LAT: California Dems fear Angelides will drag down entire state ticket

[DeepModem Mom]

Angelides Seen as a Drag on the Party
Democratic leaders, saying he has failed to redefine a campaign that thus far has gone badly, fear repeating the '94 ticket-wide collapse.
By Michael Finnegan and Mark Z. Barabak, Times Staff Writers
October 9, 2006


Phil Angelides: On the road
(Ric Francis/AP)

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....

***

Though few thought Angelides did poorly in the debate, there was wide agreement that Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger benefited the most from Saturday night's allotted 55-minute session, largely because nothing occurred to change the essential dynamic of the race....

***

Democratic strategist Garry South....said it was time for "triage" and a shift of party resources from Angelides to the races of lieutenant governor, secretary of state and controller. Though some may detect a whiff of sour grapes (South ran the campaign of Angelides' primary rival, Steve Westly), others also expressed concerns about a 1994 rerun and a determination to avert it....

***

A recent Times poll underscored the fragility of the Democratic effort this year. Despite the left-moderate tilt of the state, Democrats held sizable leads in only two of eight statewide partisan races: Feinstein's Senate reelection effort and former Gov. Jerry Brown's bid for attorney general. In the other down-ballot races, Democrats were either tied or winning narrowly.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-gov9oct09,0,6260682.story?coll=la-center-politics-cal

[BootinUp]

1. You'd think after all Arnolds troubles

they could have come up with something.

[mike_c]

2. you would think so....

As a Californian, I am terribly disappointed in the state dems for running Angelides. The gubernatorial election was theirs to win or lose at the beginning of the year. They will likely lose it.

[flyarm]

4. or someone better than this guy!! how much notice did we need

to get a strong candidate??

hell the rethugs stole the governors seat from a sitting governor..was that not enough warning to get a damn tough candidate??

fly

[lyonn]

3. Angelides needs to hit on Swartzie's statement about

wanting to be re-elected to "finish" his agenda. Wasn't his agenda to mess around with teachers, nurses, etc., retirement plan? Don't know enough about those issues that went to a vote of the people and voted down. It sounded like he wanted to renew that plan???

Didn't he borrow large sums to pay down debt???

[stopbush]

5. "In the other down-ballot races, Democrats were either tied or winning

narrowly."

So, let me get this straight: the Dems have 2 of the big races sewn up and they're ahead or at least tied in every other race,
and it's time to throw in the towel?

BTW - I don't care much for Angelides (I voted for Westly in the primary) but there's no question that he won the debate against
Ah-nold. What Mr Garry South and others SHOULD have been doing was countering the spin put out by the media and
the Rs about who won what when.

Angelides doesn't have a chance with "strategists" like South in the picture.

[Gormy Cuss]

10. The CA Dem party has a hate-hate relationship with the governor's seat.

They blew it with the Davis recall (after choosing to abandon Davis they could have done more to promote Bustamante to keep the seat in Democratic hands)and they're blowing it again with Angelides. Arnold should be easy to beat but there has been no visible effort to promote the Angelides candidacy by the state party or its prominent elected officials. It is truly pathetic.

[PeaceProgProsp]

11. This is the LA Times spinning for Republicans; it's not reporting

[lyonn]

6. By the way, this Calif. race appears to be critical for the Dems

in that the Sec. of State there can have control over the voting. Not only that, think about losing Calif. as a "safe" Dem. State. This election is scary sh*t! Calif. doesn't need Dem. consultants that will destroy the party like we saw in 2000, 2004. It's that backbone, smart issue again!!

[Schema Thing]

7. Dumbasses. He can't do it alone.

Somedays I marvel at how frickin' stupid Republicans are.

Other days I wish Dems had half their brains.

[madmusic]

8. California is NOT The Left Coast

Calling California liberal is like saying any right-leaning centrist is liberal. Any swing to the right of California leans far right. We have a very conservative supreme court, so conservative BushCo took one of the Justices and put her on federal bench in D.C., one of the most powerful and right-leaning appellate courts in the country.

What makes California liberal? The environment? Hell no. That only means educated and the rest of the country is starting to catch up and realize it was only facts, not liberal propaganda.

The almost passed universal health care bill? If California were liberal, it would have passed.

Someone please tell me what makes California liberal.

[davidinalameda]

9. South is correct!

we could lose every executive office thanks to Angelides

and thanks to every primary voter who decided that this slimeball would be a better candidate than Westly

[Greyhound]

12. Those wacky state party bosses.

I mean really, how long will Californians stand for these imbeciles?

First (first on this list anyway), the Democratic Party re-nominates Beige (I gave away $10 billion to Enron, Evergreen & Co. because they said so) Davis, this blunder is topped by the Re:puke:s manage to nominate probably the only man in the state that could lose to Davis (remember how Riordan was too liberal for them?) This results in the inevitable recall that gave us the sage leadership of Gropenator and his "billions for graft, not one dime for social needs" administration, and on and on and on...

But all this, and much, much more is unimportant as long as the bosses get to stay bosses. :eyes: