Free Republic

The Obama administration bypassed procedural steps meant to protect taxpayers as it hurried to approve an energy loan guarantee to a politically-connected California solar power startup, ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News have learned …The Energy Department in March 2009 announced its intention to award Solyndra Inc. a $535 million loan guarantee before receiving final copies of outside reviews typically used to vet such deals. ...The loan guarantee, the administration's first for a clean energy project, benefited a company whose prime financial backers include Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, a "bundler" of campaign donations. Kaiser raised...

When the White House announced the federal government would loan $465 million to Tesla, a California start-up company with plans to develop an all-electric sedan, President Obama called it an "historic opportunity to ensure that the next generation of fuel-efficient cars and trucks are made in America." The loan also represented a lucrative opportunity for Steve Westly, a major investor in the car company who had raised more than $500,000 for the president's campaign. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy lent more than half a billion dollars to companies backed by Westly's California venture capital firm. In 2010, the...

Keep an eye on former state controller and multimillionaire Steve Westly - I think he might run for governor again. Westly spent a lot of money running in 2006 only to lose the Democratic primary to Phil Angelides. I have got to believe that Westly, and maybe some other Democrats, are not going to allow the primary to just be a two-way race between San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Jerry Brown. The feeling out there is that Brown probably caps out at 35 to 40 percent with voters while Newsom has yet to break 20 percent. So...

Keep your eyes open - the Barack Obama campaign has given rise to a constellation of rising stars here in California. Former state Controller and eBay millionaire Steve Westly, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and fast-rising lawyer Tony West were all on board the Obama bandwagon early and big. Westly has already made one dash for the governor's office, and he tells us he is "seriously exploring" another gubernatorial run in 2010. (That is, if Sen. Dianne Feinstein doesn't run.) Other top Dems predict Westly might be in line to be Obama's Treasury secretary - although he insists to...

Steve Westly lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary nearly three weeks ago, but his words continue to haunt party nominee Phil Angelides. The California Republican Party launched two ads Friday in the governor's race, one of which trumpets Westly's tax-hike accusations against Angelides during the primary. The negative ad goes through a list of Westly comments, such as his statement in May that Angelides is proposing a "tax on darn near anybody." It concludes by asking, "What if Steve Westly was right?" The state Republican Party has collected major checks in the past month, including $2 million from Stockton developer Alex...

FORGET the conventional wisdom. This was not a particularly negative campaign season. Sure, state Controller Steve Westly called state Treasurer Phil Angelides a developer, and Angelides called Westly a toady to the man both want to unseat, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's chump change, compared to mud slung in years past. Think back to the recall and unsubstantiated stories about Schwarzenegger sexually harassing women. In 2002, GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon accused Gov. Gray Davis of illegally accepting a $10,000 campaign contribution on state property -- and then had to retract his charge. In 1992, Davis had to apologize for ads...

For political junkies, June 6 has been circled on the political calendar for months. Eight states hold primary elections today. There are important races for gubernatorial nominations in California, Iowa and Alabama, a contested Senate primary in Montana and a number of competitive House primary battles. All in all, it's almost too much of a good thing. There are so many good races out there and not enough time to give each of them their due. In an attempt to bring readers the essential, need-to-know information about today's races, The Fix is providing the primer below. Remember: This is not...

SACRAMENTO - A record low turnout in today's election could be key to Phil Angelides in his effort to capture the Democratic gubernatorial nomination over rival Steve Westly, experts said Monday. A Field Poll released today predicts only 34 percent of registered voters are expected to come out to the polls. That would be the lowest turnout in at least 60 years. Such a scenario could play to the strengths of Angelides, the state treasurer from Sacramento. Angelides has the backing of the state Democratic Party and countless party-affiliated interest groups -- including labor and teachers' groups -- who are...

Welcome to the live thread for the California Primary Election. Polls are open until 8pm tonight. If you are a registered voter, it is your duty to vote and defend your rights and civil liberties, protect your pocketbook, and vote the bums out where applicable. Feel free to discuss issues key to your local area that others may be interested in. Post your polling place experiences if you like. And post numbers as they come in later tonight.

Democratic candidates spend time in church The Democratic candidates for governor went to church on Sunday and prayed for victory, as well they might in a race that is neck and neck heading into Tuesday's primary. Steve Westly, who made his fortune at eBay, and Phil Angelides, a wealthy former developer, have been battering each other with nasty television ads for several weeks. Analysts say voters may respond to the negativity campaign by not voting. Westly, the state controller, appeared with Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, which he joined three...

You can't turn on a TV without being hit with either state Treasurer Phil Angelides slamming state Controller Steve Westly for taking campaign money from a crook, or Westly slamming Angelides for being in the pocket of big developers. But that's nothing compared with the behind-the-scenes beef in the Democratic gubernatorial primary between Angelides and Garry South, Westly's campaign manager. Angelides calls South the "King of Mean.'' South retorts that Angelides "is a sleazy campaigner at the core.'' To hear South tell it, the feud started in 1993 when Angelides -- who was winding up his tenure as chair of...

MANHATTAN BEACH -- Trying to fire up a lackluster crowd at a "get out the vote" rally, City Councilman Jim Aldinger asked who would be working over the weekend to get Californians to the polls on Tuesday. Only a handful of the 80 activists raised their hands at the rally Thursday for gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. Campaign consultants reported similarly tepid responses from volunteers around the state -- even though an expected low voter turnout and an extremely tight gubernatorial primary could make this year's "get out the vote" efforts more decisive than in past statewide campaigns. Secretary of State...

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's poll numbers are looking better -- especially among the state's independent voters -- and he has gained the edge when matched against his potential Democratic challengers in the November general election, a Field Poll released today shows. The Field Poll released today showed the Republican governor has improved his standing and is now viewed favorably by an equal percentage of voters surveyed -- 46 percent -- as those who view him unfavorably. The governor's improvement is based on a significant jump among independent voters. Independents view him positively by 46 to 41 percent -- an increase...

A record number of voters -- unable to distinguish between the main candidates, turned off by negative ads and just plain burned out on elections -- remain unable to choose between Controller Steve Westly and Treasurer Phil Angelides with just four days to go before Tuesday's Democratic primary for governor. Despite a vigorous campaign fueled by more than $60 million in spending, a Field Poll released today shows that nearly a third of likely voters are still on the fence -- an unprecedented number so close to the election. The poll also shows Westly and Angelides in a dead heat,...

Angelides is running as a traditional, tax-and-spend Democrat, and Westly is running as a pro-business Democrat who would hold the line on taxes and spending When candidates accused one another of "mudslinging," the late Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko insisted it really was "truth-slinging." He meant that, in a democratic election, candidates are most likely to have their past positions and actions revealed by opposition research. Of course, voters must be careful to make sure an accusation is true. But if one listens carefully, one can discern true positions. That's how I'm looking at the Democratic primary for governor, whose...

WITH A POLL showing a remarkable number of undecided voters heading into the June 6 primary, California may see a wave of bad decisions as last-minute deciders choose candidates without a clue of who they are really voting for. The poll by the Public Policy Institute of California shows a stunning 33 percent of Democratic voters haven't decided between state Controller Steve Westly and state Treasurer Phil Angelides, who are in a statistical dead heat. Westly blew an April lead by spending too much time trashing Angelides, leaving lots of undecided women who dislike negativity. PPIC survey director Mark Baldassare...

Radio listeners have discovered the Swainson's hawk is doomed and it's all Phil Angelides' fault. TV viewers, however, have learned that Steve Westly favors "taxing the middle class (and) letting big corporations off the hook.'' With little more than a week before the June 6 primary election, the two Democratic candidates for governor are going all negative all the time, hoping to convince uninterested voters not that they're so good, but that their opponent is so bad. The nonstop mud-slinging even has supporters concerned. Larry Fahn, immediate past national president of the Sierra Club, was speaking Friday with reporters defending...

In the primary, Angelides, the state treasurer, leads Westly, the state controller, 35 percent to 32 percent, which is within the poll's margin of error. One-third of likely voters — 33 percent — say they are undecided. There's a different kind of ambivalence about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. By a margin of 57 percent to 30 percent, voters say they like his revised budget proposal, with even a plurality of Democrats giving him the benefit of the doubt on that issue. And at least two-thirds of those polled, and 70 percent of likely voters, say they supported the top priorities in...

Actor-director Rob Reiner on Thursday wrote a $1.65 million check to boost the closing campaign for Proposition 82, his initiative to tax wealthy residents to pay for free preschool. Reiner's donation pushes his total contributions to the campaign to $2.8 million. His wife, photographer Michelle Singer Reiner, has donated $1.3 million to the initiative, and his father, writer-comedian Carl Reiner, has contributed $500,000. Meanwhile, Democratic gubernatorial candidates Steve Westly and Phil Angelides are both opening their wallets to give their campaigns new infusions of cash, according to announcements by the campaigns and reports filed with the secretary of state's office....

Schwarzenegger's job approval ratings dropped to 36 percent among 2,000 adults questioned in a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. Among 986 likely voters, his approval rating was at 42 percent, down from 46 percent a month ago. Both Democratic candidates matched up evenly with Schwarzenegger in head-to-head hypothetical pairings, though nearly a quarter of those polled remain undecided. Angelides was tied with the governor at 38 percent, while Westly was tied at 36 percent. With 12 days to go before the primary, Angelides pulled slightly ahead of Westly -- 35 percent to 32 percent -- after being...