Angelides Draws Scrutiny as Well as Support

California’s biggest labor group is preparing to throw its support today behind state Treasurer Phil Angelides in the Democratic primary for governor, a move that would fortify his standing as the party establishment’s favorite in the race.

But even with labor tilting his way, Angelides faces mounting financial pressure and questions among some party strategists about whether he has responded aggressively enough to the threat posed by his June 6 primary rival, state Controller Steve Westly.

Angelides’ rapid spending pace has left him relatively tight on cash for the closing stretch of the party nomination contest. He spent $5.5 million last year. That represented more than 60% of what he raised -- easily double the normal percentage for a statewide candidate trying to save for television ads in a campaign’s final weeks.

Exploiting that vulnerability, Westly, a dot-com mogul, has drawn on his personal fortune to buy early advertising in the costly San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento television markets. That has led Angelides to start scooping more than $1 million a week from his smaller campaign treasury to run his own spots, lest Westly pull ahead in a race that is just starting to capture the public’s attention.

One of Westly’s apparent goals is to bleed Angelides of the money he will need in April and May.

“Let him spend down his cash,” Westly strategist Garry South said. “Unless he has some money tree he can shake at the end, he’s going to run perilously short of money.”

It is too soon to tell whether any of the candidates’ opening biographical ads have made an impression on potential Democratic primary voters. Polls show most knew next to nothing about the two men before their commercials started airing little more than a week ago.

It is also too early to know whether Westly will dump enough of his personal wealth into the race to overwhelm Angelides, who has yet to dip into the millions he made as a Sacramento developer.

“Cash does not bother us right now,” said Angelides pollster Paul Maslin. “We’re going to have plenty of money to communicate our message.”

Maslin recalled two wealthy Californians whose lavish personal spending went for naught: gubernatorial hopeful Al Checchi in 1998 and U.S. Senate contender Michael Huffington in 1994. If Westly advisors believe “it’s all money, I’m sure Gov. Checchi and Sen. Huffington agree,” Maslin said.

In his most recent campaign finance statement, Westly reported $24.1 million in the bank at the end of the year, including $20 million from the fortune he built at EBay, the Web auction company; Angelides had $17.1 million on hand. On Friday, Westly put $2.5 million more into his campaign account.

Some of Angelides’ deficit could be offset by his support among key Democratic groups, particularly organized labor. In Oakland on Tuesday, he and Westly each addressed a private California Labor Federation gathering to plead for support, but the group is all but sure to endorse Angelides today, union leaders said. The AFL-CIO federation of more than 1,200 union locals, which represents more than 2 million members, could provide Angelides with thousands of campaign volunteers.

But questions about Angelides’ campaign extend beyond money. Most striking, Angelides has largely declined to differentiate himself from Westly, instead campaigning as though he were already the Democrats’ nominee to challenge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November.

Westly, on the other hand, has responded to questions about Angelides by describing him as a consummate Sacramento insider who has kept his tax returns secret, hiding his real-estate dealings from voters. He has also portrayed Angelides as an ideologue whose staunch partisanship would block him from accomplishing anything as governor. Westly aides have gone further, depicting Angelides as arrogant and abrasive.

Some Democratic strategists say Angelides is blowing his chance to start painting a similarly dark picture of Westly. Absent an overarching message that grabs public attention, Angelides needs to recognize the inevitable “trench warfare” to come and “put in place the negative story line” on Westly, said Chris Lehane, a San Francisco strategist who was a spokesman for Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000.

For months, Lehane recalled, the vice president ignored his Democratic primary opponent, former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, only to be dragged later into a costly dogfight that drove down Gore’s popularity ratings.

In this case, Angelides holds a narrow lead over Westly in early polls. But it could vanish quickly, because most voters are undecided and Westly’s money gives him a chance to define Angelides in negative ways. In that environment, Lehane said, Angelides needs to do everything possible to make sure his rival “can’t get off the mat.”

“Angelides is the perceived front-runner, and conventional wisdom when you’re a front-runner is not to engage your opponent,” said Lehane, who is unaligned in the race. “The conventional wisdom is almost always wrong.”

On rare occasions, the Angelides campaign has engaged Westly. In January, an Angelides spokesman mocked Westly for campaigning with Schwarzenegger for a 2004 ballot measure. But the campaign muzzled the spokesman, yanking his authority to talk to reporters.

In Bakersfield on Friday, Angelides criticized Westly’s record on fighting the air pollution spawned by Central Valley dairies. On Tuesday, speaking to college Democrats at UC Berkeley, he assailed Westly for cooperating with the governor -- without uttering his opponent’s name.

“There are clear differences in this race,” Angelides said. “There’s no question about it.”

But by and large, Angelides and his supporters have taken on Westly only implicitly, saving direct hits for the widely expected negative-ad battles ahead. For now, they simply describe Angelides as the only Democrat who stuck to his core beliefs and stood up to Schwarzenegger, even when the Republican governor was popular.

The unspoken subtext -- that Westly did not -- was apparent in a conference call that Angelides and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer held last week with reporters. Both dodged questions about Westly, but Boxer called Angelides “a consistent voice for what is right. I underline consistent. So many out there go with the wind.”

Bob Mulholland, a senior Angelides advisor, declined to explain the campaign’s muted approach to Westly. “It behooves all Democrats to talk about what they want to do for the state,” he said.

Some strategists say the Angelides tactic is wise, given his broad establishment support -- including backing by Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Parke Skelton, a Democratic consultant not working on the campaign, said Angelides should “wear the presumptive nominee sheen as long as he can.”

“He needs to be contrasting himself with the current administration, not get caught up in an internecine party squabble,” he added.

Times staff writer Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.