LAT: As Angelides Dallies, Advantages Slip Away

As Angelides Dallies, Advantages Slip Away
By Robert Salladay and Michael Finnegan, Times Staff Writer
July 21, 2006

....This weekend, the state Democratic Party is launching a multimillion-dollar television ad campaign to reintroduce (California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil) Angelides to voters. The party's opening ad contrasts Angelides with Schwarzenegger, calling the Democrat "a leader, not an actor."...As the Democratic nominee in a heavily Democratic state, Angelides carries considerable advantages. The national political climate for Republicans is poor, with President Bush's conduct of the Iraq war a major drag on the party's standing with voters....Yet since defeating Westly in the June primary, Angelides, the state treasurer, appears to have foundered for several reasons.

With only a scant television ad presence since the primary, Angelides remains a mystery to many voters. His trouble articulating a clear message is part of the problem, some Democratic supporters say. And, as is common with challengers facing incumbents, many of his campaign events have been in reaction to Schwarzenegger, putting Angelides in a defensive posture made all the more uncomfortable by his campaign theme of raising taxes....For months, allies have complained that the candidate's micromanagement of his campaign has slowed decisions. The rapid-response communications operation that is a staple of any modern campaign has been lagging: It took Angelides' aides more than 12 hours last week to criticize Schwarzenegger's latest remarks renewing his support for the civilian Minuteman border patrol force.

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Amid all that Schwarzenegger and the state Republican Party have unleashed a $12-million onslaught of ads castigating Angelides, mainly on taxes....Political analysts say the TV attacks are dangerous even in the doldrums of July...."I've seen this act before," said Tony Quinn, co-editor of the California Target Book election guide. "It's very dangerous to get defined in the summer. People's opinions tend to harden before the campaign season."

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Notable at this stage in the campaign has been Angelides' seeming inability to corral the Democratic Party and its allies....Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been aloof about endorsing him. Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, once the most powerful Democrat in California, said in a radio interview this week that Angelides needed a "transfusion" and warned him against debating Schwarzenegger more than once: "If he tries to go one on one with the Terminator, he's terminated," Brown said on KQKE-AM in San Francisco....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-campaign22jul22,0,4307009.story?coll=la-home-headlines

but no the Democratic party so in their infinite wisdom to nominate a dud

why would we want to nominate a guy who support a Republican, Arnold in 2003. and attacked Angelides for wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to fund programs to help fund education, health care etc.

glad Angelides won, and don't care for the attacks against him in this article.

Incidently, I was against the recall for Davis, and I voted for Davis in the recall, but Davis also did NOT represent himself well

Most of the energy problems he inherited, and some of those problems invovled Arnold, Pete Wilson, and others, but why didn't he hit hard with that

Also, in my view Davis was trying to please everyone, and you just can't do that. You have to take a stand. Angelides is NOT getting his message out, and he better NOT delay too much longer

One more side-note, right or wrong, a lot of Democrats voted for Arnold in 2003, I was not one of them, but that alone does NOT make him unsuitable

i agree about getting the message out. but i don't care for the attacks on Angelides just because they may be down in the polls right now. and he doesn't have trouble articulating his message. it's more about getting it out.

anyone listen to the buffoon Arnold try to articulate his message ?

i know some Dems voted for Arnold in 2003, but if you are going to run for office against him just 3 years later, i will hold it against him. and more importantly i don't care for those who attack other Dems for wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy.

the message

As to your other point, I can't stand to listen to Arnold, so the answer is NO

I only care about the Democrats taking back the govenorship

Excuse me? Blame the CA energy problems that Davis "inherited" on ENRON! No one wanted to hear about it then.

Arhnold bamboozled, and lied to get CA Dems to vote for him, by playing a centrist and also playing up to the industry types in LA. People also voted for him because he's star! How freakin lame is that?

I think Angelides is lost in the fog someplace. I voted for him and he better get off his ass and start making some noise to let people know he's running for Gov.

Find what you like about the guy and support it. Angelides can't get defined unless Democrats help do the defining. That's the real mistake of the Dem Party, I can't believe Brown and Antonio haven't figured it out. How many times do we have to go down this path. They'd have done the same damned thing to Westley and stupid Dems would have been buying right into whatever character assassinations Republicans laid out against him. Over and over and over, just dumb dumb dumb.

Just wondering.

why are people surprised when Dems support another Dem. and someone like WEstly who endorsed Arnold in 2003 and attacked Angelides for wanting to raise taxes on wealthy loses a "democratic primary".

It sounds like the party leaders are backing off. By establishment, I meant TPTB. We have our party leaders here who control everything, and want their own candidate in. If he doesn't get in, they drop the other one.

It sounds to be like Angelides is not getting the support he needs from the party.

i know Barbara Boxer supported him in the primary. those criticizing him in this article aren't the ones who supported him in the Primary.

another thing is that the LA Times has turned into a paper that whores for the REpublicans. so they will put out this shit about how the Dems are fighting and criticizing each other instead of reporting on where candidates stand and everything else.

and people like Willie Brown buy into it, because he can always get a television camera. If Brown were RUNNING against Arnold, he'd see how fast the corpmedia downplays the issues he wants to debate.

And Arnold is a TERRIBLE debater - why Brown is speaking of him in such a glowing way is suspect.

and stem cell research supporter (this tidbit is all over the news) is in full effect!

Westly were engaged in a bitter primary battle that got nasty - with accusations repeated over and over on numerous tv ads. Now Arnold is taking his script directly from Westly's ads and saying, basically, this is what a fellow Dem had to say about Angelides - he's no good. I could see this coming a mile away. Why the Dems didn't stick to the issues in the primary and focus on defeating Arnold is beyond me.

Westly was going to run and then decided not to run and Angelides stepped up. Westly then flip-flopped and threw a bunch of his own money in and started playing nasty. That's the view I got living here in CA.

Angelides proved he could give as good as he got. Once the mud started flying, I knew the real "winner" of the Dem primary would be Arnold.

Democrats fall for it - What's new?

This is the MSM. They will never say something nice about a Democrat.

Arnold sucks (even on the issues)!



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