Lately, Angelides connects with voters

The question came from a high school student among the more than 200 people crammed into Thornton Junior High School’s library Thursday night to listen to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides talk about education. What strategies, the student at the Fremont school wanted to know, had worked for Angelides’ campaign, and what had he learned?

Angelides, trailing badly in the polls, gave his standard answer about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s advantage in fundraising and his own inability to counter negative ads by Democratic primary opponent Steve Westly and now Schwarzenegger. But then Angelides went off message to talk about what drew him to politics in the first place -- and as he did, he seized the student-heavy crowd.

“It all starts with being true to your values,” Angelides said. “Being willing to stand in and fight for what you care about no matter how tough it is. Knowing in your heart what’s right, and never backing down ... and working hard to get others to come along.... It’s not about one campaign. Not about one election season. It’s a lifelong struggle.”

Three times this week Angelides has forgone rallies and news conferences for such town hall-style meetings, and at each event he has managed to break through the nerdish, policy-wonk persona that has defined his candidacy and has given people a sense of the candidate they otherwise did not know.

On Friday he anchored a session at Stanford University’s Women’s Community Center aimed at rallying opposition to Proposition 85, which would require parental notification before a minor could obtain an abortion. Schwarzenegger supports the proposition.

“How can you be a husband, and the father of three daughters, and not be pro-choice?” Angelides said, referring to his own family. “If any of my girls faced this tough decision, I have every faith and confidence -- given that it’s their bodies, their lives, their future -- that they’ll make it. There’s no place for government.”

As effective as Angelides’ town hall events might be with voters in the room, such retail politics has limited impact on an electorate as broad as California’s. Key to reaching those voters is television -- and town halls this late in the cycle are notoriously hard to cover as multiple races and issues compete for airtime, said Gary Dietrich, executive director of Citizen Voice in Sacramento.

“They can work if you can get coverage of them,” Dietrich said, adding that town hall sessions usual mark the early part of a campaign, when a candidate is trying to introduce himself and his issues.

Low on cash for television ads, Angelides has used recent visits by high-profile Democrats such as Sen. Barack Obama and former President Clinton to try to draw media attention. One effort backfired when Sen. John Kerry’s botched joke seemed to insult the intelligence of U.S. troops -- uttered as Kerry stood in front of an Angelides sign.

Another expert doubted that a more consistent use of the format could have offset Schwarzenegger’s move to the political center and overwhelming fundraising advantage.

“Given the size of Arnold’s lead, I don’t think that anything Angelides could have done differently would have ultimately mattered,” said Gary Jacobson, a political analyst at UC San Diego, adding that transmitting the intimacy of a town hall across California is a daunting task. “You’ll still get only sound bites out of these sessions. But anything to give him a warmer image would have been a positive, as I think many Californians don’t have any clear sense of who he is.”

On Friday, both candidates paid their respects at a funeral for slain Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey V. Mitchell, shot and killed last week as he pulled over a van on a rural road. Under ashen skies, they joined several thousand peace officers from across California at Raley Field baseball stadium near the state Capitol.

Angelides and his wife sat in the more distant stands, and left discreetly after an hour to get to the Stanford University event. Schwarzenegger and his daughter Christina shared front row folding chairs on the field with Mitchell’s widow, mother and 6-year-old son. The governor sat quietly through the 2 1/2 -hour ceremony before moving on to rally supporters in Visalia and Palm Desert.

In Visalia, Schwarzenegger thanked volunteers for their work and pledged to campaign until the election. Speaking briefly with reporters, he was asked whether he supports establishing a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

“I feel like all Americans do, that we hope our troops come home as soon as possible, but they have to have success over there,” Schwarzenegger said. “And what is also important is to recognize that those are the bravest of the bravest men and women we have. We have the best military force -- unlike what you heard Sen. Kerry say the other day.”

Angelides immediately fired back. “After standing shoulder to shoulder with George W. Bush and supporting the disastrous war in Iraq, Arnold Schwarzenegger has embarked on yet another election year conversion,” Angelides said. “Sadly, the governor has offered only words and failed to take any meaningful action. Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, I will take action and use my power as governor to fight to bring our troops home from Iraq.”

scott.martelle@latimes.com

nancy.vogel@latimes.com

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Times staff writer Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.