Radio show backfires?

From the LA Times:
"Only days after urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to renounce questionable sexual comments made to high school students by a Republican assemblywoman, Democratic challenger Phil Angelides sat through a morning radio talk show Thursday without objecting to a series of dubious gags about sex, ethnicity and an elderly female guest."
The excuse you ask? "Angelides said his performance was not inconsistent with his earlier comments about Schwarzenegger. He defended it as being within the context of a comedy-based radio show." Hasn't he lived in California long enough to know that our are politics are comedy-based to, at least at their finest?
Some of the jokes Phil let slide?
"an earlier African American guest was described as a "tall glass of chocolate milk" while Angelides was in the station"
"Angelides' appearance came after a segment in which a 20-year-old African American man named Master agreed to kiss a 72-year-old white woman named Sara to win a ticket to an upcoming promotional event at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills."
"Carolla made a joke about a "May-casket" romance, playing off "May-December," and said Sara had a case of "jungle fever," a pejorative reference to white women attracted to black men."
"An anonymous voice-over also alluded to Angelides' ethnic background with a sexual innuendo."
"You get a Hacky Sack and a dime bag and a moped, you're into any community college," Carolla said, then added after Angelides said 300,000 students have dropped out over the cost: "That's because their stepdad kicked them out of the garage and they had to get a job."
"If you can't afford junior college…. ," Carolla cut in. "I'm going to ask that once you're elected, Phil Angelides, you change it to 'junior, junior college' just to bring a shame element to it because I feel like it's a graveyard that stupid people go to to die."
Full story

LA Times compilation of Angelides anecdotes

My personal favorite: "Once, when staffers were choosing a shredder for the office, two sources said, Angelides — then traveling on the East Coast — insisted that aides express mail him samples of minced paper to make sure they were sufficiently pulverized."
Full Los Angeles Times story

Heard of Phil?

Following up on his revelation that Brentwood has fallen hard for Arnold (contributing almost twice as much to his campaign in hard money), Steve Lopez finds that Angelides is seriously lacking in star power and draw. The lede joke says it all, though: "I'm out here on the stump with Phil Angelides. You've heard of him, right?" Also revealing: the campaign booked him to visit a small college class, you know, less than 3 weeks before the election. Full column in the Los Angeles Times

Desperation sets in

The Angelides campaign is trying to ratchet up years-old character complaints against Schwarzenegger in order to regain some electoral traction. Without the benefit of any new disclosures, however, this seems unlikely to go anywhere. Background Sacramento Bee story, Sacramento Bee story on Angelides' negative comments on talk radio (bonus quotation: You're not going to get me to make out with anyone)

"Angelides Under a Bus"

The LA Times critiques Democratic leaders such as Fabian Nunez and Don Perata for their tepid support for Phil Angelides, and their photo-op moments with Schwarzenegger. The Times also argues that this behavior is threatening down-ticket Democrats in increasingly competitive races. Of course, the irony here is that down-ticket Democrats in question are themselves moving away from Angelides as fast as possible, publicly rejecting some of his messages. And then, of course, one should keep in mind that the Times itself did functionally the same thing by endorsing Arnold and then endorsing Lockyer, Brown, and Garamendi. (Yes, they endorsed Republican Steve Poizner, but Cruz Bustamante's precense in the race makes that a special case) Full story
Capitol Weekly follows up on this theme by exploring whether or not Schwarzenegger has coattails

Education a non-issue on the campaign trail

Staff write Howard Blum argues in the Los Angeles Times that Schwarzenegger's record on education has helped him weather attacks from the California Teachers Association and Angelides on the issue. Full story

Angelides-Westly Neck To Neck

LA Times' Mike Finnegan concludes that the Democratic gubernatorial election is neck-to-neck with 10 days left, with Angelides having made great strides to close the gap with Westly. Finnegan also notes that Westly is still polling better than Angelides in the general election in hypothetical match-ups with the Governor. Full story

Campaign Spending Totals

Democratic rivals Phil Angelides and Steve Westly have spent nearly $57 million to date in the gubernatorial primary. Of that total, $34.5 million comes from donations to Steve Westly from Steve Westly.

Yesterday, Westly donated $2 million to his campaign, while Angelides kicked in $1.5 million of his own.

Surprised?

Hopefully not.

According to the LA Times, State Treasurer Phil Angelides has received $4.5 million since 1999 from "money managers and others seeking to do business with the state's two major public pension systems." As State Treasurer, Angelides has an ex-officio seat on the boards both the general state pension fund, CalPERS, and the state teachers' retirement fund, CalSTRS.

Also according to the Times, Controller Steve Westly, Angelides' primary rival, has received $1.8 million since taking office in 2003 (he also sits on the two boards). The second article also highlights the widespread skirting of state law requiring disclosures of campaign donations from pension businesses to state pension board members.

Fortunately for taxpayers, this doesn't seem to be hurting the pension funds too much: CalPERS had a 12.7% rate of return for the FY ending 6/30/05, while CalSTRS enjoyed an 11.09% rate of return for the same time period.