And They're Off
It may seem like we just had an election for Governor, and then an election to recall the Governor, but it's still not too early to start thinking about the next election for Governor. Yay! We still are about twenty months away from the actual election, but today, two Democrats threw themselves into the race to try and unseat the Governator- one officially, the other not yet officially.
We start off with State Treasurer Phil Angelides. Angelides today officially announced that he was going to run in 2006 during speeches given at public schools in both San Francisco and Sacramento. Angelides has made a name for himself during the Arnie years by being one of the Governor's biggest critics. Since Arnie took over the Governor's office, Angelides has pretty much opposed everything Arnie has tried to get done. Why, we even hear he refused to smoke a stogie with him! In his speeches today, Angelides criticized the Governator for cutting assistance to the not-so-well-off to help the well-off. In his press release to announce his running, Angelides includes a note of support from Sen. Barbara Boxer. He also claims to have the support of Nancy Pelosi.
Image of Phil Angelides from his official Web site
Now that blogging is the cat's pajamas, Angelides is taking a page out of the Howard Dean campaign book by trying to grow a presence on the Web. His campaign not only sent press releases to little ole us, but sister site LAist as well. He will also be buying ad space on both blogs. We guess it's something you have to do when your opponent seems to excel in picking up gob loads of cash.
Also today, State Attorney Bill Lockyer told an audience in D.C. that he will also announce his candidacy very soon. We're guessing, in fact, that now that his biggest opponent has announced, he will too. Lockyer got off to a great start in criticizing the Governor for being Austrian. Because those Austrians- nudge, nudge, wink, wink- love their autocrats. While Lockyer didn't bring up the N word, the Repubicans quickly did, saying that Lockyer's comments were outrageous. We quote:
"We have two spokesmen for the California Democratic Party today, one of them promoting tax increases, and the other comparing the governor to the Nazis."
Nice.
Also expected to run are state controller Steve Westley and, God help us, Rob "Meathead" Reiner. While still popular with Californians, Arnie's job approval has dropped considerably over the past few months and doesn't seem as formidable as he did months ago. Democrats are hoping that the trend continues as Arnie seems to be determined to insult everyone in the state.