Apparently the biggest favor Jim Gilchrist is doing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is not running as a spoiler in the governor’s race. The founder of the Minuteman Project, self-styled citizen defenders of the border against “the illegal alien invasion,” as he calls it, made a very revealing appearance yesterday before the monthly luncheon of the Sacramento Press Club, casting the influx of illegal immigrants to the United States as being much bigger in scope than commonly accepted and part of a conspiracy.
First the immediate gubernatorial politics. Gilchrist, who ran an impressive race in an Orange County congressional special election last year, had declined to run as an independent for governor this year, which probably saved Schwarzenegger at least several percentage points in the campaign. But he exhibited little regard for the governor, despite Schwarzenegger’s previous impolitic praise for his group.
Schwarzenegger, he suggested, is part of a cabal along with President George W. Bush and various figures in the corporate and political establishments bent on bringing “cheap slave labor” into the U.S. He cast the governor as part of the “open border” lobby, not a good thing to be in Gilchrist’s book, as that puts him in Ted Kennedy’s company. In any event, as he put it, getting to talk with Schwarzenegger is “as easy as getting struck by lightning, or gaining an audience with the Pope.” (Given what you will learn about Gilchrist’s views, it would probably have been a good idea for Schwarzenegger’s previous cast of advisors to have learned of his ideas before counseling the governor to say the Minutemen were doing “a terrific job,” as he did last year.)
This was probably disappointing to the surprisingly large contingent of senior campaign aides to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides on hand. The treasurer’s chief strategist, press secretary, and opposition research director were all on hand, along with the state Democratic Party’s communications director. And the campaign’s latest arguably picturesque stunt, a fellow dressed as a Revolutionary War Minuteman in a Schwarzenegger mask, replete with Arnold accent. But there wasn’t much for them to do other than hope they got noticed on a slow news day.
Gilchrist’s story is interesting because — while he does not represent anything near a majority point of view — he does represent a very engaged minority. He is selling a new book, “Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America’s Borders,” which he co-authored with Jerome Corsi, who co-authored the anti-John Kerry book “Unfit for Command.”
The decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War says he was long concerned about the threat of illegal immigration, but that his activism was largely confined to writing articles (he notes that he has a degree in journalism) and letters to California’s senators and other politicians and being ignored. But 9/11, he says, and the knowledge that the attacks were carried out by foreigners in the country for the purpose of doing America harm, changed that.
From here, the story becomes rather lurid, at least by commonly accepted views of the situation. Gilchrist invited the various members of the state political press corps on hand to come to Laredo, Texas on September 11th for the kick-off of the Minuteman Project’s Operation U.S. Sovereignty. Its purpose? To kick off a big “neighborhood watch” program highlighting the porous border with Mexico which facilitates the “illegal alien invasion” and to draw attention to what he calls the “carnage” being inflicted upon Mexican journalists, police officers, and opposition politicians.
Gilchrist casts the struggle over illegal immigration as one between advocates of an “open border” and advocates of border enforcement. There are no camps in between. He calls the flow of illegal immigration into the U.S. “the 21st century slave trade.”
America is “a lawless society” as regards immigration, he says, claiming there are “30 million illegal aliens” in America and “half of them are slaves.” The generally accepted figure for the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is 11 to 12 million. Their make-up, he said in remarks after his speech and question-and-answer session, is largely Mexican, although he prominently mentioned Russians, along with Britons and Irish, among the mix. Other Latin American and Asian nations who are major contributors went unmentioned.
Gilchrist paints a very dark picture of Mexico and of U.S. elites in collaboration with the “invasion.” He sees a Mexican government “run by drug cartels,” fueled by $80 billion in illegal drug sales to Americans. U.S. elites pushed trade schemes such as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) which had the effect of “destroying” Mexico. Huge global corporate conglomerates were thus enabled to out-compete Mexican farmers and devastate the Mexican countryside.
As a result of rampant crime and corruption and the economics of NAFTA, he asserts, fully 50 percent of Mexicans want to leave the country. Their targeted destination, of course, is America.
“Bush and Arnold,” he says, “have no intention of securing the border.” Placing the National Guard at the border in the current program — in which 6000 will provide back-up to the Border Patrol — is a “token illusion of security.” Seven times as many troops, in active roles, would be required to make a serious presence.
Even HR 4437, the highly controversial bill by Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), the crackdown legislation which triggered massive demonstrations earlier this year, is a “token.” “One third of the Republican Party and all of the Democratic Party” have no intention of securing the borders.
Employer violations are rampant, but Gilchrist says Karl Rove, Bush’s political consigliere — and the bete noire of the Democratic left — has issued instructions to federal officials not to investigate widespread breaking of the law by companies employing illegal immigrants.
It is all part of a corporate and elite driven “politically correct paralysis” which has the effect of systematically dismantling the American middle class by “killing the unions” and undermining the average standard of living.
Within 25 to 30 years, he says, “America will be a mirror reflection of Mexico.” Given his view of Mexico as a crime-infested, deeply corrupt society run for the benefit of elites and global corporations, that is a dark vision indeed. And a world view that many will no doubt find as appealing as it is appalling.
** A quiet day in the California governor’s race today. No blackouts, with improving forecasts for weather and power supplies. The new TV advertising for Phil Angelides has not yet materialized. Meanwhile, Angelides’ hopes to make hay of Minutemen Project leader Jim Gilchrist’s appearance at the Sacramento Press Club didn’t amount to much, despite a large turnout of top campaign aides. (More to follow on Gilchrist.) Arnold Schwarzenegger got some play around the country for his and Nancy Reagan’s plea to President Bush to sign the stem cell research bill, which he vetoed instead.
** 3:45 PM UPDATE: The old state record for peak electric power usage in California, set last July, has been broken for the third straight day but the system is holding. The new record set on Monday is not supposed to be challenged today.
** The managers of California’s electric power grid, the California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO), have cancelled the state’s Power Watch which has been in effect since last Friday. Why? They say California will have more than enough power to meet high peak demand loads for the rest of the week.
** Jon Fleischman, proprietor of the influential conservative Republican Flash Report web site and a New West friend, has left his post as communications director for Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona to reintegrate with the private sector. The former California Republican Party executive director is putting up his shingle as a consultant, doing business as, not surprisingly, the Fleischman Consulting Group.
** Energy price watch, updated throughout the day, from Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have dropped back from record levels, but remain well above $70 per barrel.
** California broke its previous record, from last July, for electric power usage, on Monday and Tuesday. The power forecast for today is lower. You can track peak electric power usage here through Cal ISO, the California Independent System Operator.
** Continuing coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah War from Pajamas Media.
While the electric power grid in California yesterday withstood a second consecutive day shattering last year’s state record for power usage, there was one very prominent Californian victimized by a major power-related snafu. That would be state Treasurer Phil Angelides, the Democratic nominee for governor, who ended up stuck for a few hours last night at San Diego airport. Angelides advisor Steve Maviglio reported that the treasurer “was stuck on the tarmac in a jetliner for an hour, and is now back in the terminal. He and others got the last of the pepperoni pizzas and is now shaking thousands of hands of stuck passengers talking about how fragile our energy system is in California. Good timing on the day we put out our power release.”
A power-related failure of the regional air traffic control system in Palmdale led to a major delay at several Southern California airports. And to Angelides — who, unlike Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, traverses the state via Southwest Airlines rather than private Gulfstream jet — being stuck on the ground in San Diego on yet another day in which California’s failure to completely respond to the inadequacies of our electric power system first unearthed in the power crisis of 2001 had everyone’s fingers crossed around the state.
Team Arnold reports that the power-related snafu afflicting Phil Angelides’ travel plans from San Diego airport was caused by a car hitting a pole. A back-up generator was engaged for an hour to keep the regional air traffic control system online, but the generator, which is not under state control, unaccountably failed. Which goes to show you, says Angelides advisor Maviglio, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s deputy chief of staff on loan for a few weeks to the treasurer’s campaign to upgrade it: “How fragile our system is.”
Of course, that was also true when Maviglio’s previous boss, former Governor Gray Davis, was governor and a tree downing a power line in the far north state nearly led to widespread blackouts.
With Angelides’ attempts to drive news coverage frequently coming up short, the treasurer’s campaign has reverted to a more obvious technique: surfing the news flow, and drafting off of Schwarzenegger, whose actions as a movie star governor do frequently drive news coverage. With a major heat wave settled in over California, it was obvious that the electric power needed to drive air conditioning would be a big topic, so Angelides attacked on the state’s still lagging efforts to make sense of its energy policy in the wake of the 2001 electric power crisis that began former Governor Gray Davis’s precipitous descent from office.
Angelides charged that Schwarzenegger has done nothing to improve the state’s electric power situation, and that his refusal to sign a bill by Nunez showed that he is in the pocket of power market manipulators like the late Enron Corp. “Because of the Governor’s mismanagement of the state’s energy policy,” declared Angelides in his statement, “we’re right back to where we where when Schwarzenegger’s allies at Enron and the other power pirates were manipulating the state’s power grid.”
What Angelides does not say is that he raised money from Enron, and that the Nunez bill he touts now, after the fact, was actually produced by Southern California Edison. The utility’s parent company, like many energy concerns, lost a lot of money in the merchant power business in the early part of this decade. The Nunez bill would have restored the utilities to their unquestioned primacy in the California electric power market as de facto monopolies, giving Edison’s utility an assured way to make up for losses by Edison’s venture in the merchant power market.
The Schwarzenegger campaign counters Angelides’ charge of doing nothing by noting that 10 power plants producing more than 4400 megawatts have gone online since the former action superstar was elected.
However, Angelides is correct in noting that most of those plants were actually approved initially by Davis. The Schwarzenegger administration helped shepherd them through the process, but plants generated during the Schwarzenegger years — and seen through to fruition — have so far been relatively few and far between. While there are quite a few projects in the process, most have yet to produce power, or even begin construction.
Schwarzenegger has pushed for stable long-term power contracts, regulated by the Public Utilities Commission, and those have begun to import power from out of state. And he has made new renewable energy projects — such as the Million Solar Roofs initiative, the biggest solar program in America, which Angelides opposed along with his union backers after they failed to win “prevailing wage” requirements — a major priority.
But most of the new renewable projects have yet to produce power. In fact, the renewable power program in California is probably behind schedule.
Where Schwarzenegger has had more immediate success is in upgrading the state’s aging transmission grid, including the notorious Path 15 bottleneck in Southern California, although more needs to be done. And the governor has continued the state’s commitment to energy conservation, a commitment which makes California the most energy efficient state in the country.
The weather forecast for the rest of the week includes a slight easing of the heat wave, so the worst — in terms of peak demand on the electric power system — may be behind us. But the state’s energy future lies before us. With a growing population increasingly moving to the air conditioning-intensive middle of the state, that energy future remains challenging at best.
** 7:40 PM: Team Arnold reports that the power-related snafu afflicting Phil Angelides’ travel plans from San Diego airport was caused by a car hitting a pole. Which goes to show you, says Angelides advisor Steve Maviglio: “How fragile our system is.”
** 7:20 PM: While the overall power grid in California withstood another day shattering last year’s state record for power usage, there is one very prominent Californian victimized by a major power-related snafu. That would be state Treasurer Phil Angelides, the Democratic nominee for governor, now stuck at San Diego airport. Angelides advisor Steve Maviglio reports that the treasurer “was stuck on the tarmac in a jetliner for an hour, and is now back in the terminal. He and others got the last of the pepperoni pizzas and is now shaking thousands of hands of stuck passengers talking about how fragile our energy system is in California. Good timing on the day we put out our power release.”
A reportedly unspecified, power-related failure of the air traffic control system in Palmdale led to a major delay. And to Angelides — who unlike Schwarzenegger traverses the state via Southwest Airlines rather than private Gulfstream jet — being stuck on the ground in San Diego on yet another day in which California’s failure to completely respond to the inadequacies of our electric power system first unearthed in the power crisis of 2001 had everyone’s fingers crossed around the state.
** California’s electronic power grid again withstood the national heat wave today. The system’s peak usage topped out at 46,372 megawatts, second highest total in history, sometime after 1600 this afternoon. (Less than 200 megawatts behind yesterday’s record load.) It has since subsided by more than a thousand megawatts, as of 1740.
** Speaking today of Phil Angelides‘ gubernatorial campaign, Willie Brown, the legendary former Assembly speaker and San Francisco mayor, said this of the man whose election to the chairmanship of the California Democratic Party he engineered back in 1991 when Jerry Brown resigned to seek the presidency: “If he tries to go one on one with the Terminator, he’s terminated.”
Of course, Willie loves to say this kind of stuff. And he is an old personal friend of … Arnold Schwarzenegger.
** The first half of 2006 is the warmest year yet in U.S. records.
** Incidentally, as reported yesterday, I am throttling back some after months of close to 24/7 political coverage and analysis (except for the sleeping part). I’m also getting myself up to speed on the new war, which will clearly be a major new political factor.
In addition, New West Notes is becoming part of a global new media network. (More on that later.) And having provided breaking coverage and analysis setting up the California elections, it’s time to be in a bit more relaxed mode in the relative dog days of summer.
NWN will continue to publish every day.
** California set a new record for electric power usage yesterday, with a peak usage of 46,560 megawatts. The previous California record, set last July, was 45,431 megawatts. So far, so good, as a sweltering heat wave settles in over the Golden State, as it has throughout most of the U.S. Another record has been predicted for today. You can track peak electric power usage here through Cal ISO, the California Independent System Operator.
** Energy price watch, updated throughout the day, from Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have declined slightly from their record high.
** Continuing coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah War from Pajamas Media.
Nearly a year after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed the proposal, months after Schwarzenegger became co-chair of the campaign and several days after he became one of its three official ballot proponents, Democratic candidate Phil Angelides has endorsed the Jessica’s Law anti-child molester initiative, Proposition 83 on California’s November ballot. Flanked by police union representatives yesterday at an event in Los Angeles, Angelides also endorsed legislation calling for some additional measures. Prior to this, the only major Democratic backer of Jessica’s Law was former Governor Jerry Brown.
The measure would increase prison terms for a wide variety of child molesting offenses, make it more difficult for registered sex offenders to live in heavily populated areas, and require that they wear a global positioning satellite (GPS) tracking device for the rest of their lives.
Angelides also endorsed a rival measure, SB 1128, by state Senator Elaine Alquist (D-San Jose). The bill would lengthen sentences for raping a child under 14 — one of only a few longer sentences that apparently did not occur to the initiative’s authors — and allow police to arrest convicted sex offenders who “loiter” in places where children may gather. This would mean, for example, that they would not be able to sit in a park without fear of arrest.
The bill was actually put forward as part of a Democratic legislative strategy to avoid supporting the Jessica’s Law initiative by proposing a fearsome-looking alternative. State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said he would oppose Prop 83 and favored a legislative solution. There is significant liberal opposition to preventing sex offenders from living within 2000 feet of any school or park. Similarly, the Alquist bill does not require the GPS tracking devices.
Angelides put forward a few ideas of his own. He said he would require law enforcement officials to organize community meetings to inform people about the arrival of convicted sex offenders. One civil liberties advocate backing Angelides, who did not want to be identified, called this proposal by the Democratic challenger: “Disappointing, pandering, a witch hunt.”
Angelides would also add another to the state’s array of victims assistance and advocacy programs with one specifically targeted for victims of sexual assault. In addition, he would increase the number of parole officers assigned to intensely monitor sex offenders deemed “high risk” candidates for repeat offenses so that the increased cadre would cover the much broader population of sex offenders, for an unspecified cost.
The Angelides move comes after weeks of his being hammered as he moved around the state by prominent district attorneys, sheriffs, and police chiefs backing the initiative and the governor. As the Democratic candidate would enter a local media market, a high-profile Jessica’s Law backer in law enforcement would challenge him to take a position on the initiative.
As time passed and Angelides still had no position, there were hints from the Angelides campaign that he was developing an alternative to Jessica’s Law. Instead, he endorsed it along with the bill intended to be a political alternative to it.
Veteran Democratic strategist Garry South, who ran Gray Davis’s two winning campaigns for governor and was chief strategist for Steve Westly’s near-miss primary race against Angelides, expressed surprise that it took so long for Angelides to accede to the inevitable and endorse the Jessica’s Law initiative.
“It’s six weeks since the primary and he is only now doing something on crime,” South noted with dismay.
Until yesterday, there was no mention of crime in the issues section of the Angelides for Governor web site. Other than corporate crimes.
Few Democrats have endorsed the initiative, mindful of the party’s civil liberties lobby and concerned about its practicality. But it is clearly a political juggernaut, as former Governor Brown, the current Oakland mayor and the party’s nominee for state attorney general, figured out much earlier.
** California set a new record for electric power usage earlier today, with a peak usage of 46,560 megawatts. The previous California record, set last July, was 45,431 megawatts. So far, so good, as a sweltering heat wave settles in over the Golden State, as it has throughout most of the U.S. You can track peak electric power usage here through Cal ISO, the California Independent System Operator.
** Nearly a year after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed the proposal, and several days after Schwarzenegger became one of its three ballot proponents, Democratic candidate Phil Angelides has endorsed the Jessica’s Law anti-child molester initiative, Proposition 83 on California’s November ballot. Flanked by police union reps, Angelides also endorsed legislation calling for some tougher strictures. Prior to this, the only major Democratic backer of Jessica’s Law was former Governor Jerry Brown. More to follow.
** Incidentally, I am throttling back some after months of close to 24/7 political coverage and analysis (except for the sleeping part). I’m getting myself up to speed on the new war, which will clearly be a major new political factor.
In addition, New West Notes is becoming part of a global new media network. (More on that later.) And having provided breaking coverage and analysis setting up the California elections, it’s time to be in a bit more relaxed mode in the relative dog days of summer.
11:30 AM UPDATE: NWN will continue to publish every day.
** Energy price watch, updated throughout the day, from Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have declined slightly from their record high.
** Continuing coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah War from Pajamas Media.
With informed sources saying that the California Democratic Party will begin advertising this week on behalf of Treasurer Phil Angelides’ gubernatorial campaign, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appears ready to counter the move in several ways. This, say informed sources, will likely involve TV advertising through the California Republican Party and public relations efforts emphasizing weaknesses in the Angelides candidacy, particularly on taxes, and promised policy proposals which have yet to materialize.
Schwarzenegger has a substantial lead, according to informed sources, in private polls for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), the infrastructure bonds campaign, and the California Teachers Association (CTA).
The Democratic Party advertising will be produced by Angelides media consultant Bill Carrick, himself a recent addition to the campaign since the treasurer narrowly defeated Controller Steve Westly in the June 6th primary. The arrangement, sources say, is much like that between the California Republican Party and the Schwarzenegger campaign. The parties can receive much larger contributions than the official campaigns to run “issue advocacy” advertising. Pretty much anything goes so long as the ad does not specifically advocate a vote. The pro-Schwarzenegger ads that have been blanketing the air waves are produced by Schwarzenegger media consultants Fred Davis and Alex Castellanos, working with strategists Steve Schmidt and Matthew Dowd.
The size of the pro-Angelides media buy is not yet known, but sources say it will be financed by money raised for the party by Angelides himself. And while the content of the advertising is not yet know, it’s a safe bet that it involves Schwarzenegger’s relationship with unpopular President George W. Bush, which is key to Angelides’ hopes in virtually all conversations with operatives.
Schwarzenegger’s likely counter is to focus on Angelides’ full-throated — in recent years and the Democratic primary just past, at least — of tax increases. And on promised policy proposals that the Democratic candidate has yet to produce.
The moderate Republican’s campaign will likely hammer away at the notion of Angelides the taxer. The Democratic candidate campaigned heavily in his closely fought primary victory on raising taxes for the wealthy and closing an unspecified number of corporate tax loopholes. Schwarzenegger and company believe Angelides’ numbers don’t add up and that, in order to pay for the various programs he has endorsed, he would have to push a raft of other taxes he has proposed in the last two to three years, but now says he no longer supports. The other taxes he recently endorsed would affect most Californians.
In addition, the former action superstar’s campaign will begin zeroing in on promised but still missing policy proposals from Angelides, counting down the time from promised policy to delivered policy. On crime, the treasurer promised a prompt decision on the Jessica’s Law anti-child molester initiative, Proposition 83 on the November ballot, with a proposed alternative if he declines to endorse the measure, as many expect. Schwarzenegger took on a lead role in the initiative campaign last Friday.
Similarly, Angelides promised positions on the other November ballot propositions. The Schwarzenegger camp will press him for those as well.
One reason offered by Angelides advisors for the still unspecific nature of his tax program — which was announced on April 5th — is the need for the treasurer to work out his own state budget program as an alternative to what Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have done. Schwarzenegger’s campaign will press Angelides on his promise last month to produce his alternative budget program.
Some Salinas Valley farmers may have provided an example last week of why Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides has not fleshed out his announced program of closing corporate tax loopholes in his campaign against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. On Thursday, in John Steinbeck country, a number of farmers denounced the treasurer’s proposal to eliminate the “tractor tax break” they say can mean the difference between profit and loss.
Signed into law by Democratic Governor Gray Davis in 2001, the sales tax exemption on liquid petroleum gas, farm equipment, and diesel fuel costs the state some $100 million a year according to the treasurer’s office. But, according to the Monterey County Herald, the farmers, at an event organized by the Monterey County Farm Bureau and the Schwarzenegger campaign, said they’re not rich fat cats but small business people. Unlike farmers in other states, they don’t get price supports, so the sales tax break makes a difference for them.
In their view, one person’s loophole is another’s lifeline.
This may be one reason why Angelides has been so slow to spell out his tax program, announced with great fanfare over 100 days ago on April 5th. Then he said that he would raise taxes on the wealthy and close corporate tax loopholes, raising $2.5 billion with the latter move.
But while he has acknowledged a number of tax “loopholes” to be closed, he has still yet to spell out the entire program. The tax expenditures, another Capitol term of art, that he has proposed eliminating amount to about 40 percent of the $2.5 billion he said his program would raise.
The Angelides campaign describes the corporate tax loophole closures the Democratic challenger has enumerated so far as “examples” of what he would do as governor. Which is not the stance that the treasurer took in the spring as he battled with rival Steve Westly and was anxious to be seen as both the most liberal and the most substantive of the Democratic candidates.
Then the state treasurer made a very resolute statement on April 5th, when he declared his tax hike program the centerpiece of his agenda.
“I’ll fully fund our schools, roll back the Schwarzenegger tuition hikes, expand financial aid, and open the doors to college wider than ever — and I’ll balance the state’s budget. I’ve said exactly how I’ll pay for this — by closing corporate tax loopholes and asking multi-millionaires to pay their fair share again.”
When I asked Angelides following his April 5th speech laying out the program to specify which corporate tax loopholes he would close, he replied that he had a “$2.5 billion” program of corporate tax loophole closures, saying his campaign would send me the list. Which it did not.
Later that day, following his debate with Westly at the taping of Univision’s Voz y Voto, we did return to the question of exactly what the treasurer is calling for. I had asked him earlier to be specific about his corporate tax loophole closure program, and he had said his staff would send me a list. What was actually sent was not a list of those loopholes Angelides proposed to close, but a very general discussion of the state’s fiscal situation.
Noting this, I asked the treasurer to name some of the loophole closures in his program. He mentioned three, then referred me to the web site to look up the rest. I didn’t see the program on his web site. Later his staff sent along a list of corporate tax loopholes to be closed, without any revenue numbers attached. In the absence of an Angelides analysis of his program, the California Taxpayers Association, which opposes tax increases, did its own analysis of how much revenue the proposed Angelides corporate loophole closures would provide the state. They came up with a total of just under $1 billion per year, a far cry from what Angelides said his program would do.
Since then, more than three months later, there has been virtually no progress on getting the Democratic nominee to spell out his tax program. The controversy with the Salinas Valley farmers on Thursday may help explain why. Not all tax loopholes are about giant oil companies or super-rich individuals seeking to avoid paying sales tax on their yachts.
Democrats are riding to the rescue of Treasurer Phil Angelides’ gubernatorial campaign. Informed sources say that TV advertising on behalf of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s challenger, funded through the California Democratic Party, will begin next week.
With Angelides trailing substantially in private polls for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), the infrastructure bonds campaign, and the California Teachers Association (CTA), the help comes not a moment too soon. As one top political consultant put it on Thursday: “Angelides has three weeks to try to counter what is happening to him. If he doesn’t, he is in serious trouble.”
The advertising will be produced by Angelides media consultant Bill Carrick, himself a recent addition to the campaign since the treasurer narrowly defeated state Controller Steve Westly in the June 6th primary. The arrangement, sources say, is much like that between the California Republican Party and the Schwarzenegger campaign. The parties can receive much larger contributions than the official campaigns to run “issue advocacy” advertising. Pretty much anything goes so long as the ad does not specifically advocate a vote. The pro-Schwarzenegger ads recently blanketing the air waves are produced by Schwarzenegger media consultants Fred Davis and Alex Castellanos, working with strategists Steve Schmidt and Matthew Dowd.
The size of the pro-Angelides media buy is not yet known. Sources say it will be financed by money raised for the party by Angelides himself.
The content of the advertising is not yet known. Yet a safe bet would be that it involves Schwarzenegger’s relationship with unpopular President George W. Bush. The Bush linkage, relatively tenuous before and after the late 2004 to late 2005 period in Schwarzenegger’s political career, is key to Democratic hopes in virtually all conversations with operatives.
In addition to the TV advertising, two Democratic professionals have arrived to provide needed shoring up for the Angelides communications operation. Steve Maviglio will take three weeks off his job as deputy chief of staff to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to help the Angelides campaign gain proficiency in its press operation. Maviglio, a former New Hampshire state legislator, was gubernatorial press secretary to former Governor Gray Davis. When he joined Nunez’s staff it was during a period in which the speaker was Schwarzenegger’s chief antagonist. Maviglio was able to get some payback for the 2003 recall election with his new post. But with the speaker and governor having a very positive relationship for much of the last year, those opportunities have become few and far between. Now Maviglio can help the Angelides campaign get organized to meet the challenge of taking on Schwarzenegger.
Also on board is Roger Salazar, another Gray Davis veteran, as communications director for the California Democratic Party. Though he will play a central role, it is not a full-time position. Salazar was Davis’s campaign press secretary. He was also spokesman for North Carolina Senator John Edwards’ presidential campaign. More recently, he was a top consultant to Steve Westly, though, in a surprise to some, the bulk of his time in the primary was taken up with another client, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, in his ultra-long shot bid in the attorney general primary against former Governor Jerry Brown.
Salazar, like Maviglio, is quite experienced at running down Schwarzenegger, having worked for the Education Coalition (CTA et al) in drawing a negative definition of the former action superstar early on in his “Year of Reform” special election initiatives venture in 2005. In those days, Schwarzenegger and his team of that time were far more obliging to such efforts than they are now.
** The destruction of Hezbollah, a key Iranian proxy, is Israel’s goal in its Operation Just Desserts, according to the Times of London. Sharply diminishing the capability of Iran, a state with clear nuclear and regional ambitions in the absence of Saddam Hussein, is a clear goal of the Bush Administration, explaining its stance in this conflict.
** Beset by record heat throughout much of California, state power grid officials urged that residents curtail their energy use over the weekend.
** An Israeli naval vessel has been nearly gutted by a Hezbollah aerial drone attack.
** The price of crude oil has risen 26 percent since the first of the year.
11 AM UPDATE: The acceleration of the conflict continues with the failed Israeli attempt to decapitate Hezbollah. The strike left the Iranian-backed organization’s Beirut headquarters in a conflagration, but its leader on air spitting defiance at Israel in a lengthy speech.
** Continuing coverage, updated throughout the day, from Pajamas Media of the Israel-Hezbollah War.
** Energy price watch, including record crude oil prices, updated throughout the day, from Bloomberg.
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