning liberal and conservative papers,” Westly noted with satisfaction. “They want someone who can bring people together. Bill Clinton and Willie Brown, in their different ways, were Democrats who could bring people together from the left and the right. Phil can’t do that.”

“I love it on the bus,” he exclaimed, with seeming sincerity. Speaking of his upbeat stump speech — which, in stark contrast to Angelides’ constant slams, does not mention his rival — he said: “I’m a positive person.”

And what about those negative TV ads? “We do what we have to do on TV. My opponent has been slamming me every day for nearly two months.”

Westly noted that his wife, Anita Yu Westly, who with young children had not previously been much in evidence on the campaign trail, insisted on getting into the fray after Angelides likened her husband to a variety of right-wing Republicans in the candidate’s May 10th San Francisco debate. “’Get me into this thing,’” he said, quoting her with satisfaction. Which she later confirmed.

At his tour stops, Westly was upbeat and mostly positive. He made essentially no mention of Phil Angelides, but did refer frequently to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unfavorably, but without rancor, hitting his usual themes.

His event in Chico, home base for Angelides’ longtime political honcho Bob Mulholland, was very smooth. The Redding event was largely uneventful save for a fellow who had recently lost a $7000 case before the Franchise Tax Board and was quite unhappy about it. Westly was sympathetic, but reminded him he had to pay his taxes on time.

Needless to say, Westly and his wife Anita have their own bus, replete with his larger than life picture with supporters. By midafternoon, a certain torpor had descended on the press bus. The first two episodes of The West Wing played on the coach dvd player connected to various screens around the cabin. Most of the press, having had their one-on-ones with the state controller and not especially nifty lunches, were napping.

Westly’s Sacramento town hall, which ended around six, went well with a larger than expected crowd in Angelides’ hometown. 200 supporters in attendance, along with two stars from the Women’s NBA Champion Sacramento Monarchs. It was a very positive crowd, although Westly did receive an angry question for his having previously said that he understands immigrants since he sleeps with an immigrant, i.e., his wife. He apologized for giving any offense. The ubiquitous Angelides campaign “fat cat” increasingly present at Westly events was on hand here as well, this time with a Westlyite shadowing the prankster with a big hand-painted sign in Angelides’ blue-and-yellow colors proclaiming: “Get Your Picture Taken With Phil Angelides.”

** AFTER HOOKING UP WITH OLD COMPADRE BROTHER ANGELIDES AND HIS CREW YESTERDAY, IT’S ON TO CHICO FOR THE START OF THE WESTLY BUS TOUR. Chico, Redding, and Sacramento are today’s three stops for my only scheduled day on the bus. Chico, incidentally, is the home turf for Angelides senior advisor Bob Mulholland, the rather controversial longtime strategist and attack guy for the California Democratic Party. (First brought on as party political director by then state chairman Phil Angelides.) In fact, Mulholland is essentially the political boss of Chico. Given the harsh feelings between the two Democratic gubernatorial campaigns, do you think this is a coincidence?

10:15 AM UPDATE: after an exciting bus ride from Chico to Sacramento, am on the tarmac at Chico airport awaiting the landing of Steve Westly‘s rented aircraft. Since this is Bob Mulholland’s home town, there is apparently a protester at the Chico event site wearing a cat suit. “Fat cat.” Get it?

Speaking of fat cats, a source informs me that Phil Angelides has put in or is about to put in a couple million dollars of his own money. No report of any more money from his campaign funance co-chairman and long patron and partner Angelo Tsakopoilos.

A new poll shows a very tight primary race.

11:45 AM UPDATE: A nice mid-morning event for Steve Westly and Anita Yu Westly. 50 people at a mid-morning rally at a downtown Chico cafe and gallery. A half-dozen protesters, including the afore-mentioned guy in the fat cat suit. Westly was upbeat and positive, introduced by several leading Chicoans. He made essentially no mention of Phil Angelides, but did refer frequently to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unfavorably, but without rancor, hitting his usual themes.

Sorry for the delay in this little update, occasioned by my needing to drink a coke. I’m operating on 2 hours sleep after getting in from San Francisco very late to write the AM column prior to boarding the bus. On to Redding.

2 PM UPDATE: 40 people for Westly at a Redding cafe along with local press. Another upbeat presentation. Largely uneventful save for a guy who lost a 7000 dollar case before the Franchise Tax Board. And was quite unhappy about it. Westly was sympathetic about it, but reminded him he had to pay his taxes on time.

On to Sacramento for a town hall meeting. Unfortunately, no time to stop at the Ralph Lauren outlet store south of Redding. Or spend enough time gazing at the fabulous Mount Shasta.

Meanwhile, Westly has done one-on-one interviews with the press in tow. An advantage to a journalist of a bus tour. But not always an advantage to a politician.

Needless to say, Westly and his wife Anita have their own bus, replete with his larger than life picture with supporters on the bus. He spent the Chico to Redding leg on the press bus. On to Sacramento.

3:30 PM UPDATE: I am in a state of unusually heightened ignorance, riding on a bus heading south on I-5, watching episode 2 of The West Wing. Playing on the coach dvd player connected to various screens around the cabin. Most of the press, having had their one-on-ones with the state controller and really nifty lunches, are napping. Most of my contacts, reached via blackberry, are transfixed not with the gubernatorial primary but with the impending visit of the President of Mexico to the Capitol and LA. I am contemplating why Moira Kelly did not become the star she was anticipated tp be on West Wing. It may have been the beret.

4:30 PM UPDATE: I’m told that 400K from Phil Angelides to his campaign has just shown up on the California Secretary of State’s web site, as predicted.

5:15 PM UPDATE: Another 100K from Angelides to his campaign just reported, I’m told.

** ANGELIDES INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE CAMPAIGN IS BACK!

On Friday, I’m told. With TWO MILLION DOLLARS.

** 7:30 PM UPDATE: Westly’s Sacramento town hall, which ended around six, went quite well. 200 supporters in attendance, along with two stars from the Women’s NBA Champion Sacramento Monarchs. A very positive crowd, although Westly did receive a hostile question for his having previously said that he understands immigrants since he sleeps with an immigrant, i.e., his wife. He apologized if he gave any offense. The ubiquitous Angelides campaign “fat cat” was on hand here as well, this time with a Westlyite shadowing the prankster with a big hand-painted sign in Angelides’ blue-and-yellow colors proclaiming: “Get Your Picture Taken With Phil Angelides.”

With my breaking the earlier stories today of Angelides and his decades long patron and partner Angelo Tsakopoulos now pouring in millions to the official and unofficial Angelides campaigns, the “fat cat” seems, well, silly.

** THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY FOR GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA IS A DEAD HEAT CONTEST BETWEEN PHIL ANGELIDES AND STEVE WESTLY, ACCORDING TO THE NEW PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA POLL TO BE RELEASED TOMORROW.

A San Diego TV station violated the embargo I’ve been honoring all day, so there we are. I’ll have much more adequate analysis of the poll and the overall situation than provided by the TV station later.

Treasurer Phil Angelides delivered an impassioned speech yesterday at the Sacramento Press Club. Angelides said he would never raise taxes on the middle class, made an unspecific call for much greater education spending, and ripped his rival, Controller Steve Westly, for doing the Republicans’ “dirty work” for the general election campaign.

Although Angelides appeared to have regained an edge in his battle for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination with Westly — who garnered the bigger turnout at the capital city press club’s monthly luncheon in April — the contest could go either way. Later, his campaign and Westly’s continued their skirmishing over the candidates’ ties to the oil industry.

Westly launches his statewide bus tour this morning. Angelides will continue his public campaigning around the state, which, following much criticism for seeming inactivity, he has done in a much more active vein this month. Meanwhile, Westly has just flung two more negative TV ads at Angelides, both on his background as a land developer, and Angelides has a new ad criticizing his rival for breaking his positive campaign pledge, claiming he wants to raise taxes, and emphasizing his endorsements by public employee unions for teachers, firefighters, health care workers, and police officers.

On taxes during his Press Club appearance, Angelides struck a resolute tone. “My position today, my position tomorrow, my position as governor, is no tax increases on middle-class families,” vowed the treasurer. “I’m only going to ask people making a half-million dollars or more a year, big corporations, to chip in.”

Westly has hammered Angelides, once the party’s presumptive nominee, for calling for a variety of other tax increases in recent years. On April 5th, Angelides declared that he has an “exact” plan to “fully fund education” and balance the budget, consisting of tax hikes on the rich and the closure of still unspecified corporate tax loopholes.

Angelides ripped into Westly for criticizing him for having called for tax increases he says he no longer supports, saying the attacks from Westly, whom he called “the also Arnold” (the treasurer styles himself “the anti-Arnold”) “are the same attacks that Arnold Schwarzenegger, his Republican henchmen Karl Rove and Steve Schmidt and the whole team will level against me in the fall.” Since Angelides is also attacking Westly on taxes, the ex-eBay honcho could say much the same thing, as a very amused Arnold friend pointed out.

On education, Angelides decried what he called California’s current woeful state of ranking 43rd in the nation in per pupil spending and said he wanted to take California back to the leadership days of his youth, “when California was in the top five” states in the nation. But he did not say how much that would cost or how he would pay for it. And the source of the statistic he used for California’s per pupil spending actually dates back to 2003, when Gray Davis — whom Schwarzenegger defeated in the recall election — was governor.

A further complication for Angelides on education ensued earlier yesterday, when the California Teachers Association (CTA) took the unusual step of endorsing Schwarzenegger’s state budget and education plans. CTA, which has endorsed Angelides and which spent $58 million to shatter the former action superstar’s special election agenda last year, has launched a lobbying effort to ensure passage of the Schwarzenegger budget.

On the question of who is closer to the unpopular oil industry, the two Democratic campaigns continued their squabbling. Angelides, according to materials released by the Westly campaign, has raised nearly $500,000 from oil and associated energy firms. (A minority of it during his tenure as state Democratic Party chairman.) The Angelides campaign countered with material showing Westly having raised around $80,000.

Angelides, of course, has been criticizing Westly for many weeks for having a few million dollars of his vast portfolio invested in oil stocks. Both men sit on the board of the California Public Employees Retirement System, which owns billions of dollars in oil stocks; neither is pushing for divestment of the oil stocks.

Looking at the attack materials provided by both campaigns reveals that both campaigns have conflated the figures to make the overall “oil-related” numbers look larger. Both campaigns, for example, toss contributions from public utility companies into the mix, which is particularly misleading since there is no oil-fired electric power production in California. And natural gas-fired electric power production has been widely accepted by environmentalists, since natural gas is the cleanest burning of the fossil fuels.

** “SENATOR, I KNEW JACK KENNEDY. JACK KENNEDY WAS A FRIEND OF MINE. AND, SENATOR, YOU ARE NO JACK KENNEDY.” Legendary Texas Democrat Lloyd Bentsen, many times U.S. senator, Bill Clinton‘s first treasury secretary, and Michael Dukakis‘s running mate, passed away early this AM. The line above, of course, was his withering riposte in the 1988 vice presidential debate to his Republican opponent, Dan Quayle.

** The take of the hyperliberal Daily Kos on Democratic prospects in the California governor’s race. California rated No. 11 on a list of Democratic takeover prospects.

** Forget the penny ante controversies I cover. And wouldn’t some of you like that? Here is the real deal: Jerry Brown’s evasiveness over the central cultural question of the day: The Da Vinci Code. I asked the former governor what he thinks of it. He told me what his wife, Anne Gust Brown, thinks of the book. He said he hasn’t seen the movie. But not if he’s read the book. Or what he thinks of the idea, which everybody knows about anyway. You see the pattern of evasion. It’s outrageous. What is he hiding?

** Governor Arnold Schwarzegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez are prepping the state Capitol visit of Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday and Friday. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gets the president later on Friday. Nunez, who invited President Fox to address a joint session of the California Legislature, which will take place in his Assembly chambers after he introduces the president, will also have a private meeting with Fox beforehand in his office, where he will be joined by Senate President Don Perata and other top politicians. For his part, Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver will host the airport arrival of Mexico’s president and First Lady Marta Sahagún de Fox, a private meeting in the Governor’s Office following Fox’s address to the Legislature, a tour of the Latina exhibit at California’s history museum, a reception, and a state dinner. Schwarzenegger will also host Fox Friday morning at a breakfast of the California Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. You may get a sense of the issues of political protocol at play here by the way this is phrased …

UPDATE: Irony intended on the Da Vinci Code item.

After a period last week of what might be called advertising arrhythmia, with five TV ads rotating in rapid succession, Phil Angelides has settled on one ad attacking rival Steve Westly in their nasty duel for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. The state treasurer made a quick dash up the California coast yesterday as he and Westly traded fire over which of them was more besmirched by ties to the oil industry. The two are battling to take on Arnold Schwarzenegger.

According to an Angelides campaign source, the campaign received a tip last week that Westly was going to begin attacking the treasurer for having raised nearly a half-million dollars from oil and other energy companies as a candidate and Democratic Party leader. Which Westly did last Friday night in a TV spot. Knowing also that long-anticipated attacks on his background as a land developer were coming, the campaign organized yesterday’s tour of Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz with some of the state’s top environmental leaders in tow.

The treasurer kicked that off in Santa Monica where, before 50 supporters, he announced his support for a likely oil severance tax initiative on the November ballot. The measure, put together by Hollywood producer Steve Bing and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, would impose a wellhead tax to provide $400 million a year for the development of alternative fuels. Westly has not taken a position.

Both campaigns are desperate to distinguish themselves from one another. Westly attacks Angelides for raising money from oil companies. Angelides has attacked Westly for owning millions in oil stock, which he did again yesterday.

But both men, who two weeks ago had equivalent favorability ratings in private polls, are endorsed by the Sierra Club and neither has a history of being politically friendly to the oil industry. The truth is that they both sit on the board of directors of the powerful California Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), which owns billions in oil stocks. Neither Angelides nor Westly is trying to get PERS to divest itself of its massive oil holdings.

Meanwhile, in the all-important air war, Westly has begun airing a new TV ad hitting Angelides for his developer background and his ties to the controversial independent expenditure campaign mostly funded by his campaign finance co-chairman and decades long patron and partner, Sacramento development kingpin Angelo Tsakopoulos. (The spot was already in the can, for it hits Angelides on the “$6 million” from Tsakopoulos. The amount is actually, as reported here over the weekend, now up to $6.7 million.)

For his part, Angelides, whose campaign cycled five TV spots in and out of rotation in five days time during a frenetic period last week, has settled on one ad attacking Westly. This ad scores the state controller for breaking his no-negative TV ads pledge, shows brief footage of him making the pledge (shot by an Angelides aide with a camcorder), then lights into him in not terribly specific ways for being an advocate of tax increases. The Angelides campaign, hit hard by Westly’s campaign for the treasurer’s recent advocacy of not only taxes on the rich and big corporations but a number of other taxes as well, wants to blur the idea that Angelides is the big taxer in the race. The spot then closes with a twist by attacking Westly for not supporting Angelides’ call for taxes on the rich and closing corporate tax loopholes (the latter still unspecified since the treasurer made the proposal on April 5th).

“Steve Westly,” goes the tagline. “Taxing the middle class, letting big corporations off the hook.” It’s an effective ad.

** State Senator Jackie Speier, running in a three-sided Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, is launching a $2.7 million TV ad blitz around the state. The Bay Area Democrat has trailed Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi in public polls, running ahead of Bay Area state Senator Liz Figueroa. Garamendi seemed to be hurt by an insurance industry advertising campaign against him, but garnered plenty of press for not backing down from an auto insurance regulation when, he says, the industry threatened him. The first Speier ad narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Coyote highlights her dramatic story of being shot on an airstrip in Guyana while on a congressional fact-finding tour with her boss, Congressman Leo Ryan, who was himself assassinated by followers of the Jim Jones People’s Temple cult. Who were then killed in the infamous “Jonestown” massacre. The second Speier ad is about her Senate record.

** Former Governor Jerry Brown wins a glowing profile in the new Time Magazine. Meanwhile, his opponent in the Democratic primary for state attorney general, L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, was trying to fend off a weekend revelation in the L.A. Times saying that he has falsely claimed to have been an All-American football player in college and to have played as a pro in the Canadian Football League.

UPDATE: The industrious Brown campaign has sent along several documents furthering the Times story on Delgadillo, including the script of an ad from Delgadillo’s campaign for L.A. city attorney which says that he won a football scholarship to Harvard. The college doesn’t have football scholarships.

** State Senator Joe Dunn, an Orange County Democrat and lawyer who rose to prominence investigating the causes of California’s electric power crisis, is taking to the air this week, spending about $2 million on a TV ad which will air in the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets. He is running in the Democratic primary for state Controller against state Board of Equalization member John Chiang. The ad is available here under downloads.

** Moody’s Investors Service has joined Standard & Poor’s in upgrading California’s credit rating, from A2 to A1, and its outlook on the state’s debt picture from stable to positive. To the obvious delight of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But before getting carried away, California still ranks near the bottom.

** IS THERE A CALIFORNIA “JUGGERNAUT” FOR LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS? Columnist Tom Elias thinks so.

The closely fought Democratic gubernatorial primary is taking on the aspect of a brutal fencing match. Today Phil Angelides does a coastal swing, touring Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, emphasizing his environmental record and hitting offshore oil drilling. A few nights ago, rival Steve Westly launched his latest attack ad, hitting Angelides for having raised money from oil companies.

The Angelides camp knew that such attacks were coming. Also expected is a Westly attack on Angelides’ land developer background. Although Angelides has a very strong environmental record in public office, that could be an area of vulnerability, so Angelides wants to emphasize his policy positions and many environmental endorsements.

While a tour like today’s by Angelides points up the fencing aspect of the campaign, it is clearest in looking at the TV advertising traffic over the past week.

The Angelides campaign wasn’t fast to react on the air to Westly breaking his pledge not to run negative TV ads — having hoped to win statements of denunciation from allies — but once it did start reacting with TV ads it’s been reacting very fast.

In the last week, Angelides has run five TV ads with varying messages. The humorous weightlifter spot which criticizes Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for not doing “the heavy lifting.” A spot in which the candidate talks about $17 billion in Bush era tax breaks. A cinema verite spot in which Westly is shown pledging, over and over, not to run negative TV ads. Another spot which cites Westly’s broken pledge, shows Westly making it, and then counters Westly’s attack on him as a big taxer by depicting Westly as a taxer. And another version of that ad which closes by emphasizing Angelides’ endorsements.

What has Westly been running? A spot that starts out touting the candidate’s positive characteristics and closes with an attack on Angelides as a big taxer. An all-out attack spot that cites various taxes Angelides has called for in recent years. And the new attack ad hitting Angelides for raising oil company money, which he did as state Democratic chairman.

Attacking Angelides for pushing tax increases — his current program, unveiled last month, is to raise taxes on the rich and close corporate loopholes — seemed an odd move in a Democratic primary even to some politicians and consultants not supporting Angelides. One pollster said only 20 percent of Democratic primary voters are motivated by anti-tax sentiment.

But the move must have worried the treasurer because he counter-attacked by painting Westly as a politician who wants to raise taxes. The intent is to blur whatever distinction Westly is drawing while attacking his character for breaking his positive campaign pledge.

Angelides’ latest TV ads seem pretty focused and effective. But moving ads in and out of rotation so rapidly can mean that the message is not being hammered home. In a race as tight as this one, that could blunt the momentum the once presumptive nominee has had in the past few weeks.