Tag: California

NYT Covers California Governor Race

Jon Ponder

Every so often, the New York Times parachutes in to give its readers an update on goings-on in California politics. The reason the Tri-States’ newspaper of record reports on California politics has less to do with how interesting it is — in fact, without a movie star serially shooting himself in the foot, our politics tend to be rather drab — it’s because California is one of the few places west of Jersey that people educated in the public schools there have heard of. (Which is not to say they could find it on a map.)

Still, if you’re just tuning in to California governor’s race, this article is a good place to start. The Democratic primary is in about three weeks:

[…]

CA Gov: Westly Leads Angelides and Schwarzenegger

Jon Ponder

State Controller Steve Westly is in the lead in the California governor’s race against both Treasurer Phil Angelides in the Democratic primary and Gov. Schwarzenegger in the general election, according to the new Los Angeles Times Poll.

If the election were held today Westly would beat the governor 48 percent to 39 percent.

Westly leads Angelides 33 percent to 20 percent, and would beat the governor 48 percent to 39 percent. Angelides would tie Schwarzenegger with 43 percent.

While Schwarzenegger’s approval rating has climbed from 37 percent last fall to 44 percent, his disapproval rate is 53 percent — and 48 percent say they definitely or probably will not vote for him in the fall.

Among Democrats, a whopping 45 percent of us are undecided. Many people have yet to focus on the June 6 primary. But others who are focused on the race are genuinely undecided, including yours truly. I’d be happy with either candidate, but I’m leaning toward Westly because, well, he’s winning. That could change.

For Schwarzenneger, the most ominous news in the poll is the fact that 61 percent believe California is seriously on the wrong track. This was precisely the percentage who believed the same thing in 2003 when Gov. Gray Davis was ousted by Schwarzenegger in the recall election.

CA Gov: Westly Puts (Refund) Checks in the Mail to California Voters

Jon Ponder

Over the next few months, millions of Californians will receive their state tax refunds in envelopes like the one above. It can only be a good thing for Democratic candidate for governor Steve Westly that, as the state Controller, his name will appear on the envelopes bearing this happy news.

Even before this fortuitous free advertising, Westly had pulled ahead of his rival in the June primary, state Treasurer Phil Angelides. According to the latest Field poll, 37 percent of likely voters are for Westly, while 26 percent are for Angelides.

In fact, Westly — whom most Californians could not I.D. on a bet — is one percentage point ahead of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the Most Famous People in All the World, as Olbermann might say.

Bush to California: Drop Dead

Jon Ponder

He Won’t Provide Emergency Aid to Fix Vulnerable Levee System

President Bush is in the Bay Area this weekend. So far, the trip is not going well. His approval rating in California is at 32 percent, and has been in the low 30s for quite a while — we’re such trendsetters here, aren’t we?

An event that was to have taken place at the famed Hoover Tower on the campus of Stanford University had to be moved to a private residence because over a thousand or so protesters showed up and blocked the entrance.

The president also found himself placed in an akward situation by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose popularity has been as low as the president’s but is now slightly ahead.

[Schwarzenegger] pressed his case Friday in a private meeting with President Bush — a visit that carried some political risk for the governor, given Bush’s ebbing popularity among California voters.

The two spoke for about 15 minutes … with the governor calling for more money to fix California’s aging levee system…

Word from the White House was mixed. In a conference call with reporters before Air Force One even landed in California, a Bush advisor said federal officials would speed environmental permits so repairs could begin on 29 vulnerable levees in the Central Valley.

White House officials also said the federal government might share the cost of fixing the levees, which has been a priority of Schwarzenegger’s in his third year in office.

But the Bush administration declined to issue a federal disaster declaration — a vehicle for additional federal funding and something that Schwarzenegger had requested.

It is “legally inappropriate” to declare a disaster before it happens, said James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

The idea of a Bush official worrying about what is legally appropriate is a bit of hoot. As Fabian Nuñez, the speaker of the state Assembly, put it, Bush’s response to the request was, “Bush to California: Drop dead.”

Still, the governor’s actions are curious. Usually these matters are worked out in advance so that actual meetings are pro forma. It appears that Schwarzenegger staged the confrontation, hoping to distance himself from the unpopular president by making a request he knew Bush would have to refuse.

Schwarzenegger Supporters Funneled Millions for Ad Through National Group

Jon Ponder

What’s the only thing more annoying than a Christmas ad in July? How about political ads in heavy rotation six months before regular campaigning gets underway.

If you think the barrage of campaign ads that usually starts after Labor Day and escalates until election day is unbearable, then please feel our pain in California. We’ve been assaulted with a feel-good campaign about Gov. Schwarzenegger — whose approval ratings have been down at Bush levels — that ran for months, seemingly on the quarter hour, until last week when they abruptly went dark.

The last of these, titled “Remember?” was designed to soften public sentiment about the governor by comparing him to his predecessor, the inartful Gray Davis. Message: “Arnold may be bad, but at least he’s not as bad as the last guy.”

Because Schwarzenegger’s accomplishments are so few, the ad is short on specifics and long on Reaganesque “Morning in America” symbology. In a key shot, we see him taking the oath of office, projecting pride and reverence for duty. And tellingly, Arnold is seen but not heard throughout.

Sponsored by the U.S. Chamber in Washington, D.C., nominally at least, the ad is categorized as part of an “independent issue advocacy program,” a status which allows the chamber to skirt California election laws that would otherwise require disclosing funding sources and adhering to donation limits.

However, the Los Angeles Times reports today that the funding for the ad allegedly comes from the governor’s closest supporters in California who routed the money through the chamber:

[…]

The Arnold Show: Why Mavericks Cannot Govern

Jon Ponder

The governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger here in California — like that of Hulk Hogan, er, Jesse Ventura in Minnesota — is more proof that political careers based solely on the whimsy of egomaniacs are generally doomed to failure:

“Haven’t you been listening to me? In Hollywood, I would know how to deal with this. I would bring someone in from the outside to get it done. Do I have to do that here?”
— Gov. Schwarzenegger

So far, a durable governing coalition has eluded him. Schwarzenegger has chalked up many of his troubles in office to the power of special interests and legislators resistant to reform. But insiders say his policy setbacks and slide in the polls may also owe to stubbornness, a taste for flashy Hollywood-style — but politically unrealistic — moves and a naivete about politics in general.

What is not a surprise, of course, is that the movie star turned governor is a diva. When his former chief of staff, Patricia Clarey, tried to disusaude him from pursing the disastrous special election last year, he barked:

“Haven’t you been listening to me?” Schwarzenegger said, according to one person who was present. “In Hollywood, I would know how to deal with this. I would bring someone in from the outside to get it done. Do I have to do that here?”

Of course, after the special election failed resoundingly, he still blamed Clarey:

He wasn’t always nice about it. On a post-election trip to China, the governor left Clarey to commercial flights and press buses while his personal financial advisor traveled as a member of his inner circle, flying on Schwarzenegger’s jet and dining with him and [Schwarzenegger’s wife, former journalist Maria] Shriver.

Schwarzenegger complained privately that he didn’t like “hanging with” Clarey, and criticized her in front of colleagues. Other aides would join him for lunch; she wasn’t invited. In a final rebuke, Schwarzenegger replaced the Republican Clarey with a Democrat.

Governor, I beseech you: Resign now. You can be back on the set of “Terminator 4” or whatever on January 2, 2007. It’s a win-win-win for you, the Democratic majority in the state and its citizenry.

Kaloogian on Fake Photo: I’m Not Lying Just Incompetent – Standard GOP Dodge Works Every Time

Jon Ponder

One of the characteristics of the current Republican era is that when Gops are caught lying, they automatically claim incompetence. The truly astounding aspect of this is that it works every time.

Kaloogian will probably get away with this dodge. It was worked well for President Bush, especially in excusing his two biggest failures – Iraq and Katrina.

Case in point is the flap over the photo of a purportedly showing a “calm and peaceful” corner of Baghdad posted to the website of California GOP operative Howard Kaloogian who is running for the House seat vacated by Duke Cunningham, a Republican who is serving time for taking bribes worth millions of dollars. (Go here for our coverage of the story yesterday.)

The photo was, in fact, taken in the suburbs of Istanbul, which, for everyone educated after the 1970s, is in a country north of Iraq called Turkey.

Now Kaloogian is denying he intentionally tried to defraud the public by posting the photo and is blaming the flap on the incompetence of his staff:

“They used a picture that was wrong. There’s nothing sinister about it,” [Kaloogian] said.

And, oh yeah, it’s the librhul media’s fault:

In an e-mail to supporters, [Kaloogian] blasted bloggers and journalists for using the photograph to attack his campaign for the 50th Congressional District.

“The liberal journalists who dominate the ranks of the media want American troops to pull out of Iraq before the mission there is completed,” he wrote.

That’s a bit nicer than his earlier statement that journalists “are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism.”

Kaloogian will probably get away with this dodge. It has worked for President Bush time and time again over the past five years, but especially when he was excusing his two biggest failures:

  • The president has denied lying when he said Iraq had WMD, instead he says he incompetently took the country to war based on bad intelligence
  • During Katrina, he denies lying when he said that “no one” could have anticipated the levee breaches, despite videotape evidence showing him being warned about just such an possibility, instead he was just incompetently out of touch while on vacation

So good luck, Mr. Kaloogian. I’d say that with tap dancing like this, you’ll go far as a Republican congressman.

Candidate Who Faked ‘Calm and Stable’ Iraq Photo Was Architect of Davis Recall

Jon Ponder

GOP Candidate to Succeed Duke Cunningham Falsified Evidence of Media Bias Against Iraq War

Before he was disgraced today by liberal bloggers, you had probably never heard of Howard Kaloogian. But here in California he is a notorious GOP operative who made his mark in the 2003 campaign to unseat Gov. Gray Davis.

Kaloogian said the photo of peaceful Baghdad proved the media lied about conditions in Iraq because “journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism.”

A one-time back-bencher in the Assembly, Kaloogian was a mastermind of the recall election that removed Davis from office and replaced him with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Now, as a candidate in the special election in San Diego to replace former Rep. Duke Cunningham, who recently began serving time for bribery and corruption, Kaloogian has been nailed trying to defraud the public and with an attempt at classic Bushista disinformation meant to prop up support for the war:

[Kaloogian] posted on the official Web site for his campaign a picture [see above] taken in “downtown Baghdad,” he said, during his visit to the city, which supposedly indicated that the media was wrong about the level of violence in the city. “We took this photo of downtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq,” he wrote. “Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it – in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism.“

The photo didn’t look right for Baghdad to some liberal bloggers. Women were seen in western clothing and people were holding hands:

In less than a day, it was over. “Jem6X” at the popular DailyKos blog confirmed the street scene was in Istanbul, not Baghdad.

Tipped off by someone who recognized the actual intersection in Istanbul, Jem went through online photo galleries and in a matter of minutes today found a snap taken by a “Faruk” that lined up with the “Baghdad” photo in numerous conclusive ways. Game, set, and match to the blogosphere.

Gray Davis was not a masterful politician but this fraud is more proof that his recall was just another needless and costly Republican sham.

CA Governor’s Race: Westly Leads in Fundraising

Jon Ponder

California State Controller Steve Westly, a founder of E-Bay, has considerably more campaign funds in the bank than the other candidates for governor this year, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to John Mercurio of the Hotline, via C-SPAN Washington Journal this morning.

Westly reports that he as $23 million in campaign funds. His Democratic rival, State Treasurer Phil Angelides has $14.6 million.

Governor Schwarzenegger reports $5.2 million in his campaign coffers. He raised over $2 million at an event in Beverly Hills this week, at which Sen. John McCain was the headliner.

Angelides has the endorsements of California’s Democratic Party establishment, including senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Westly and Angelides square off in primary elections in June.

Failure of Initiative: Schwarzenegger’s Bush-Level Incompetence May Cost Him Re-election

Jon Ponder
I’ll reiterate my plea to the governor: Arnold, do everybody a favor and retire in January. You can be on the set of “Terminator 4” within hours after the inauguration of Gov. Angelides or Gov. Westly.

Boondoggle redux: Yesterday the big news out of Sacramento was that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger failed to get his massive public works initiative out of the state legislature, which means it will not appear on the June ballot. The “Rebuilding California” proposition may make it onto the November ballot but even if it does, it will be too late to help the governor’s re-election chances.

After Schwarzenegger’s disastrous performance last year, he came out with the proposal for Rebuilding California in December, intending to get it onto the June primary ballot so that he would have at least one accomplishment to run on.

Without it, all he has to show for his time in office is basically — nothing.

Today we learn that the initiative failed to make it out of the legislature because the Democrats and Republicans quickly learned that the governor was trying to play them off each other. He ticked off his fellow Republicans when they found out that he was privately claiming to Democrats that he had GOP support in the bag:

[…]