LAT: Labor Gives Angelides a Much-Needed Boost: Statewide TV ads

[DeepModem Mom]

Labor Gives Angelides a Much-Needed Boost
By Michael Finnegan and Dan Morain, Times Staff Writers
September 25, 2006


(Mel Melcon / LAT)
At a rally

SACRAMENTO -- Hoping to prop up state Treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides, public employee unions plan to launch statewide television ads today that resemble the spots they used to inflict major political damage on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year.

The spots renew labor's attack on Schwarzenegger's character, with a nurse, firefighter, police officer and several teachers portraying him as untrustworthy.

Like the ads that helped kill Schwarzenegger's initiatives in the special election last November, the new commercials accuse him of breaking promises to stand up to special interests. They also suggest he is not a champion of public schools.

Angelides, who trails Schwarzenegger in the polls and in fund-raising, sorely needs the boost from labor, his largest source of campaign support. Unions spent nearly $100 million to defeat Schwarzenegger's ballot measures last year, but have spent about $4 million on the Angelides campaign this year.

The coalition paying for the ads is the Alliance for a Better California, a version of the group that ran labor's campaign against Schwarzenegger's initiatives last year. Members include the California Teachers Assn., Service Employees International Union, California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. and California Professional Firefighters, said Gale Kaufman, a Democratic campaign strategist for the unions....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-labor26sep26,1,1414504.story?coll=la-center-politics-cal

[Ken Burch]

1. Could somebody tell me why labor has waited to long to help out?

This is nice, but it is almost too late. Why didn't they start working all-out for Angelides right after, say, Labor Day? Or even at the end of August?

Why were they hedging their bets?

It's not like ratcopulating Angelides would entire Arnold to give them better contracts.

[FrenchieCat]

2. Better late than never......but in the meantime,

Arnold does another chess move--on the Darfur issue, this time.

He has agreed to pull all California investements out of Sudan.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Sudan_Divest.html
ps. That's Clooney looking over Arnold's shoulder!

BURBANK, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Monday to end state investments in Sudan in an effort to pressure that nation to stop genocidal violence in its Darfur region.

"I grew up in Europe after the Second World War so I remember the dark and heavy shadow cast by the Holocaust," Schwarzenegger said. "It has become clear to me that we cannot turn a blind eye to any genocide."

The governor was accompanied by George Clooney and Don Cheadle, actors who have been outspoken about Darfur. Ethnic violence has killed at least 200,000 people and turned 2.5 million people into refugees in the region since 2003.

"There are no Democrat or Republican sides to this, there is only right and wrong," Clooney said.
----------------

That's the kind of Arnold move that will make Angelides' job that much tougher for him. I have to stop being so pessimistic, but I can't stand Arnold, but this was a political play that very few can argue with.