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"It's possible Angelides will sour the downballot races," Republican consultant Mike Murphy, a Schwarzenegger confidante, told me recently. "That's certainly a looming possibility," respected Democratic consultant Bill Carrick, agreed. Angelides, the panicked swimmer, is starting to pull anyone near him under the water. Core Democrats will vote for Democrats for the statewide posts, but the outcomes on Nov. 7 will clearly be decided by tie-breaking, and thus influential, swing voters. Swing voters will decide whether 2006 is a replay of 1994, when Democratic candidate for governor Kathleen Brown badly lost and dragged down her party in statewide races. McClintock is...

Polls Show Democrats Not Connecting With Angelides. Former Assembly speaker and San Francisco mayor Willie Brown on Friday predicted that fellow Democrat Phil Angelides will lose his campaign for governor. Brown's forecast came during a fundraising breakfast for his public policy institute, which drew many of the state's top elected officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. With a nod to the Republican governor, who was seated in the audience, Brown told several hundred well-connected listeners that Schwarzenegger will win his bid for a full term next month. "No matter what, I think he'll be re-elected governor," Brown said. Angelides campaign spokesman...

Across the country, Republicans are taking a beating: President Bush is at historic lows in public opinion polls, the war in Iraq has lost favor with voters, and the party is dealing with the latest in a series of ethics scandals that have Republicans staring at the prospects of losing control of Congress. Yet, oddly enough, in California it may be Democrats who have the most reason to fear Election Day. Not only does their gubernatorial candidate, Phil Angelides, trail Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger heavily in the polls, but there is growing concern that if Angelides does not inspire Democrats to...

Sacramento -- Mary Canavan, a 62-year-old real estate agent from Berkeley, stands as one of the biggest barriers to Democrat Phil Angelides becoming governor. After weeks of putting off a decision, the lifelong Democrat said she is almost certain to cast her vote for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- a choice lots of Democrats up and down the state are considering, including many living in the liberal strongholds of the Bay Area. "It depresses me to say it, but I've got no compelling reason to vote for Angelides," she said. "I've never supported anyone but Democrats -- I think I...

LOS ANGELES - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger distanced himself from President George W. Bush on national television yesterday, saying he was as far from his fellow Republican as he was from winning an Academy Award during his film career. "To link me to George Bush is like linking me to an Oscar," the former bodybuilder and Hollywood action star joked during an appearance on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." "That's ridiculous." It was Schwarzenegger's fifth guest spot on the late-night comedy show since he used a 2003 appearance on the program to announce his first campaign for public...

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger holds double-digit leads over Democratic challenger Phil Angelides in all major polls and the only question may be how large his re-election margin will be on Nov. 7. The most startling aspect of this year's political campaign, however, is that Republican candidates are doing unexpectedly well in the down-ballot statewide contests and have a fair chance of picking up two or three offices. Democratic politicians and the unions and other interest groups that supply their campaign money are clearly worried that Angelides' very poor standing -- he's even struggling to attract a solid majority of Democratic...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promoted bipartisan dealmaking Friday at a breakfast hosted by Democratic political icon Willie Brown, who then gave his Republican guest a parting gift: a declaration that Schwarzenegger will win re-election "no matter what." Democratic gubernatorial challenger Phil Angelides was noticeably absent from the Moscone Center fundraiser for Brown's nonprofit public service institute, considering the audience of several hundred was heavily Democratic. Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, landed a prime speaking spot between two of the state's most powerful Democrats, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. Angelides trails Schwarzenegger by double-digit percentage points, according to...

California's most prominent public employee unions signaled a shift in their campaign resources Thursday, leading Republicans to chortle that the unions are bailing out on the state Democratic Party's ticket topper, gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. One of the unions that endorsed Angelides, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, released $1.3 million of the $5 million in airtime it had reserved for the final two weeks of the campaign leading up to the Nov. 7 election. A spokesman for eight others said Thursday they formed an independent committee to back Democratic lieutenant governor candidate John Garamendi. CCPOA Vice President Chuck Alexander...

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's appearance on NBC's "The Tonight Show" drew a complaint from gubernatorial opponent Phil Angelides, who petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for equal time on the air. The Angelides for Governor campaign objected to an Oct. 11 appearance on "The Tonight Show" by Gov. Schwarzenegger, Mr. Angelides' Republican opponent in the November statewide election. Angelides, a Democrat, says NBC and 11 TV stations in California should provide him with airtime to balance the publicity Gov. Schwarzenegger received. "The FCC has told us that it will move quickly on this complaint, with an answer as early as Monday...

And in fact some Democrats are now worrying openly about the Angelides campaign, which is behind in all the polls. Senator Barbara Boxer was concerned when she was at the CBS 5 studios on Thursday. "Well so far Phil hasn't caught on and we'll never give up. He didn't do well in the primary until the last minute either," said Senator Boxer. "He's a wonderful human being, and the irony is it's just not coming across. Its not coming across in the debate, its not coming across in the tv ads and I feel like telling people 'Please know this...

Angelides drew attention when he called on the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the State Teachers' Retirement System to involve 2 percent of their portfolios in the state's "emerging markets" -- neglected, low-income neighborhoods. But conservatives charge he pushed controversial financial policies and effectively overrode the state constitution by politicizing a ministerial post to promote market and societal changes. "He is putting the public employees' money at risk to pursue a political agenda and to help him get into the governor's mansion," protested Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles libertarian think tank. As a...

After jousting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a debate full of one-liners, Democratic challenger Phil Angelides thinks he's ready for late-night television. The state treasurer complained Tuesday that NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" booked Schwarzenegger as a guest for tonight's show without giving him equal time as required by federal law. The Austrian-born governor is scheduled to appear alongside another German-speaking celebrity, supermodel and television host Heidi Klum, who is not running for office. Schwarzenegger blurred the line between news and entertainment three years ago when he declared his candidacy in the gubernatorial recall on Leno's show. The...

Worried Democrats said Sunday that Phil Angelides failed to achieve the breakthrough he needed in the sole gubernatorial debate and expressed fear that his campaign's trajectory threatened others on the statewide ticket. Fellow Democrat John Garamendi, in a tight race for lieutenant governor against Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, has started to distance himself from Angelides. He said in a television interview aired Sunday that he disagreed with an Angelides plan to raise taxes on corporations and the well-to-do.[snip]On Sunday, the example cited repeatedly by Angelides' disappointed party brethren was the 1994 election, when then-Treasurer Kathleen Brown lost in a...

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" will feature Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday - just one month before the Nov. 7 election - but not his Democratic opponent, state Treasurer Phil Angelides. Angelides asked to appear on the show but had not received a response by Tuesday afternoon, said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Angelides' campaign. A "Tonight Show" spokeswoman confirmed the Republican governor's appearance but did not respond to repeated requests for comment. U.S. Rep Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, filed a complaint on Angelides' behalf with the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday that accuses the "Tonight Show" of violating...

If Saturday night had been a normal one for me, I would have taken a seat in the press room at California State University, Sacramento, and, with a few dozen of my colleagues, waited on every word spoken during the hourlong debate between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Democratic opponent, Treasurer Phil Angelides. Instead, I was occupied by a family wedding in San Diego and, like a hundred or so other guests, blissfully ignorant of what was unfolding in the capital city. It was just as well. Not one person at the wedding mentioned the debate or expressed any concern...

OAKLAND - Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides capped a two-day, statewide barnstorming bus tour Monday with raucous rallies on both sides of the Bay, revving up volunteers for his campaign's final four weeks. 16th Assembly District candidate Sandré Swanson called it "street heat" during the rally outside a downtown state office building, as a throng of union members and local candidates pledged to do all they can to see the state treasurer elected governor Nov. 7. They met Angelides with gusto despite his hour-late arrival from Stockton. "We're going to give this everything we have," he pledged, noting students suffering...

Trailing in his bid to unseat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic challenger Phil Angelides will begin airing a biographical TV ad Tuesday in a late-hour bid to tell his story to voters who may know little or nothing about him. The ad, to run in markets statewide, entwines family footage of the candidate with details skimmed from his resume as a Sacramento businessman-politician. Opening with chiming guitar chords from the Bellamy Brothers' "Let Your Love Flow," it alludes to his political awakening in the Nixon era and later features a shot of Angelides with U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

The Austrian bodybuilder and the grandson of Greek immigrants are self-made men, millionaires both, the embodiment of the ambitions of most who venture here. But as they seek the governorship, the personalities and experiences of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Phil Angelides have led them to far different views about the appropriate role of government in Californians' lives. "When I came to California with absolutely nothing, I only had a dream and a gym bag in my hand and $20. That's all I had. And because of California, I could make a successful life," the Republican governor told a crowd in San...

Worried Democrats said Sunday that Phil Angelides failed to achieve the breakthrough he needed in the sole gubernatorial debate and expressed fear that his campaign's trajectory threatened others on the statewide ticket. Fellow Democrat John Garamendi, in a tight race for lieutenant governor against Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, has started to distance himself from Angelides. On Sunday, the example cited repeatedly by Angelides' disappointed party brethren was the 1994 election, when then-Treasurer Kathleen Brown lost in a landslide and dragged several fellow Democrats down with her. "When you have a situation like we had in 1994, when the top...

According to a poll released Monday by the Public Policy Institute of California, Schwarzenegger leads Angelides, 46 to 33 percent. Even in the notoriously liberal San Francisco Bay Area, Schwarzenegger leads Angelides 42 to 37 percent — despite the Angelides camp's attempts to link him to President George W. Bush, who sports a 25 percent approval rating in the same region. That's why union workers and other tried-and-true Santa Cruz Democrats are joining a statewide campaign to get out the vote next week, complete with door hangers, posters and old-fashioned precinct walking. UC Santa Cruz liberals were trying to talk...