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Character Is Key in Governor Campaign

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Times Staff Writer

With little else to dispute, the two Democrats vying to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are tussling over the most basic of voter questions: Whom can you trust?

At campaign stops around the state, each of the Democrats -- state Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly -- has been touting himself for weeks as the one who holds truest to his convictions. This week, millions of Californians will get their first glimpse of the rivalry as the two launch three months of nearly statewide television advertising.

For both candidates, character looms as important in the June primary and onward to November, when one of them will face a Republican incumbent who has abruptly shifted from “live within our means” austerity to an immense new spending agenda. Schwarzenegger’s shift, the Democrats say, casts doubt on what he really stands for.

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The candidates are not alone in questioning the governor’s character: Democrats’ allies in organized labor have resumed the attacks on Schwarzenegger that they used to help kill his ballot measures last fall.

They say his new push to raise more campaign money in eight months than his predecessor, Gray Davis, collected in four years shows that Schwarzenegger has broken his pledge to stand up to special interests, just as he reneged on a deal to restore money that was diverted from public schools to balance the state budget.

For his part, Schwarzenegger is trying to regain voters’ trust by immersing himself in day-to-day governing, softening his tone toward Democratic lawmakers and, most of all, promoting his $222-billion public works plan as a bold move to shore up schools, highways and flood protection.

For generations, it has been an article of faith among politicians that voters frown on candidates who shift with the sentiments of the moment and reward those who hew to consistent beliefs -- even if voters don’t share them.

“In politics, consistency counts for a lot, and when you’re inconsistent, it really creates problems,” said Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, who views questions on Schwarzenegger’s reliability as “a huge liability” in his run for reelection.

This spring, early tussles between Westly and Angelides over which candidate best upholds bedrock principles foreshadow the fiercer clash that both sides expect to erupt as the June 6 primary nears. The conflict among Democrats has sharpened this month as the two candidates have eased into a more visible phase of the party nomination battle.

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At a round-table discussion with students at Humboldt State University, Westly said it was the “courage of my convictions” that led him to defy Schwarzenegger when the governor tried to withhold some cash from state universities, but also to side with him on solar-energy expansion and a $15-billion debt plan “to prevent the state from running out of money.”

“I’m not a partisan bomb-thrower,” he said. “I’m here to fix things.”

By contrast, he argued, Angelides has taken his hostility toward Schwarzenegger too far. “People don’t want someone who’s going to be a knee-jerk anti-Arnold. They want someone who’s going to stand up to him when he’s wrong and someone who supports him when he’s right.”

Angelides has been less overt about taking on Westly -- for the most part ignoring him and running as if he were already crowned Schwarzenegger’s Democratic challenger. Yet Angelides has made clear that he wants voters to see his steadfast opposition to Schwarzenegger as a testament to his unwavering principles -- an implicit suggestion that both of his rivals are weak-kneed.

“Throughout my life, I’ve stayed consistent to my values,” Angelides told business leaders at a recent Westwood breakfast in a corporate dining room overlooking UCLA and the hillsides of Bel-Air. Angelides vowed to fight for wider access to public universities, decent wages for California workers and a cleaner environment, but then dodged a businessman’s request that he name his three main differences with Westly.

“I’m going to talk about myself and let you make your judgment,” Angelides said. He quickly added: “I have a very clear set of values, and I’m willing to stand up, even when the going is tough.”

Angelides struck the same note at a union hall in the Mid-Wilshire district, where he told members of the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee: “People want someone with the courage to stand up for what is right.” And his new television ad shows U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer saying he “has the guts and the values to stand up for what’s right.”

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Beyond the back-and-forth over the Democrats’ anti-Arnold credentials, the core-beliefs argument has taken other forms too. Westly, for instance, has invoked his support of gay marriage -- a stand shared by Angelides -- to suggest strength of character.

“I was the first statewide candidate to come out and say I fully support marriage equality, period,” Westly told a crowd at Ramone’s Bakery and Cafe in Eureka. “I say this because I believe I am a progressive candidate for governor, but more than that, Democrats need to stand up and say what we believe.”

And, in his most pointed effort to paint himself as the most honest and trustworthy candidate, Westly has hammered Angelides and Schwarzenegger for declining, so far, to follow his lead in releasing 10 years of tax returns.

“You have a right to know where people’s money is coming from, and how they made their money,” Westly told the Humboldt students. “And I just want you to know: Neither of my opponents in this race made their tax returns public. Which begs a simple question: What the heck are you hiding?”

In his first ad, which started airing Monday on Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento stations, Westly emphasizes his job history as a Silicon Valley businessman and Stanford University lecturer, along with his support for abortion rights and environmental protection.

On the issues, Westly and Angelides follow a moderately liberal line. That common vision has led each to focus his criticism -- openly or by implication -- on his rival’s personal shortcomings. As a result, analysts say, the Democratic contest could disintegrate into a brawl that produces a wounded nominee to face Schwarzenegger.

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“That’s a nightmare for the Democratic Party: this scenario of making character and personality the key issue,” UC Berkeley’s Cain said.

He recalled John Van de Kamp and Dianne Feinstein “lobbing bombs at one another” in the 1990 Democratic primary for governor, thus easing the path to victory for Pete Wilson, the sole major Republican in the race.

Still, Schwarzenegger faces a significant challenge of his own on matters of character. A key problem is his radical swing from pushing last year for the strict state spending limits that voters rejected in November, to arguing this year for billions in new borrowing for vast infrastructure projects that the governor’s aides liken to President Eisenhower’s highway construction programs of the 1950s.

The danger is that voters could be left wondering what Schwarzenegger’s core beliefs are. And those doubts could offset any political gain he has achieved by dumping an agenda that appealed to his conservative base and replacing it with one more attractive to the moderates who sway statewide elections.

The turnabout has already unsettled Schwarzenegger’s Republican base. Mike Spence, president of the conservative California Republican Assembly branch of the state GOP, said the governor has been “all over the place” on fiscal matters. Recalling the tax increase imposed under California’s last Republican governor, Spence said, “I didn’t like where Pete Wilson stood, but I knew where he stood on stuff.”

Steve Schmidt, manager of Schwarzenegger’s reelection campaign, argued that the governor has been consistent and fiscally responsible. He cited the governor’s leadership in weathering the 2003 fiscal crisis, his slashing of the car tax and his blocking of plans by Democrats to increase income taxes.

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“When it comes to the financial management of the state,” he said, “that’s a debate we welcome.”

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