Schwarzenegger Details Plan

Candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger gave reporters a few more details on his plan for closing the state’s budget gap during an appearance Tuesday at the Sheraton hotel in Sacramento.

He said that, as governor, he would raise money by offering a tax amnesty and cracking down on waste and fraud in the Medi-Cal system, the state’s insurance program for the poor and disabled.

“Medi-Cal has so much waste and fraud,” Schwarzenegger said. “They are buying wheelchairs at retail.”

Schwarzenegger also said he would press the federal government for more funding, contending that for every federal tax dollar Californians pay, they get back just 77 cents in services. Aides said Schwarzenegger would push the federal government to pay more costs associated with the state’s immigrant population.

The candidate also suggested allowing local governments to keep more property tax money.

Responding to a question about how local governments would recoup revenue if the car tax were lowered, Schwarzenegger said: “The state is taking it away from them. They should keep the property tax, instead of it going to Sacramento.”

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Huffington Site Posts New Campaign Cartoon

Gubernatorial contender Arianna Huffington posted a new offering on her Web site Tuesday: a saucy cartoon skewering rivals Cruz Bustamante, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis for accepting campaign cash from special interests.

Set against an Old West backdrop, the men are depicted frolicking in red bikini briefs at “The Special Interest Brothel,” where “rich and powerful campaign contributors could always get what they wanted.”

Bustamante, who has accepted millions of dollars from Indian tribes that own casinos, is shown cozying up to a slot machine, murmuring: “Hey there, Slotty, I know what you like. A little backroom access?”

Bustamante yanks the machine’s lever and coins tumble out.

Davis, meanwhile, is having a dalliance of his own with a giant gold badge labeled “the prison industry,” while Schwarzenegger is shown stroking the side of a developer’s bulldozer.

It’s up to Huffington -- in black boots and a cowboy hat -- to burst through the doors and put a stop to it.

“Listen up, special interest varmints!” she shouts. “Your days of buying political favors are over!”

The cartoon, which can be viewed at www.votearianna.com, marks the second Internet movie of the Huffington campaign. The first, titled “Hybrid vs. Hummer,” was e-mailed to more than 100,000 voters.

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Federal Agency Fighting Prop. 54

A federally chartered agency reported Tuesday that it has contributed $50,000 to the campaign against Proposition 54, the ballot measure that would ban state agencies, local governments, colleges and universities from collecting many forms of data on race and ethnicity.

The agency, Fannie Mae, is one of the nation’s biggest providers of mortgage financing. It is trying to promote home ownership among minorities and immigrants, who are expected to be a majority of first-time home buyers nationally in the next decade.

The agency’s Pasadena office made the donation Monday to the Coalition for an Informed California, an anti-Proposition 54 committee.

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Gruener Gives Himself an Additional $250,000

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Garrett Gruener, a venture capitalist who founded the online search engine Ask Jeeves, gave his own campaign $250,000 this week. The donation brings to $1 million the total that Gruener, a proponent of gun control and renewable energy, has committed to his gubernatorial bid.

With his latest donation, Gruener surpassed the sum raised so far by fellow candidate Tom McClintock, the Republican state senator who has received contributions of more than $966,000.

Only Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante have raised more campaign cash.

Gruener, 49, spent part of his money on a 15-second television ad that debuted Friday and directed viewers to his Internet-based campaign.

In August, Gruener bought 5 million Internet advertisements.

On Tuesday, the computer-centric Gruener proposed that every public school student in grades seven through 12 be provided with a laptop computer and training in how to use it.

“Our students deserve to have cutting-edge technology in every classroom in California,” Gruener said.

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Camejo Upset About Missing Cut for Debate

Green Party candidate Peter Camejo is upset that today’s scheduled debate will likely be his last televised appearance with the other gubernatorial hopefuls -- and he is making sure the League of Women Voters knows it.

Camejo said that league chapters in two Southern California counties have set unfair thresholds for determining which candidates can participate in debates that the nonprofit voter education group is sponsoring with the news media next week.

For the debate scheduled for Oct. 2 and organized by KNBC and Telemundo, candidates must have earned at least 3% of the vote in a recent poll to participate.

In the Times poll used by the debate sponsors to determine the participants, Camejo got 2% of the vote, making him the only one of the five remaining major candidates ineligible. Independent candidate Arianna Huffington barely qualified with 3%.

A league official said she was surprised Camejo didn’t make the cut, but stressed that he was not purposely excluded.