We got in an interesting debate about this over dinner -- which is worse? LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa screwing over his wife, or Gavin Newsom screwing over his campaign manager? Family or friends? Who ya got? Picture of Newsom and Villaraigosa, with Phil Angelides.......

-Bay Area not the only place that's had an up-tick in violent crime-- everywhere else has too. It's just a little worse here. -And crime is also heading to the suburbs. ...

-You know how Gavin said we needed more money to fund all the new police work we're asking the police to do? He was only punking Chris Daly. ...

At a question and answer session in front of an organization of African-American ministers near downtown Sacramento, Phil Angelides went back-back-back-back-back to say something nasty about the Governator in an attempt to stir things up. After telling the audience that Arnie doesn't care about black people, he said he can prove it because, back in the day, Arnie allegedly was pro-Apartheid. Cue reactions of shock mixed in with whole heaping bits of "wha?" ...

Remember Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia? She was the one Arnie was referring to when he made those comments about Latina women? And who later appeared at his side when he apologized to give him cover? Well, maybe there was more to it than that because on Sunday, she sent out a statement apologizing for telling a group of school kids that she wouldn't kick the Governator "out of her bed." ...

Pete Wilson (the anchor, not the ex-Governor) says "sorry about that" over his comments in regards to gay people having babies. -Oakland sues landlord for being very, very bad. ...

Guess who got endorsed on the cover by last week's winner, the Bay Guardian? Where's the green beads, Chris? Letters about fixie bikes, and Tim Redmond notes that Renee Saucedo shouldn't have endorsed Prop 90 (the overbroad eminent domain one). Dan Noyes, gadfly. Also endorsed by the Guardian: Phil Angelides, Jerry Brown, Leland Yee, Barbara Lee, and Krissy Keefer. And Steven T. Jones had nothing at all to do with their endorsement of Alix Rosenthal.......

Yesterday, on Treasure Island, the Governator pretty much gave an example of just why he's crushing Phil Angelides in the polls. With San Francisco in the background, Gavin Newsom and Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez at his side, and Bush's poodle Tony Blair live via video feed, the Governator signed a bill making California the toughest state on carbon dioxide and other gases emissions. Hell, maybe the toughest locale ever. But wait, that's not all. He will also sign a bill later this week that will forbid state electric utilities from buying electricity from high-polluting plants elsewhere. ...

It has been decided that the Governator and Phil Angelides are going to have an actual real live debate on October 7. But instead of a bunch of boring reporters asking boring questions that nobody cares about, they're going to do it all interactive like and are soliciting questions from us, Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Smith-Public. So if you want to ask a question, just go to this here site and ask away. The California Broadcasting Association will then go through them and decide which questions will be asked with cash prizes being given out to the winning questions! No, we're just joking about that. ...

These sniper attacks never make us feel very secure, even if it is only paintball -- over the last month, 10 people (and a dog) have been hit by paintballs throughout the City of Berkeley. No one's been seriously hurt yet, but some people's clothes were damaged, some people almost got in car accidents, and one kid was hit in the cheek (the reports are silent as to the state of the dog.) It's like......

Sure, you're all into this upcoming election to vote on bond measures and Central Committee members, but some of us are psyched on the big vote, the one to see who will get clobbered by take on the Governator. Will it be cool, techy Steve Westly or the spry and wiry Phil Angelides? What do they say on the issues? What do they want to do to take the state in a new direction? What is on their iPod lists? We dunno. Actually, for you, dear readers, we did some research to help you figure it all out. Sadly, we couldn't find a damn thing about their iPod lists (we're guessing it won't include Nelly) but did find out a whole bunch of other stuff. So here, as our final report, is the handy-dandy guide SFist has put together to the respective Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates. ...

This may seem hard to believe, but after all that fund raising and all that ass-kissing, and all those Stones concerts, as the new year dawns and his re-election mounts, Herr Governator's campaign is almost completely broke. As in having no money-- nada. As in having only slightly over $140,000 in hand, something which wouldn't even cover a political consultant's expensed lunch. Throw in all the outstanding fees he has and he's actually over $400,000 in debt. Expect his next big fund-raiser to be a potluck in his living room with one of his children DJing with their iPod. ...

Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro. Phil Angelides made all his money in real estate. The Merc News gets in a screamy match with Baron Davis of the GSWarriors -- literally! Yay. Cover article: Muslim comedians (including this guy). Cirque du Soleil goes South Bay. Picture of Gillian Anderson looking like Madonna. And Straight Dope: can moms really lift cars off their children? Maybe. Next up, the SF Weekly. The editor's note re......

You know how after the Very Special Election Governor Arnie was saying he got the message loud and clear and was going back to being a centrist and ixnaying the hard-core conservatism? It looks like he's actually doing it. It's all out with the old and in with the new. This week he got rid of his previous Chief of Staff, a Republican, and brought in one of Gray Davis' old aides, Susan Kennedy. The move has gotten conservative's panties all in a bunch. Not necessarily because Kennedy is an old Davis aide, but because she's been actively involved in abortion rights causes. And is lesbian who married her longtime partner. Yep, the Governor just put his administration in the hands of an abortion-loving lesbian and we know how much the Republican Party loves them. ...

The big story concerning Herr Governator is that according to a new poll, his ballot initiatives are actually winning right now. Is it due to all those super-expensive Hollywood style campaign stops he's been doing? The forcing of poor tired fire-fighting firefighters to be dragged out for photo-ops? Or is it the overwhelming popularity of his stand against freshness in school kid's lunches? Or maybe it's due to wonky polling? We don’t know. We......

Schwarzenegger's approval ratings maybe dropping like a coked-out c-level starlet's weight (he’s polling worse than the President in the state) but that doesn't mean he's in big trouble if he decides to run for re-election next year. In fact, he's in fairly decent shape for the same reason Republicans are always in a fairly decent shape come election time, lame Democratic candidates. Right now, the two main contenders to try and take the governship, Steve Westly and Phil Angelides, have been drawing nothing but the big yawn from the collected mass of California voters. And yes it's way early and yes, neither of them have been out and about doing the baby-kissing thing. But both of them are, how shall we say it, charisma challenged and while that hasn't stopped people from winning the Governership before (see Davis, Gray), they never ran against somebody who took down an entire police station with nothing but a car and guns in a movie. So the big parlor game in certain circles is trying to come up with a better candidate to run against Herr Governator. ...

Warren Beatty gave the commencement speech to the University of California class of 2005, wearing academic robes and going after Governor Schwarzenegger in what may be an opening salvo in Beatty's rumored campaign. Current front runners in the race for the Democratic nomination include State Treasurer Phil Angelides and fellow Hollywood millionaire Rob Reiner, after Attorney General Bill Lockyer threw in the towel. Schwarzenegger has seen his approval ratings drop to around 50% after......

It may seem like we just had a Governor's race, and then the Recall race, but it's still not too early to start thinking about the next Governor's race. 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 in 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 carry the support of Nancy Pelosi....

California politicians are in a state of shock after hearing the news that soon-to-be-former Sec. of State Kevin Shelley's Palm Pilot was stolen from his Glen Park home. "It's crazy! I'm getting emails from people pretending to be Hugh Hefner!" said beleaguered state controller Steve Westly. The Palm Pilot, which Shelley repetitively bragged about having used to raise millions of dollars off of, not only contained the personal email and cell phone information of many of California's hottest political celebs but also, more embarassingly, personal notes like "get Help America Vote kill pill" and "check from Julie Lee," as well as some triple-x hottt [NSFW, or ever, really] photos of Shelley in compromising positions with state treasurer Phil Angelides and insurance commissioner John Garamendi. Politicians from Schwarzenegger on down are bracing themselves for an onslaught of calls from bored teens looking for fun. But the most intriguing entry? "Newson, san fran mayor, 415-[redacted]." JK, JK. Shelley did lose his Palm Pilot, though. He blames disgruntled employees. ...