Initiative Drive Puts ’06 Governor’s Race in Gear

It’s after Labor Day and the campaign has begun: endorsements, dueling news conferences, TV ads, a rowdy party convention and the requisite release of a candidate’s tax returns.

Only it’s the wrong Labor Day.

Californians won’t choose a governor for 14 months, but thanks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state is experiencing a gubernatorial race far earlier and more intensely than in previous years.

Schwarzenegger has called a special election for this November, not next year when he is up for reelection. That has added heat at a time when politicians traditionally would be trying in vain to get attention while also quietly filling their war chests.

The special election has allowed Schwarzenegger and his chief rivals to piggyback on the tens of millions of dollars being collected for the Nov. 8 initiative fight, promoting themselves along the way. It will allow Schwarzenegger to appear in more TV ads than he might otherwise.

“It allows him to kick-start his reform package but also his gubernatorial campaign -- by being very present in the voters’ minds and constantly dominating the airwaves,” said Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause.

State treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides is helping public employee unions in their effort to defeat four initiatives the Republican governor has backed on the Nov. 8 ballot. That gives him more airtime and media attention than he normally would have at this point in a campaign.

When Schwarzenegger announced last week in San Diego that he was endorsing Proposition 75, which could curb the use of union dues for political purposes, Angelides rented a room across the street at a Hilton Hotel to slam the governor as a tool of corporate interests.

The day before, when Schwarzenegger announced he was running for reelection, the Democratic candidate held a news conference at his Sacramento campaign office to attack the governor. In both cases, he received widespread media coverage.

Tuesday, Angelides held an event at a Sacramento middle school -- one that Schwarzenegger visited last year -- to announce that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) had endorsed him. The two Democrats were surrounded by schoolchildren.

Dan Newman, communications director for Angelides, said the special election “brings clarity” to the treasurer’s effort to defeat Schwarzenegger in 2006: “There is no more pretending to be a different type of governor. He has dropped all pretenses of moderation.”

Schwarzenegger’s other main challenger, state controller Steve Westly, has been far less visible but nevertheless this week announced that he had the endorsement of the Los Angeles deputy sheriffs association and of Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk), chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He also released 10 years of tax returns, which is normally not done until a few months before an election.

Jude Barry, campaign manager for Westly, said the special election allows the Democratic candidates to draw a contrast with Schwarzenegger while boosting their own profiles. “This allows us to catch up,” Barry said. “Because of Westly’s interesting profile and resources, we think we will catch up fast.”

For both campaigns, the special election is a “win-win,” said Democratic political strategist Darry Sragow, because it gives them a free platform to criticize the governor. “The special election allows them to become better known and more defined by the voters -- as long as they stay under control and don’t do something that is self-destructive,” said Sragow, who is not working for any candidate or initiative campaign.

For now, Angelides and Westly are doing relatively well in voters’ minds, perhaps because Schwarzenegger is doing so poorly. A Field Poll this month showed that both Democratic candidates would beat Schwarzenegger if the election were held now, but with large percentages of voters holding no fixed opinion about either Democrat.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, cautioned that former Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis did poorly in polls the year before both were handily reelected. Nevertheless, the special election will be seen as a test for Schwarzenegger in 2006, he said.

“Although the governor will not appear on the special election ballot, he is directly associated with it,” DiCamillo said.

Recent surveys suggest that Schwarzenegger has an uphill battle for the special election. An August poll by the Public Policy Institute of California showed that 34% of Californians believed Schwarzenegger was doing a good job, compared with 58% who approved a year before. Only one of his initiatives -- which would curb the use of union dues for political campaigns -- had more than 50% support.

The governor announced his reelection during the special election campaign so “voters understand there is a long-term commitment and long-term plan ... and it has cast the initiative in an important long-term context, not simply as an end unto itself,” said Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger’s communications director.

He said the governor was “more than happy” for Westly and Angelides to enter the public view, since it provides a contrast for voters. Stutzman did, however, scoff at the notion that voters have been paying attention to Angelides and Westly.

Starting this week, Schwarzenegger will become more visible to the public. His campaign launched two TV ads to support the four Schwarzenegger-backed initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot. Men and women in the first ad complain about poor-performing teachers, unions and government spending. Schwarzenegger appears in the second ad telling voters that “a broken system in Sacramento stands in the way” of his effort to “rebuild California.”

The Schwarzenegger ads are being paid for by the California Recovery Team, a fund that can raise unlimited amounts of money -- unlike the governor’s reelection committee, which must abide by strict contribution limits. Feng said this allows Schwarzenegger to promote himself through expensive TV ads during the initiative campaign.

The public employee unions that want to defeat Schwarzenegger have organized under a group called the Alliance for a Better California. Gale Kaufman, a chief strategist for the group, said Angelides and Westly running their gubernatorial campaigns in the middle of her campaign is only a “minor distraction” and does not hurt her efforts to present a united front against Schwarzenegger this fall.

Kaufman said the governor needed to announce early for reelection to assure his donors that he could be around for five more years. But the announcement has turned into “a very big distraction for him. Now everything he does is part of a reelection scheme, instead of the reform he claims he needs.”

None of the three candidates has yet filed papers to run in 2006; the secretary of state won’t accept any until Feb. 13. Angelides made his campaign official in March, Westly in late July, but they were not the earliest in modern California history. Republican Pete Wilson and Democrat Dianne Feinstein entered the race for governor almost two years before the 1990 election.

But the huge expense of campaigns and relatively recent donation limits for candidates has stretched out the campaign season across the country.

And early campaigns may have advantages in California, said Joel Aberbach, director of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy. If Schwarzenegger’s initiatives are defeated in November, he said, “it’s bound to help their fundraising. It’s going to make them look like much stronger candidates in the election, and show that Democrats can win.”