Unions Debut TV Ads to Support Angelides

Hoping to prop up state treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides, public employee unions plan to launch statewide television ads today that resemble the spots they used to inflict major political damage on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year.

The spots renew labor’s attack on Schwarzenegger’s character, with a nurse, firefighter, police officer and several teachers portraying him as untrustworthy.

Like the ads that helped kill Schwarzenegger’s initiatives in the special election last November, the new commercials accuse him of breaking promises to stand up to special interests. They also suggest he is not a champion of public schools.

Angelides, who trails Schwarzenegger in the polls and in fundraising, sorely needs the boost from labor, his largest source of campaign support. Unions spent nearly $100 million to defeat Schwarzenegger’s ballot measures last year, but have spent only about $4 million on the Angelides campaign this year.

The coalition paying for the ads is the Alliance for a Better California, a version of the group that ran labor’s campaign against Schwarzenegger’s initiatives last year. Members include the California Teachers Assn., Service Employees International Union, California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. and California Professional Firefighters, said Gale Kaufman, a Democratic campaign strategist for the unions.

She declined to say how much the group would spend on the ads, saying only that the amount was significant. She would not say how long the spots would stay on the air.

By law, the participating unions and their consultants must operate independently of Angelides’ campaign. They are not subject to donation limits that apply to the candidate.

A major statewide ad buy for an independent campaign could cost up to $2.5 million a week this season. A purchase of even $1 million a week for the remaining six weeks of the campaign would mean that the unions would be spending about $6 million between now and election day.

Angelides consultant Bill Carrick said the Democrat is being “grossly outspent” by Schwarzenegger and the Republican Party. The labor-funded ads could help level the field.

“It is great to have friends. These are smart people who know what they’re doing,” Carrick said.

Angelides has raised only about half of what the governor’s campaign has received this year -- around $14.6 million, compared to Schwarzenegger’s $28.6 million.

On Monday, Schwarzenegger held fundraisers in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County with his billionaire friend and advisor Warren Buffett.

Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Matt David said, “It comes as no surprise to the campaign.”

One of the ads shows Schwarzenegger saying on NBC’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” during the 2003 recall campaign that he did not have to bow to special interests.

“I have plenty of money,” he says. “No one can pay me off, trust me. No one.”

A firefighter and teacher go on to say that Schwarzenegger has taken more than $100 million from oil companies, drug makers and other special interests.

The ad also shows Schwarzenegger responding to hecklers by saying, “I’m always kicking their butts,” referring to special interests. “That’s why they don’t like me.”

The hecklers were nurses at an annual women’s conference hosted by Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver. A nurse, a stethoscope dangling around her neck, appears on screen and says: “No, governor -- it’s because we don’t trust you.”

Sacramento Metro Fire Department Capt. Brian Rice is the firefighter in the ad. Rice, 46, president of the Sacramento-area firefighters union, said in an interview that he became enraged when Schwarzenegger backed a measure last year that would have made it harder for public employee unions to raise money for political campaigns.

He said the 1,600 members of his local pay $4.83 a month into a political action committee. Over a year, that amounts to about what four people attending one of the governor’s fundraisers would spend if each gave him the maximum donation allowed by state law, $22,300.

“I don’t trust him,” Rice said.

Also appearing in the ads is Sandra Fink, a physical education teacher at Mark Keppel Elementary School in Glendale. In an interview, she called his comment at the women’s conference unprofessional.

“You can’t trust someone who speaks like that,” she said.

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michael.finnegan@latimes.com

dan.morain@latimes.com