Angelides Enters Race for Governor in ’06

State Treasurer Phil Angelides on Tuesday became the first Democrat to announce his candidacy for governor, lambasting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as an insensitive elitist who has not lived up to his campaign pledges.

The governor thinks that “if we just shower more fortune on the fortunate, the crumbs will reach the rest, like the leftovers of a Hollywood dinner party,” Angelides said at an elementary school here as he started a five-day swing throughout the state.

The treasurer has been the governor’s most unyielding Democratic detractor almost since the moment Schwarzenegger took office.

Dashing from this city to his hometown of Sacramento to a charter school in South Los Angeles on Tuesday, Angelides repeated earlier criticism that Schwarzenegger had failed to cure California’s financial problems and instead propelled the state deeper into debt. And the governor has restricted access to higher education and cut programs for the poor, Angelides said.

“I fear that this governor views the life of hardworking Californians as some kind of athletic endurance test, where only the strong should survive, where we must just lavish more on those who have the most,” said Angelides, 51.

Schwarzenegger has not said he would seek reelection, but the state GOP has already endorsed him for a second term. Recent polls show that Schwarzenegger is far more popular than any Democrat, but his support has slipped substantially since last year.

The early timing of Angelides’ announcement -- 20 months before the 2006 election -- was widely interpreted as an effort to box out potential Democratic competitors. State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer has said he was planning to run, and Controller Steve Westly is said to be considering the race.

Angelides announced Tuesday the endorsements of two of California’s highest-profile Democrats: U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and the House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. But “I have no illusions about the difficulty of this race,” he said at each stop.

Unlike many Democratic leaders, who have tried to find common ground with the governor, Angelides has been dubbed the “anti-Schwarzenegger.” In an interview Tuesday, he could not name any Schwarzenegger action -- minor or major -- that he admired without qualification.

Angelides campaigned vigorously last year against the governor’s $15-billion borrowing package that balanced the state budget, and has been a persistent foil since then. He said Tuesday that Schwarzenegger had issued “enough hot checks to melt Glacier Point.”

Angelides has been “very consistent at saying the emperor has no clothes, even when the governor’s poll numbers were very high,” said Barbara O’Connor, a professor of politics and media at Cal State Sacramento.

Angelides said that, if elected, he would raise taxes on couples earning more than $280,000 a year and close “corporate tax loopholes.” But he acknowledged that spending cuts, which he did not detail, also would be necessary. And he made the expensive promise of pre-kindergarten for all.

He also turned one of Schwarzenegger’s favorite assertions -- that his opponents are in the thrall of “special interests” -- against the governor’s close alliance with the business lobby.

“He’s turned government into a smorgasbord of special interests,” Angelides said. “I’ve never seen anything quite as blatant, where any time any major business group has contributed money to his issues, he sided with them.”

Angelides’ steady faulting of Schwarzenegger has helped him appeal to Democratic partisans. But strategists in both parties wonder whether he will be able to win over independents and Democrats who supported the recall of Gov. Gray Davis.

“He’s not warm and fuzzy,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican consultant. “He’s an extraordinarily bright individual who certainly understands public policy, but he comes across as a real hard-nose partisan, and they don’t tend to do well running for governors.”

Angelides is respected for his intensity and drive, but many Democrats worry that he may not wear well, especially given the length of his campaign. A Democratic consultant who is not affiliated with any potential candidates said Angelides’ harsher side might not appeal in contrast to Schwarzenegger’s optimistic persona.

“When I hear Arnold, he makes me feel good,” said the strategist, who asked not to be identified by name. “I always feel listening to Phil that I should know what he knows, and if I was smart enough to understand it, I would feel it too. I don’t think people want to be lectured at from anyone in Sacramento.”

Angelides seemed to acknowledge such issues Tuesday, saying, “My daughters will tell you that sometimes I can be too serious.”

At each stop, the campaign showed a video on Angelides that was narrated by his three daughters; they then took the stage to introduce their father.

His supporters at the start of the day in San Francisco and Sacramento were a mix of union backers and political allies; at Animo South Los Angeles Charter School, his audience was mainly teenagers.

A Sacramento native, Angelides ran unsuccessfully for the City Council after graduating from Harvard. He became a successful real estate developer in the 1980s, and served as chairman of the California Democratic Party in 1991 and 1992. He ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 1994 before winning the job in 1998. He was reelected in 2002.

As treasurer, Angelides oversees the state’s investments and borrowing. He sits on the boards of the state’s retirement systems for public employees and teachers, and is chairman of panels that issue tax credits and bonds for housing, economic development and student loans.

“The problem with being the treasurer is he doesn’t have a very high-profile record,” said Elizabeth Garrett, director of the USC-Caltech Center on Law and Politics. “However, running from the perspective of treasurer may give him some credibility on fiscal issues. He’s certainly one of the strongest candidates in the field.”

Known as an aggressive fundraiser, Angelides already has $12.4 million, aided in part by a strong network of Greek American supporters throughout the country.

The financial support showed: The campaign had its own film crew along to document the day, and everyone traveled from Sacramento to Los Angeles on a chartered plane owned by his friend Gregg Luckenbill, who once owned the Sacramento Kings basketball team and used to ferry his players on it.

Eli Attie, a former Democratic operative turned “West Wing” scriptwriter, also was on the plane, having volunteered to help draft Angelides’ speeches.

Lockyer, who has $10.9 million, told reporters in Washington, D.C., that he would be a less divisive and more appealing candidate than the treasurer.

“I don’t think Democrats ought to be defining themselves as the tax party all of the time,” he said.

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Times staff writer Elise Castelli in Washington contributed to this report.