The race for the Democratic nominee for Governor in California took a drastic turn yesterday. Phil Angelides, who has long been considered the front-runner went on the attack against his rival Steve Westly. Until now both candidates had focused their fire on Schwarzenegger and spend their TV time on intro spots. Yesterday, Angelides threw the first blow during a speech to supporters. He described Westly as Schwarzenegger's sidekick and accused him of practicing cut and run politics. It is one thing to attack, but it is another to
co-opt Republican attacks. Here is what he
said:
I've had a slightly different approach. When this Governor went after kids' health care, and people with disabilities -
I didn't offer to be his sidekick, I said, get me into this race.
Democrats need a nominee who will stand and fight. We sure can't afford another Governor who'll cut crucial services and run.
Until this speech Angelides had never mentioned Westly by name. He had been running in many ways, as if he was the presumptive nomination. The insurgent campaign Westly has been running (which has been mostly self-funded by the candidate) has caught many people, including Angelides and Schwarzenegger by surprise. I have been arguing for months that just because Angelides has wrapped up the big endorsements by labor and Democratic leaders that this race would be a real battle. Schwarzenegger's team has been planning for a year to run a race against Angelides. They feel comfortable that they could win a campaign of contrasts against him. However, they would have to seriously retool their tactics should Westly win. The polls have shown Westly pulling in to the lead and he is threatening to run away with the thing.
This has prompted Angelides to go on the attack. Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkely's Institute of Governmental Studies to say:
"You would have thought he would have caught fire with the party base more than he has,'' Cain said of Angelides. So the Angelides team has "decided the party base doesn't understand where Steve Westly is, and that's what their strategy is: (to remind those Democrats) 'Hey, do you remember this was a person who supported Arnold?' ''
Heck, even the media has been taken by surprise by Westly's strength in the polls. Bill Bradley, LA Weekly columnist and blogger had this to say about attendance at Angelide's speech.
Gospodin Bierko, the media turnout was okay but not overwhelming. It was particularly weak on TV. For some odd reason, Sacramento TV stations covered neither event. I hear from political PR people that Sacramento TV news folks are still convinced that Angelides is the definite nominee.
This same press corps follows Schwarzenegger around hanging on is every word, but they did not show up to cover a major speech by on of the Democratic challengers. They are doing such a great job with our airwaves.
Angelides' attacks did not end there. The two were scheduled for their first debate of the year, for the Univision program Voz y Voto. The program will not be aired until Saturday, but clips from yesterday's debate between Angelides and Westly can be found over at KXTV. Warning, unless you have Windows Media Player 10 you will not be able to watch.
You can read my impressions of how they both did over here. Here is an excerpt from my post.
I thought that they each did a pretty good job presenting their points, but that Westly won on the looking and sounding like a leader front. His hand gestures were a bit over the top, but Angelides looked silly pulling a face during the reaction shots. Westly did have his moments of smirking, but they were far less glaring than Angelides'. Phil does not naturally look like a smooth politician and he did not overcome that disadvantage. I thought his line about his body being different from Schwarzenegger came off as way too nerdy. He just did not seem confident when saying it.
Now on to the substance of what the two have been arguing over.
Angelides general line of attack is that Westly has either stood by or helped Arnold when he was doing something harmful to the state. Westly's rebuttal is that he helped when Arnold was doing something good (as did Angelides co-chairs the two Democratic Senators) and has fired back when Arnold was doing something bad.
The other major bone of contention is on how the two plan on paying for all of the new spending they are proposing. Westly wants to tinker with the lottery system, close corporate tax loopholes and sees raising taxes as a last resort. Angelides has been calling for an increase in the tax rate for the wealthiest Californians and cracking down on tax cheats. Westly fired back saying:
" The difference between myself and the treasurer is that the treasurer has never seen a tax he doesn't like," Westly said. "He supports raising the income tax, the sales tax, taxes on alcohol, [the commercial property] tax, taxes on farm equipment. And, my friends, the list goes on."
There is a ton more on the substance of what transpired yesterday over at New West Notes. We knew this thing was going to turn ugly at some point. Hopefully, the two candidates can stay away from the mudslinging and name-calling and focus on factual differences between the two. We have two months to go and this one is going to be a real battle.
Update [2006-4-6 17:46:52 by Alliance for a Better California]: Jennifer in the comments points out that Westly too is co-opting Republican language with his line on taxes. In addition Westly did not offer up any proof of Angelides support for the liteny of taxes that he rattled off. So far the only new tax Angelides is suggesting is an increase on the top wage earners.
Update [2006-4-6 20:37:13 by Alliance for a Better California]: Partially in response to the critcism relayed in the comments I have written a new post over at BetterCA.