Allen, widely touted as a leading conservative challenger for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, had his hands full with Webb right along. Webb was one of the most highly decorated Marine Corps officers in the Vietnam War, having won the Navy Cross, the nation’s second highest award for courage in combat, just behind the Medal of Honor. He also won a fistful of other medals. One of the most famous graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Webb emerged as perhaps the finest novelist of the Vietnam War, and is a top screenwriter and award-winning documentary filmmaker. He served as assistant secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan before becoming secretary of the Navy. Webb became a Democrat because of his dismay over President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy.
Webb subsequently debated Allen on an airing of Meet the Press and wiped the floor with him.
** The LA Times poll released tomorrow will show a huge lead for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over Democratic candidate Phil Angelides, 50% to 33%. The former action superstar’s job approval rating is up to a whopping 56%. Schwarzenegger is viewed as the superior leader by 60% of likely voters. Only 20% pick Angelides. Schwarzenegger also has a clear edge on integrity and trustworthiness, 43% to 25%. The former Mr. Universe also leads Angelides on all major issue areas.
** Although a panoply of some of the biggest movie stars in the world, including Tom Cruise, have come out against that proposed LNG (liquefied natural gas) platform near Malibu, some 14 miles off the coast, only Home Alone co-star Daniel Stern appeared with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides at his event yesterday announcing his opposition.
** That big Democratic wave predicted across America and through California? Not happening here. Most of the statewide Democratic candidates are in trouble. Only Jerry Brown and Bill Lockyer are in strong shape among the candidates for state constitutional office. (Dianne Feinstein is, of course, a shoo-in for U.S. Senate.)
Meanwhile, with his Iraq War gambit falling flat, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides is returning to the Schwarzenegger tape fiasco, demanding that the governor release the rest of the audio tapes of private conversations that Angelides opppsition researchers surreptitiously obtained from the governor’s server. The Angelides camp only slipped one tape to the LA Times, which promptly slapped the take on the front page.
Are the above three paragraphs unconnected? Only in dreams.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices hover above sixty dollars per barrel. Economic growth has slowed, and Venezuela and Nigeria will reportedly cut production to maintain the price.
** A new LA Times poll for tomorrow’s paper shows all down ballot Democrats running statewide other than Bill Lockyer and Jerry Brown to be in very tight races. Attorney General Lockyer, who faces no serious opposition in the race for state treasurer, leads his Republican opponent 50% to 26%. Former Governor and current Oakland Mayor Brown, who has just been lambasted by a couple million in ads by his opponent for state attorney general, state Senator Chuck Poochigian and the Republican Party, leads 51% to 34%. All the other candidates are in tight races.
Senate Dianne Feinstein leads her Republican opponent, former state Senator Dick Mountjoy, 54% to 36%. Interestingly enough, Feinstein’s 18-point lead over Mountjoy is virtually identical to Brown’s lead over Poochigian. While Poochigian is spending a big chunk of his money in an effort to show real movement in the polls, Mountjoy’s campaign consists of an answering machine in his house. Yet both trail by the same margin.
** NWN has learned that the Phil Angelides for Governor campaign has sent a letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger demanding that he release all those audio tapes on the Governor’s Office computer system by October 4th. Or else, they will. You’ll recall the infamous backfiring tape flap earlier in the month. Using a cyber trick that Democratic spinners couldn’t explain for an agonizing period of time, Angelides opposition researchers surreptitiously came up with a tape of a private Schwarzenegger discussion with top staffers in which he mused about ethnology. Which they then leaked to the Los Angeles Times, which promptly slapped it on the paper’s front page. With the treasurer’s Iraq gambit falling flat — see this morning’s column on marginal events and absent allies — we’re going down that road again.
At the time, of course, the Times presented the tape as the product of enterprise journalism, not something slipped to them by Schwarzenegger’s opponent. And the Angelides campaign, in the person of campaign manager Cathy Calfo, expressed surprise and alarm about the move by its research director and primary campaign communications director. Calfo said neither she nor Angelides had known anything about it, a statement met with disbelief by a great many name Democrats, and that they were dismayed and would look to make personnel moves. A few days later, Angelides defended what his senior staffers had done, without his knowledge, that is, and tried unsuccessfully to focus attention back on Schwarzenegger’s comments, which had been largely dismissed by other top Democrats.
Meanwhile, the California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident. It’s not clear that threatening to release materials at issue in an investigation is a particularly clever move. It’s not at all clear that revisiting this fiasco is a clever move for the Angelides campaign. I would venture to guess, shall we say, it is not.
But when a campaign goes south, it goes south. And various polls show the treasurer’s Iraq gambit a clear backfire. As is obvious from what did not happen in the three events the campaign staged this week to try to ignite it as a big new issue in the campaign. The events fell flat. None of Angelides’ co-chairs participated or chimed in with statements of support. No one of any real prominence in the area of national security participated. With the exception of loyal Democrat Mayor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco — who the next day praised Schwarzenegger for his “vision and leadership” introducing him at the global warming bill signing ceremony — no one of any real prominence appeared with Angelides at any of the small rallies the campaign staged.
** Schwarzenegger campaign leaders Steve Schmidt and Matthew Dowd just held a lengthy media conference call. Their main messages? That the campaign margin will close up as some Democrats inevitably come home to their party’s nominee. And that the Angelides Iraq gambit is falling flat in their polling. (Which seems like common sense, given the lack of enthusiasm for it evidenced by marginal events and absent political figures.) Let’s take their insistence that the gap between ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Phil Angelides will narrow. They’ve been saying that for months and it hasn’t happened. Yet it should and probably will, as it’s absurd that the Democratic nominee for governor of California, a mostly blue state, is only polling 60% of his party’s vote. How much? Well, that’s another matter.
** Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appears with Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata to sign the affordable prescription drugs bill this morning.Live webcast slated for 9:15 AM.
Trailing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides held his last anti-Iraq War rally of the week at a community college a few blocks from his Sacramento home. Although it had a respectable turnout of the state’s political press corps, the event made little impression on the sprawling campus, drawing only about 200 people despite the offer of a free lunch.
Arriving early to check the scene and shoot 45 minutes of video footage of the rally’s set-up, the rally itself, and its aftermath, I found that many students attending the rally had little awareness of Angelides, a major figure in statewide Democratic politics for nearly two decades and a native Sacramentan.
It’s almost unfair to compare with the events of the man he seeks to unseat, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Angelides is running against him. And, like Schwarzenegger with global warming, Angelides is trying to expand his appeal by speaking out on an international issue, in this case the Iraq War. Although unlike the case with global warming, the California governor has no real power over the Iraq policy.
Schwarzenegger’s event on global warming featured the British prime minister, the governor of New York, the speaker of the California Assembly, and the mayor of San Francisco, as well as top environmental and business leaders. Angelides’ event on the Iraq War featured a Sacramento city councilman and a Bronze Star-winning Vietnam vet.
None of Angelides’ campaign co-chairs have appeared with the candidate at this week’s anti-war rallies. (One, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, is featured at three Schwarzenegger events this week.) While Nunez is a state official, the other three Angelides co-chairs are federal officials with direct involvement on Iraq policy. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are California’s two U.S. senators. Nancy Pelosi is the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Although apparently no California political reporter has asked her, my sources tell me Feinstein does not favor Angelides’ attempt to bring California National Guard members home from Iraq.
The Democratic gubernatorial challenger held his final anti-Iraq War rally of the week during the lunch hour yesterday at Sacramento City College. About 200 students attended the event, held in a semi-enclosed area between three buildings. I arrived early and shot 45 minutes of video footage of the set-up of the event, the event itself, and its aftermath, including Angelides’ brief press availability. Although students were enticed to the event by leafleters talking up an anti-war rally and free lunch, much of the crowd did get into the spirit of things once the candidate showed around 12:40 PM.
The spirited candidate, accompanied by his family, dropped any pretense that the governor has power over California National Guard troops on active duty service in the Iraq War. He said that, on his first day as governor, he would formally request that President George W. Bush return California guard members from Iraq. And that he would seek to organize other governors to do the same and perhaps pursue a court case against the administration.
The state treasurer said that there is more torture going on now in Iraq than under Saddam Hussein. He cited an unnamed UN report for that particular nugget. That would get a sharp rejoinder if this were ever to become a major issue in the governor’s race. He said that Schwarzenegger has repeatedly said that the Iraq policy is good. Which, actually, hasn’t happened. It sounded like someone hoping against hope that the governor is foolish enough to straighten that out.
Questioned repeatedly by reporters during his brief press availability about the efficacy and relevance of Angelides’ focus on bringing guard members back from Iraq, which NWN readers have known from the beginning a governor has no power to do, Angelides seemed to say Schwarzenegger was the one who introduced the issue into the campaign, and not him. “Governor Schwarzenegger has repeatedly spoken out on this war,” the candidate claimed. “He has for the past one thousand days defended George W. Bush’s failed war policy. It’s Arnold Schwarzenegger who’s gone on national radio and TV shows to say Bush’s folly in Iraq is the right thing to do.”
Hmm. Anyone else recall all that about Schwarzenegger going so far out of his way to promote the Iraq policy? Actually, he’s said that America needs an exit strategy from Iraq.
Earlier in the day, Schwarzenegger had criticized Angelides for implying he would have any authority as governor to recall the National Guard from Iraq.
“The commander in chief is the president so it is irresponsible for anyone to promise the people anything else to get the troops back, it is absolutely irresponsible,” Schwarzenegger said. “I support fighting the war on terror and having the soldiers come back as soon as possible as soon as we find an exit strategy.”
Angelides countered that it was irresponsible of Schwarzenegger to be supporting the war in Iraq.
Meanwhile, embattled Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee who lost a close Democratic primary to super-rich anti-Iraq War candidate Ned Lamont, darling of the “netroots,” has a big lead in the general election now running as an independent.
Some California Democratic strategists, including those around the Angelides for Governor campaign, had predicted that Lamont’s primary win presaged a surge for Angelides in the California governor’s race.
Angelides moves to a new theme today, going to Malibu to announce his opposition to a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal off the coast. He is expected to make some hay out of the fact that First Lady Maria Shriver’s lawyer George Kieffer, is a partner in the Manatt Phelps law firm and that Manatt Phelps is pushing for the LNG project.
Manatt Phelps is a longtime Democratic power in state and national politics. Manatt is former Democratic national chairman and Ambassador Chuck Manatt. Angelides has raised money from the firm.
** Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger again vetoed LA state Senator Gil Cedillo’s perennial drivers licenses for illegal immigrants bill. Signing this bill was one of the nails in former Governor Gray Davis’s political coffin in the 2003 recall election.
** Embattled Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee who lost a close Democratic primary to super-rich anti-Iraq War candidate Ned Lamont, darling of the “netroots,” has a big lead in the general election now running as an independent.
Some California Democratic strategists, including those around the Angelides for Governor campaign, had predicted that Lamont’s primary win presaged a surge for Angelides in the California governor’s race.
** Being very fatigued and, ah, distracted, while reviewing the video footage I discovered a few things I missed in my recounting of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides’ anti-war rally earlier today at a Sacramento community college.
The state treasurer said that there is more torture going on now in Iraq than under Saddam Hussein. He cited an unnamed UN report for that particular nugget. He said that Schwarzenegger has repeatedly said that the Iraq policy is good and that he had today called Angelides “irresponsible” for focusing his campaign now on bringing the California National Guard back from Iraq. Actually, I don’t think Schwarzenegger has repeatedly called the Iraq policy a good thing, and I can hear Angelides’ longtime advisor Bob Mulholland hoping against hope that the governor is foolish enough to straighten that out. Schwarzenegger himself, to my knowledge, said nothing about Angelides today, although a campaign surrogate attacked the treasurer.
Questioned repeatedly by reporters during his brief press availability about the efficacy and relevance of Angelides’ focus on bringing guard members back from Iraq, which NWN readers have known from the beginning a governor has no power to do, Angelides seemed to say Schwarzenegger was the one who introduced the issue into the campaign, and not him. “Governor Schwarzenegger has repeatedly spoken out on this war,” the candidate claimed. “He has for the past one thousand days defended George W. Bush’s failed war policy. It’s Arnold Schwarzenegger who’s gone on national radio and TV shows to say Bush’s folly in Iraq is the right thing to do.”
Hmm. Anyone else recall all that about Schwarzenegger going so far out of his way to promote the Iraq policy?
** Democratic gubernatorial challenger held his final anti-Iraq War rally of the week during the lunch hour just passed at Sacramento City College. About 200 students attended the event, held in a semi-enclosed area between three buildings. I arrived early and shot 45 minutes of video footage of the set-up of the event, the event itself, and its aftermath, including Angelides’ brief press availability. Although students were enticed to the event by leafleters talking up an anti-war rally and free lunch (it looked very tasty, but I decided not to partake while waiting around), much of the crowd did get into the spirit of things once the candidate showed around 12:40 PM.
I’m going to review the video and update if something new occurs to me — and I will have a full report later on the event, as well as a video documentary — but the message was by now familiar. The spirited candidate, accompanied by his family and introduced by a Sacramento city councilman and a decorated Vietnam veteran (not Bob Mulholland), dropped any pretense that the governor has power over California National Guard troops on active duty service in the Iraq War. He said that, on his first day as governor, he would formally request that President George W. Bush return California guard members from Iraq. And that he would seek to organize other governors to do the same and perhaps pursue a court case against the administration.
NOTE: The area in which the Angelides event was held was fairly BlackBerry unfriendly. Voice and e-mail worked, but the web did not, so I was unable to approve any comments during the lengthy period of waiting and the event itself.
** The Big Bang Bonds infrastructure package on California’s November ballot still looks winnable, according to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll. But it will take a major campaign to make it happen. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger hits the trail next week with Democratic and Republican leaders to push for the bonds. Schwarzenegger has recovered the standing to do it.
According to PPIC, Schwarzenegger’s job approval rating among likely voters is back up to a healthy 53%.
** The Clean Money initiative, Proposition 89 on California’s November ballot, has fallen into a deep pit according to the new PPIC poll. It trails, 25% yes to 61% no. A majority of likely voters in the poll are opposed to public financing of elections, which is the core of the measure. The fact that it would be funded by a tax increase, albeit a slight hike in corporate taxes, seems problematic as well.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have bounced back up to the low sixties in dollars per barrel on concern about continued recalcitrance by Iran in refusing international efforts to curtail its nuclear program.
When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made good on what he’d been talking about since at least 2002, putting California in the lead in the fight against global warming, he did so in spectacular fashion, as seen in this NWN video. <a href=”“>In a ceremony on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, he signed California’s landmark anti-global warming bill, AB 32, which he negotiated with Democratic legislative leaders, environmentalists and new economy leaders, and the bill’s authors, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and LA Assemblywoman Fran Pavley.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined in by satellite from Manchester, England, where he was attending the Labour Party conference. He spoke to the assembled guests and media on a giant video screen with the San Francisco skyline and Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop. The Japanese consul general was also on hand to read a letter of support from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. New York Governor George Pataki was there in person and pledged to work with California on climate change.
Schwarzenegger, introduced by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who lauded the former action superstar for his “vision and leadership,” spoke, as did other participants, of California providing a model for the rest of the nation and perhaps the world. The governor, who talked of a new generation of new technologies to be spurred into being by the fight against global warming, spoke with flags from all the world’s nations to his right, a giant video screen to his left, and the skyline of San Francisco directly behind him.
The bill inaugurates “a bold new era of environmental protection here in California that will change the course of history,” the governor said. “This is something we owe our children and that we owe our grandchildren.” AB 32 commits California to rolling back greenhouse gas emissions to the 1990 level, a 25 percent cut, by 2020. By 2050, emissions are to be cut further, by 80 percent. It was opposed by many of Schwarzenegger’s traditional allies in the business community, but supported by an emerging “Green Tech” element, including Silicon Valley figures.
In addition to this bill, as I reported months ago, Schwarzenegger favors requiring that imported electric power meet greenhouse gas emission standards, ie., not come from regular coal-fired plants, and will also sign the bill by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata making that state law.
Tony Blair, linked live via satellite, said Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders have “shown brilliant leadership that will excite and inspire a lot of people worldwide.”
Blair went on to discuss the situation in Britain where, as here, many said reducing greenhouse gas emissions would wreck the economy. To the contrary, said Blair, much new economic activity had come about as a result of the environmental effort, with regulation spurring new technological innovation and “hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
Pataki, a fairly moderate Republican elected and re-elected in blue state New York, praised Schwarzenegger for the move, said he looked forward to working more with California on global warming. New York has already followed California’s lead on the first global warming bill authored by Pavley in 2002, which committed the state to sharply curtail tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases. He pointedly noted that states should not wait for Washington to act.
The California Democrats playing prominent roles in the ceremony, Mayor Newsom, whose city facility at the former manmade island naval base in the middle of San Francisco Bay hosted the governor’s extravaganza, and Speaker Nunez, the AB 32 author, were fulsome in their praise of Schwarzenegger and his leadership. Nunez is a co-chair of the Phil Angelides for Governor campaign and Newsom appeared with Angelides the day before at a small anti-Iraq War rally staged by Angelides’ campaign at San Francisco State.
Clearly this move is a bonanza for Schwarzenegger, making it even more difficult for Angelides to score points against the former Mr. Universe on the environment, which the state treasurer had thought would be one of his major issue areas. It also thoroughly undercuts the Angelides argument that Schwarzenegger is a George W. Bush clone.
Back in 2002, when former Governor Gray Davis had finally decided to sign the first Pavley bill, to cut tailpipe emissions in vehicles, Schwarzenegger was already talking about doing more on global warming should he become governor. Before he ran in the 2003 recall election, he said that he would defend that Pavley bill against the Bush administration and automakers, which he has, and move to take even more dramatic steps on global warming.
He also said he would accelerate California’s renewable energy programs. And he’s done so, enacting the nation’s largest solar energy program, which Angelides opposed, seemingly because it did not provide new opportunities for his union sponsors.
Events of this nature underscore one of the subtexts of much of Schwarzenegger’s operation, that he is a big-time guy for a big-time state. Previous governors, much less gubernatorial candidates, have not been able to pull off events of this magnitude.
Schwarzenegger’s trailing Democratic challenger, Angelides, takes another shot today at an anti-Iraq War rally on a college campus to stir up the Democratic base for his candidacy, this time in his home base of Sacramento. NWN will provide a video documentary of the event.
** In a spectacular ceremony on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California’s landmark anti-global warming bill, AB 32, which he negotiated with Democratic legislative leaders, environmentalists and new economy leaders, and the bill’s authors, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and LA Assemblywoman Fran Pavley. I was there, of course, and you will have a full report later along with a video documentary.
New York Governor George Pataki was there and pledged to work with California on climate change.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined in by satellite from Manchester, England, speaking to the assembled guests and media on a giant video screen with the San Francisco skyline and Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop.
The Japanese consul general was also on hand to read a letter of support from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Schwarzenegger, introduced by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who lauded the former action superstar for his “vision and leadership,” spoke, as did other participants, of California providing a model for the rest of the nation and perhaps the world. The governor, who talked of a new generation of new technologies to be spurred into being by the fight against global warming, spoke with flags from all the world’s nations to his right, a giant video screen to his left, and the skyline of San Francisco directly behind him.
Sorry you didn’t get a real time blogging report or at least an on-site report. Between the smartphone and the vidcam, my right hand is seriously tired out, especially after shooting nearly an hour of handheld video. (Typing on the blackberry is done with the thumbs. By the time I was finished shooting this morning I could barely operate the zoom function.)
The bill signing is being replicated right now in LA, but of course the bill became law this morning in San Francisco.
** California’s landmark anti-global warming law will be signed this morning on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The ceremony is set to begin at 10:45 AM Pacific time. It will be webcast live. Schwarzenegger will be joined by the bill’s authors, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and LA Assemblywoman FranPavley and a host of dignitaries, including New York Governor George Pataki. AB 32 commits California to cutting the state’s greenhouse gas emissions back to the 1990 level by 2020. NWN will provide a video documentary of the event.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have risen very slightly on word that OPEC members are discussing ways to “stabilize the market.” The price continues to hover at or just above the sixty dollar per barrel mark.
Another day of contrasts in the California governor’s race as two new public polls show big leads for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Appearing at the state’s annual women’s conference in Long Beach, which drew upwards of 10,000, meeting later with the Dalai Lama, the former action superstar projected exactly what he wanted. Meanwhile, trailing Democrat Phil Angelides held an anti-Iraq War rally at San Francisco State, drawing 150 to 200 students to hear his noontime call for bringing the National Guard home.
Schwarzenegger, as reported here yesterday afternoon, leads Angelides in the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll, 48% to 31%. He leads Angelides in the Field Poll, 44% to 34%. In both polls, the former Mr. Universe’s lead has increased. Neither poll is doing a push at this point to include “leaners” in the tallies.
In both polls, Angelides is drawing only around 60% of the Democratic vote. That will go up. (Field has Schwarzenegger at 77% among Republicans, which is low.)
However, not that the other news is especially promising for him, there are two bright red lights flashing for Angelides in the polls. First is that Schwarzenegger has brought his support level among Latino voters up to around one-third of the vote, which happens to be his target and what he got in the 2003 recall election. The second is that Angelides has a net negative image score; in other words, more likely voters view him unfavorably than view him favorably. (Schwarzenegger, of course, has a net positive image score.)
The allies seeming to ride to his rescue, in the form of the public employee union coalition and the state Democratic Party now using unlimited contributions to run TV ads on his behalf, are running only negative ads about Schwarzenegger. They are not doing anything to improve Angelides’ image with the electorate. You simply cannot be elected governor of California if more voters dislike you than like you.
The scale of these “independent” campaigns on the Democratic nominee’s behalf remains unclear. His allies are playing it cagy. What is known about the public employee union ad buy is that only $4 million has been bought so far. (They won’t say over what period of time.) While the ads are good, a clever rehash of the ads attacking Schwarzenegger last year in his disastrous special election, that amount of money is not going to do much in this environment.
Of course, we all expect much more than $4 million to be spent, and there are various scenarios floating around that I am investigating. But here is the problem. TV advertising rates have jumped up 40% to 45% over the past month or two, as stations take advantage of the big money ad wars over the oil tax and tobacco tax initiatives. So the interests proposing to ride to Angelides’ rescue are getting a lot less bang for their buck than they would have earlier in the year.
In other words, the $4 million that the Alliance for a Better California (ABC) is currently spending on the two TV ads helping Angelides by blasting Schwarzenegger is the equivalent of less than $3 million during the summer.
The fact that Angelides would have no legal standing as governor to pull the California National Guard — which as discussed here over the weekend when Angelides announced the gambit to two newspapers he can’t because the troops are now in federal service — out of Iraq probably doesn’t account for the relatively small crowd he drew. A noontime anti-war rally on a college campus in America’s most liberal big city should be a surefire winner, and Angelides was joined by popular Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Angelides has had trouble drawing crowds throughout this campaign. This despite the fact that he is backed by the labor unions and has on his staff one of the best advance men in the country, Ed Emerson, former head of advance for former President Bill Clinton and former Governor Gray Davis. Despite his relative lack of charisma, Davis consistently drew bigger crowds than Angelides has. Indeed, Steve Westly generally drew bigger crowds than Angelides in their very closely fought Democratic primary last spring.
The state treasurer will try again with another noontime college anti-war rally on Thursday, this time in his home base of Sacramento. NWN will provide a video documentary of the event.
Today Schwarzenegger signs the landmark global warming bill at an extravaganza on picturesque Treasure Island, in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Among others joining Schwarzenegger at the bill signing is New York Governor George Pataki. There will also be an NWN video documentary of that event.
** Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a big lead over Democratic challenger Phil Angelides in a new Public Policy Institute of Califonria (PPIC) poll, 48% to 31%. This is an increase over his 13-point lead a month ago. This is no surprise.
Actually, as NWN readers know, that’s wrong. The public employee union coalition held protests, which turned out to be relatively small, outside Schwarzenegger fundraisers earlier this year in Beverly Hills and Sacramento.
In this era in which hyperpartisans — on both far sides of the aisle — have become adept at screaming their mantras and building their straw men, frequently dominating what passes for “debate,” something very interesting is happening in California.
The partisans are beginning to evaporate.
In 1990, California had 12 million voters registered as members of the two major parties. Today, after an increase of about 2 million in the number of registered voters, we still have only 12 million voters registered to the two major parties. The Democratic and Republican parties have not grown at all in California …
… The themes that work with independent voters are themes of a creative center. Support for government coupled with skepticism about governmental efficiency and new taxes. Tolerance and support for individual rights and diversity coupled with support for law and order programs. Strong support for environmental protection coupled with strong support for technological innovation and entrepreneurship.
Right now all that is working for Schwarzenegger while the conventional Republicans of the partisan right and the conventional Democrats of the partisan left scramble for attention and support.
** California’s prison guards union is going on the air today with TV advertising to help endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides in Central Valley markets. Other public employee unions, in the form of what has been the very low-key Alliance for a Better California, will begin “independent” expenditure TV advertising on Angelides’ behalf tomorrow.
In such a situation, the question of legislative intent becomes the key. Did the Legislature intend to disallow such ads promoting a candidate but allow such ads attacking a candidate? That seems doubtful.
Of course, if this stands, Schwarzenegger can go back to running all his negative advertising through the state Republican Party. Be careful what you wish for.
** Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Darfur bill-signing went off with out a hitch, as some of you watched. He had good chemistry with his old Batmanand Robin co-star, George Clooney, who got off a good quip: “The last I was on a podium with the governor, I was Batman and he was Mr. Freeze. Now I still think I’m Batman and he’s the governor.” Clooney was also quite eloquent in discussing the Darfur crisis, which he has championed in appearances before the United Nations and elsewhere. Schwarzenegger likened the move divesting state investments from the Sudan to the movement in the past century to do the same with businesses in then apartheid South Africa, citing the work of his friend, Nelson Mandela. Don Cheadle, the award-winning actor who brought public attention to crises in Africa through his film, Hotel Rwanda, spoke with passion and precision, noting that the move reflects “human common sense, rather than mere dollars and cents.”
Schwarzenegger has two fundraisers today featuring the world’s most successful investor, Warren Buffett. A rather liberal Democrat, Buffett is an old friend of Schwarzenegger’s. His appointment by the former action superstar as his chief economic advisor during the 2003 recall campaign set off some controversy among conservative Republicans, which blossomed further when Bufffett mused to a Wall Street Journal reporter about the need to increase property taxes in California.
** Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appears live at noon today in this webcast of his bill-signing ceremony for legislation opposing the Darfur genocide. Also on hand will be two actors you may have heard of, the great Don Cheadle and some guy named G. Clooney, along with another fellow who was U.S. secretary of state, name of George Shultz. A couple of Democratic bloggers were warning that Schwarzenegger was likely to veto this legislation, which positions the state to leverage its ability to divest investments in Sudan in order to force changes in a disastrous policy there. But since you don’t put bold face names like that together overnight, that seems off.
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