Angelides Takes Coast Route

Under attack by rival Steve Westly for his ties to oil companies, gubernatorial hopeful Phil Angelides dashed up the California coast Monday to plug his environmental record at scenic beaches as the increasingly brutal Democratic contest entered its final two weeks.

In Santa Monica, Goleta and Santa Cruz, Angelides also tried to one-up Westly on a looming political fight between environmentalists and the oil industry: a likely November ballot measure that would hit oil drilling companies with a tax to raise $400 million a year to develop alternative fuels. Angelides vowed to fight for the initiative and challenged his rival to do the same. Westly declined to take a stand.

“I’m standing up to big oil,” Angelides told several dozen supporters at the beach in Goleta outside Santa Barbara.

The coastal tour -- under spectacular blue skies cleared by a late spring rainstorm -- came three days after Westly started airing a television ad that hammered Angelides for raising campaign money from Chevron, Texaco, Enron and other energy companies.

Angelides denounced the spot at a morning stop in Santa Monica, where actress Laura Dern and several environmentalists joined him on a bluff overlooking Malibu and Catalina Island.

“Give me a break, Steve Westly,” Angelides said. “Steve Westly has invested millions of his own money in oil companies, oil drilling companies and chemical companies. His idea of taking on the oil companies is to add them to his stock portfolio.”

What matters, he said, “is what you do in office.”

The jousting underscored the importance of the environment to voters in the June 6 Democratic primary. It also was a reminder of potential political rewards for candidates who tap into voter anger at the oil industry at a time of soaring gas prices and record energy company profits. Westly and Angelides are vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November.

Westly, the state controller, expanded his assault on his Democratic rival’s environmental record Monday with another TV commercial. It spotlights the money spent by an Angelides investment partner, Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, on ads that show teachers, firefighters and police promoting Angelides.

“Read the fine print,” says an announcer in the Westly ad. “They’re really paid for by one of the state’s largest real estate developers. Why would one developer spend $6 million to get Angelides elected?”

Angelides portrayed Westly’s attacks as a sign of desperation. “He’s got nothing left except to move to character assassination,” Angelides said.

On another front, Westly’s campaign announced Monday that he was preparing to return up to $92,000 he had received from San Diego attorney William Lerach and his current and former partners, and called on Angelides to do the same. Angelides has accepted $207,000 from Lerach and his former partners since 2000, campaign finance reports show.

Two of Lerach’s former partners and his former law firm, Milberg Weiss, were indicted last week on charges of paying illegal kickbacks. Lerach, who could not be reached, has not been charged in the case. Angelides’ spokesman Nick Papas said the campaign had no immediate plans to return any donations.

Westly accepted $8,000 in 2004 from two former Lerach partners who were named in the indictment. Neither contributed to Angelides, although the firm did.

During his coastal tour, Angelides, a former Sacramento developer, spent much of the day casting his real estate record in a favorable light. He recalled building subdivisions with thousands of trees and houses with front porches.

“I was a pioneer in the private sector, doing things against the grain of the industry,” he said.

Angelides also took credit for fighting suburban sprawl by spurring public pension funds to invest in construction of urban housing near mass-transit stops. Traveling with him were several supporters from environmental groups, who also defended his record on development matters.

“We need a man sitting in the governor’s office who, when the builders come in, can recognize a line of baloney when he sees them, and tell them to take it someplace else,” said Thomas Adams, board president of the California League of Conservation Voters.

The league supports Angelides in the primary, as does the Vote the Coast environmental group. The Sierra Club, which did not support Angelides in his campaigns for state treasurer in the 1990s because of his environmental record as a developer, has endorsed both candidates.

At each stop Monday, Angelides depicted Westly as too close to Schwarzenegger. At the Santa Cruz lighthouse, Angelides told supporters that his two opponents were “very good at mouthing the words” on environmental protection, but when it comes to oil companies, “too often they stand aside, and they don’t stand up.”

Schwarzenegger’s environmental record has won lukewarm reviews from conservation groups, but he has made it a key part of his appeals to Democrats and independents whose support he needs to win reelection.

The Angelides campaign swing came two days before Westly begins a statewide bus tour, starting with stops in the Central Valley, Inland Empire and Coachella Valley.

Strong support among Democrats in such inland areas could help Westly offset any advantage that Angelides might gain by appealing to liberals in the Bay Area and other coastal regions with plans to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations to raise money for schools.

“The tax stuff has seriously hurt Angelides in the inland parts of California among Democratic voters there,” Westly strategist Garry South said. “He has made a very faulty assumption that all Democrats who vote in the primary are liberals who are just salivating to have their taxes raised.”

Angelides campaign manager Cathy Calfo said voters “believe that the very wealthy and corporations are not paying their fair share -- and that they should be to fully fund our schools.”