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 from recent education cuts "are counting on us to win" and working families "know they can't count on Arnold Schwarzenegger to lift a finger for them."
Angelides underscored Schwarzenegger's claim during Saturday's debate that the governor's 2005 special-election agenda comprised "good ideas" simply pursued too fast. Unions, which led the fight to defeat that agenda, saw the measures as attacks upon working families. Schwarzenegger must not have more time to renew those attacks, Angelides said Monday, warning the incumbent, "Your time is up."
Analyses of Saturday's debate have varied -- which is bad for Angelides, as recent polls say he trails by as many as 17 percentage points -- yet the Democrat said Monday he knows in his heart "we won that debate. ... He knew nothing and he had nothing to say." The governor has spent $35 million on television attack advertisements yet offers no coherent vision for dealing with the state's fiscal, educational or health care future, he said.
"The hits I'm taking are nothing compared to the hits the people of California have taken from Arnold Schwarzenegger," Angelides said. "From the George Bush regime in Washington to the Arnold Schwarzenegger regime in Sacramento, these guys are tearing at the fabric of everything that made this state great."
Schwarzenegger campaign spokeswoman Katie Levinson issued a statement Monday saying, "Desperate times call for desperate measures for the Angelides campaign.
"On the heels of losing the debate and trailing by double digits in the polls, Phil Angelides' decision to take his campaign rhetoric from shrill to nasty will backfire when voters compare the governor's record to Phil Angelides' record of supporting tax hikes," she said. "We welcome this discussion."
However, Angelides insisted to reporters after Monday's rally that the debate marked "a big change in this campaign: People are coming out, they're ready to fight."
His strong labor-union support could prove crucial in the final weeks: a low-cost, grass-roots get-out-the-vote effort Schwarzenegger might be ill-equipped to match.
Joining Angelides in Oakland were state Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres, controller nominee John Chiang, secretary of state nominee Debra Bowen and insurance commissioner nominee Cruz Bustamante. Their presence either belied reports that Democrats fear Angelides could drag down the rest of his ticket, or marked their resolve to toe the party line at any cost.
Democratic treasurer nominee Bill Lockyer spoke at the rally but left before Angelides arrived. He, too, berated Schwarzenegger for standing by his special-election agenda, and he praised Angelides' defense of privacy rights and the environment.
Offstage, Lockyer said Angelides faces a Republican who's "willing to act like a Democrat" to keep office. But just as Democratic lieutenant governor nominee John Garamendi told a Los Angeles television news show Sunday, Lockyer on Monday said he long has thought Angelides' plan for tax increases on corporations and the state's richest residents "is not the right central message" with which to win.
Angelides' two-day bus tour took him Sunday to Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno and Merced, and then Monday to Modesto and Stockton before Oakland. After the Oakland rally, he met with Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and faith community leaders before heading to a San Francisco labor rally.
Schwarzenegger -- with law enforcement officials and victims-rights advocates Monday in Los Angeles to tout his candidacy and Proposition 83, a crackdown on sexual predators -- launched two new television ads Monday.
One promises he will keep the economy humming while protecting the environment, investing more in education and finding affordable, quality health care solutions. The other accuses Angelides of erratic health care stances and environmental harm wrought by one of his private development projects.
