Phil and his gang are sure getting desperate these final days before June 6. If you weren't already aware, his campaign recently launched another "negative" ad depicting his opponent, Steve Westly to be Governor's Schwarzenegger’s clone. I set the facts straight below.
Phil may not have been the first to mudsling, but it's sure like he'll be the last one to throw a punch, which seems to me an obvious sign of desperation on his part. This election is coming to the wire and I hope that those of you undecideds who continue to read my post will be convinced that this ad is another one of Phil's distortions. The following is an article written by John Wildermuth that appeared yesterday in The San Francisco Chronicle.
“New ad shows Westly as Schwarzenegger clone, Angelides attacks his Democratic rival in black and white”
Los Angeles -- State Treasurer Phil Angelides released a new attack ad Wednesday that painted Controller Steve Westly, his opponent in the Democratic primary for governor, as a clone of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Westly dismissed the attack as an example of the hyper-partisanship in the state Capitol that stands in the way of solving problems for Californians. Talking with voters this week, Westly has emphasized his ability to work with those in both major parties.
The ad released by the Angelides campaign features black-and-white pictures of Schwarzenegger and Westly standing together and smiling at the camera.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger called him his twin," an announcer intones, "because Steve Westly was his strongest ally even while Schwarzenegger was cutting education, health care and aid for the disabled."
The final picture shows Schwarzenegger and Westly locked in an embrace. "California doesn't need a Schwarzenegger twin," the ad concludes.
Schwarzenegger and Westly worked closely in 2004 to pass Propositions 57 and 58, which were designed to ease California's budget crunch. While Angelides opposed the measures, they were supported by almost every other Democratic leader and legislator.
"The ad is pathetic and intellectually dishonest," complained Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for Westly. "By Mr. Angelides' reasoning, Democrats like Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, his own supporters, are twins of Gov. Schwarzenegger because they backed the propositions."
Automatically rejecting ideas from the other party is no way to solve the state's problems, Westly said Wednesday after a visit to a Thousand Oaks (Ventura County) free clinic.
"I've supported Gov. Schwarzenegger when I thought he was right, and I've opposed him when I thought he was wrong," Westly said. "I'm here to fix things. I'm here to find concrete solutions to the problems that face the state.''
Throughout the campaign, Angelides, the two-term treasurer and former state Democratic Party chairman, has been banking on the support of Democrats so angry with Schwarzenegger after last year's special election that they'll reject any suggestion of political compromise with the Republican governor.
At stop after stop, Angelides talks about how he was willing to stand up to the governor "even when his popularity was as high as his box office receipts" and dismisses Westly as someone who wasn't willing to challenge Schwarzenegger until the governor's poll numbers started dropping.
Westly and the governor "have stood together in the past and more importantly they still stand together" on many issues, Cathy Calfo, Angelides' campaign manager, said Wednesday when she screened the new ad for reporters.
The ad is in black and white, she said, "as black and white as the differences between Steve Westly and Phil Angelides."
Westly's campaign strategists have been expecting the attack from Angelides since the start of the campaign. By waiting until the final week before Tuesday's primary election, Angelides' aides hope the link to an unpopular governor can push undecided Democrats away from Westly and close the deal for their candidate.
It could do just the opposite, said Velasquez, Westly's spokesman. "We've seen how ineffective a governor is when he's stridently partisan and that's exactly what Angelides would be," he said.
At campaign stops this week Westly has talked about partisan gridlock in Sacramento and reminded his supporters that legislators of both parties passed milestones such as the state's ban on off-shore oil drilling.
"We need to bring Republicans and Democrats together to craft common sense solutions," he said Tuesday to a small group of supporters at a Paso Robles (San Luis Obispo County) winery. "You've got a choice between someone who's focused on being the anti-Arnold or someone who's focused on fixing the state's problems."
For Angelides, compromising with Schwarzenegger and Republicans in the Legislature is little more than surrendering to their calls to cut services to the state.
While he admits that his plan to raise money for schools by boosting the taxes of corporations and wealthy Californians faces tough sledding from anti-tax Republicans in the Legislature, "you don't run up the white flag before the battle's even fought," he said.
My editorial to the San Francisco Chronicle that sets the facts straight about Angelides' ad...
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to John Wildermuth’s article, “New ad shows Westly as Schwarzenegger clone, Angelides attacks his Democratic rival in black and white.” I believe it was Lord Palmerston who once said that in politics, “there are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests.” I know it sounds cliché, but politics is truly the art of compromise.
The only way to get things done and stop the gridlock in Sacramento is if one builds support. This is what Steve Weslty did when he allied himself with the governor in support of Prop 57 in 2004 which called for a $20 billion fiscal recovery plan the state desperately needed at the time to keep our schools and hospitals open. In fact, Steve Westly wasn’t the only Dem who supported the governor that year. Senators Feinstein and Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, Fabian Nunez, the AFL-CIO, the CTA and practically every Democrat in the state legislature supported the proposition, except you know who? That’s right, Phil Angelides and GOP State Senator Tom McClintock. So let me get this straight. Which candidate for governor is more aligned with the Democratic Party? According to Phil’s ad, it’s actually Steve Westly. I hope next time Phil gets his facts straight, if there is a next time.
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