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Using a Tactic From Truman in 1948

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Times Staff Writer

In 1948, Harry S. Truman described the big-business titans backing his Republican presidential rival, Thomas Dewey, as “gluttons of privilege.” They put “fabulous sums of money” behind Dewey, Truman said, to “assure privilege for big business, regardless of what may happen to the rest of the nation.”

State Treasurer Phil Angelides, the Democrat running for governor, harked back to those remarks as he made a similar case last week against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Truman “talked about the gluttons of privilege,” Angelides told supporters on folding chairs in the backyard of a small house in Burbank. “He talked about corporate greed. He made it clear who he was for and who he was willing to go to bat for.”

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In his latest attempt to gain traction against Schwarzenegger, Angelides has adopted Truman’s populist approach as his own. He says the governor, along with his fellow Republican, President Bush, protects big business and the rich at the expense of middle-class families struggling to make ends meet amid soaring gasoline, healthcare and college-tuition costs.

The class-based pitch is more attuned to a Democratic primary than a general-election contest. But in the waning days of summer, nothing is more important to Angelides than boosting what has been his flimsy support among Democrats.

A Field Poll last month found that just 63% of likely Democratic voters favored Angelides over Schwarzenegger. (By contrast, 85% of Republicans backed the governor.)

Strategists of both parties say a failure to show any advance among Democrats in the next wave of independent polls could push Angelides into a downward spiral. It would dissuade donors from putting money into his campaign, which, in turn, would make it harder to pay for the television ads he needs to get his message across to voters.

In that context, a populist appeal, especially one that taps anger at oil companies over gasoline prices, could produce the quick gains that Angelides needs among the Democrats who dominate Los Angeles County and the Bay Area, said Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin.

“That’s lower-hanging fruit,” he said.

In Burbank, Angelides told the backyard gathering that California’s economy has expanded but that “all of the benefits of that growth have gone to the wealthiest 1%.” HMOs are awash in record profits, he said, and oil companies -- here he stopped on each syllable for emphasis -- “are making $350 million a day.”

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“Too many California families are struggling just to stay even, but it’s not like the economy has been tough on everyone,” he said.

Reprising his Democratic primary call for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, he said Schwarzenegger and Bush have refused to make them “pay their fair share again so we can fund our schools.”

Democrats have long relied on such attacks against Republicans, but their effectiveness is a subject of sharp dispute.

“It’s very hard to drive a wedge between people and business in this country,” said Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University. “And there’s also a belief that wealth for them might be just around the corner, and they don’t want the well to be poisoned when they get there.”

The Angelides attacks on Schwarzenegger mirror Al Gore’s “people versus the powerful” theme in the 2000 presidential race. Gore argued that Bush would favor oil companies, HMOs and pharmaceutical firms over average workers. Some Democrats say that approach repelled swing voters, while others say it was crucial to Gore’s popular-vote victory.

Chris Lehane, who was Gore’s campaign spokesman, said that populist message is sure to work better in Democratic-leaning California than in swing states -- even more so when combined with Angelides’ efforts to tie Schwarzenegger to the unpopular president.

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“Anything he can do that links Bush and Arnold is a very smart move, because it will help him with his base,” Lehane said.

By reminding voters of Schwarzenegger’s ties to Bush, Lehane added, Angelides also raises doubts about the governor’s “core values,” highlighting his swing from a conservative agenda last year to a more moderate path in his run for reelection.

Last week, the state Democratic Party began airing a television ad showing Schwarzenegger campaigning in Ohio for Bush’s reelection in October 2004. The spot says 130,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq while gas prices and the national debt have shot upward on Bush’s watch.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger’s for George W. Bush,” an announcer says. “Is he for you?”

The governor’s campaign responded with an ad that opens with an image of the moon. “Where does Phil Angelides live?” a narrator asks. “All he talks about is President Bush.” The ad credits Schwarzenegger for reviving California’s economy “with no new taxes,” saying he is moving the state forward and suggesting that Angelides would reverse course.

Schwarzenegger campaign manager Steve Schmidt dismissed the effort to highlight the governor’s support for Bush as “a deeply flawed campaign strategy focusing on an event in the past that California voters aren’t focused on.”

The accusation that Schwarzenegger has favored the wealthy and big business over the middle class shows that Angelides is “fundamentally out of touch,” Schmidt said. Noting the nearly 600,000 jobs created in California during the governor’s term, he said: “Those workers and their families would take great exception to Phil Angelides’ negativity and pessimism.”

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Republican strategist Dan Schnur, who is not working on the campaign, also questioned the effectiveness of using Bush against Schwarzenegger, citing the governor’s more moderate stands on abortion, stem cell research, the environment and other matters.

“Linking a candidate to George Bush works a lot better when that candidate doesn’t pick a fight with George Bush once a month,” Schnur said.

In Burbank, Angelides joked that Schwarzenegger was treating Bush “like he’s got the bird flu.” But the governor “hurt California,” Angelides said, by campaigning for Bush in Ohio, a crucial state in the 2004 election.

He said Bush and Schwarzenegger had each shortchanged public schools, made college less affordable, jeopardized the pensions of working families and heaped government debt on future generations while coddling oil companies and other campaign donors.

Schwarzenegger “learned a lesson from George Bush in 2000, which is talk the language of moderation, but then govern from the right,” said Angelides, who went on to question how different the two Republicans are on abortion and the environment.

“On a woman’s right to choose, Schwarzenegger says he’s pro-choice,” Angelides said, but he is “standing with anti-choice forces” on Proposition 85, a ballot measure that would require parental notification for minors seeking abortion. And on Proposition 87, a measure that would tax oil companies to raise money for alternative energy research, Schwarzenegger is “standing with the oil companies, just like George Bush,” Angelides said.

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The next day in Berkeley, the Democrat again denounced what he called “the Bush-Schwarzenegger agenda” as he campaigned with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), a hero in that liberal bastion after casting the lone vote in Congress against war in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

“I think we can refer to it as the B.S. agenda,” Angelides said. “Reject the B.S. agenda.”

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