Angelides, Westly Find Agreement and Discord

Phil Angelides and Steve Westly tore into each other Wednesday night in a harshly personal debate, burying the many areas of agreement in their campaigns for governor beneath a barrage of accusations and insults.

The two Democratic candidates took identical stands on virtually every issue that came up in the 55-minute session here, the last scheduled meeting before the June 6 primary. Each vowed to expand the availability of affordable healthcare, called for policies encouraging alternative sources of energy, endorsed driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and voiced support for same-sex marriages.

They backed the state’s high school exit exam, called for tighter limits on campaign financing and expressed support for an immigration policy that toughens border enforcement while offering a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who hold steady jobs and learn English, among other criteria.

But that did not stop the two from assailing one another at virtually every turn, starting almost immediately after the requisite opening handshake.

State Treasurer Angelides portrayed his rival as a Republican in a Democrat’s navy blue suit who is attempting to use his dot-com fortune to buy his way into the governor’s office. “Steve, I’ve got to tell you something,” Angelides said at one point. “If you think you can just put $22.5 million of your own money to try to buy the governorship without examining your record, you’re wrong.”

Angelides repeatedly said he alone stood up to Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger on issues like education funding, even when the governor’s once-impressive political stature intimidated other politicians.

“Here’s what you get with me,” Angelides said. “I’m someone you can count on. I stand up for my beliefs. You know, when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s poll ratings were as high as his box office receipts, there were a lot of people like Steve Westly who wanted to crowd into the photo. He didn’t stand up for college students whose fees were going up. He didn’t stand up for those academic outreach programs that help inner-city kids. He didn’t stand up for injured workers.”

State Controller Westly retorted: “Once again, a complete falsehood from our treasurer.”

Westly portrayed himself over and over as a businessman first -- he was an early EBay executive, among other Silicon Valley jobs -- and a politician second, suggesting that Angelides is part of a stale Sacramento establishment that has done little to solve the problems facing the state. “Californians are tired of career politicians and partisan bickering,” Westly said. “They want someone who’s a competent manager.”

He pointed out that a substantial portion of Angelides’ campaign cash has come from his former peers in the real estate development industry, asking suspiciously, “What have they bought with that money?”

The evening marked the third debate of a Democratic primary campaign that so far has done little to capture the public’s imagination, or even much attention. Co-sponsored by the Commonwealth Club, the session was held in the studio of San Francisco’s CBS5-TV, which broadcast the session live, along with two of the city’s radio stations. It was not aired live in Southern California.

The Westly campaign acknowledges that the race has grown tighter since opinion polls last month gave the controller a comfortable lead over Angelides, with a big chunk of voters undecided. That may explain why the controller took a far more aggressive stance than he did a week ago, the last time the two debated.

He used his opening statement to brand Angelides a lifelong politician -- though both have spent decades as Democratic activists -- and sought throughout the debate to draw a sharp personal contrast. “I’m not a strident politician,” Westly said at one point. “I’m not an ideologue. I’m here to come up with common-sense solutions to fix the state. And that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

He suggested that Angelides was “promising things that are fundamentally unrealistic and will never happen.”

But Angelides said it was Westly who was the opportunist, deciding to run against Schwarzenegger only when the governor’s poll standing plunged and he began to seem vulnerable. “You stood up to Arnold Schwarzenegger like Ed McMahon stood up to Johnny Carson,” Angelides said in one of the night’s several zingers that seemed well-rehearsed.

With so little to disagree on, the candidates used the questions from a panel of reporters and members of the studio audience to launch into familiar lines of attack.

Much of the discussion revolved around Angelides’ call to raise taxes on the well-to-do and corporations. He suggested it was the only serious plan from either candidate that would fund the state’s education needs.

Westly repeatedly called it a $10-billion tax increase that would directly affect working-class Californians. Angelides said that figure was a fabrication, and scolded Westly, saying his criticism was reminiscent of the attack conservatives leveled on President Clinton’s tax plan.

“You know, Steve, those charges were phony then, and they’re phony now, and you ought to be ashamed of recycling those Fox News smears,” Angelides said.

Westly parried by suggesting that he managed to boost the state’s revenues by $3.5 billion through a tax amnesty and stricter auditing, and he again pledged that raising taxes would be a last resort. Westly took umbrage when Angelides suggested that his opposition to higher taxes amounted to coddling corporations like Exxon Mobil.

“You’re not telling the truth,” Westly snapped. “That’s a flat-out lie.”

The candidates offered a bit of contrast on a question about whether as governor they would consider an immediate withdrawal of California’s National Guard troops from Iraq, given the war’s unpopularity.

Westly said he saluted the Guard troops for their sacrifice and wanted “to see those kids home as soon as possible.” In the meantime, he said, he would get more federal money to protect California in case a natural disaster or terrorist attack occurs -- to cover for absent National Guard troops. “When I’m governor,” he said, “I’m going to roll up the sleeves, go back to Washington, lead a bipartisan delegation to get the money California deserves.”

Angelides responded by denouncing the war.

“Let me be clear,” he said. “This war in Iraq is wrong. It’s wounding the conscience of this nation and wounding the young people of this nation.” The governor, he said, lacks the power to return National Guard troops to California once they have been federalized. But he pledged to “do everything in my power to help bring our troops home and to end this war” and “work my heart out to elect a Democratic president in 2008 so we can end this travesty.”