SACRAMENTO — In a boost to his struggling campaign for governor, state Treasurer Phil Angelides won the Democratic party's formal endorsement late Saturday — and with it the promise of money and bragging rights as he seeks to reinvigorate his campaign against Controller Steve Westly.
The endorsement, announced to the roar of delegates at a party dinner, came after the two leading Democratic candidates for governor sparred over their partisan credentials while dropping hints that they would soon take their sniping to the television airwaves.
Just before 10 p.m., a beaming Angelides — along with his wife and three daughters — greeted cheering supporters in a convention hallway. In an impromptu press conference, he declared himself "proud and honored."
"Today, this weekend was really the start of the playoffs," Angelides said. "You know, a lot of teams make it through the regular season, but who wins is determined in the playoff season. And in the first game of that playoff season, I am very proud to have scored this victory tonight."
Asked the importance of the endorsement to his campaign, he replied: "I need everything, every day, all along the way."
As the man favored by organized labor and much of the Democratic establishment, Angelides has long expected the party's formal endorsement to give a major lift to his campaign before the June 6 primary. For Westly, whose support among Democratic leaders is comparatively thin, the goal Saturday was simply to block Angelides from reaching the 60% threshold of delegates needed to win the party's imprimatur.
In the end, it was not close, with Angelides winning 67% to Westly's 28%.
First, I'm going to say I find it ironic that Angelides get this endorsement from the Democratic Party a day after the LA Times published a story showing Westly ahead of Angelides. And the lead was somewhat significant--with Westly at 33% to Angelides' 20%--although with 45% of California Democrats undecided. So what is the deal here?
My guess is that we had some back-room wheeling and dealing between the Angelides' campaign and the California Democratic Party leaders. The top Democratic Party leaders probably saw Phil Angelides as a far more "safer" choice as the Democratic candidate for governor than Steve Westly. One possible reason could be that Westly has close ties to the business community--especially his ties with eBay, when he was vice president. Since Westly was a top executive for a major internet technology company, Democratic special interest groups such as Big Labor may have felt that Westly would side more with pro-business interests over that of Big Labor's interests regarding economic and labor relations issues--that is not to say that Westly would side with business over labor, but there may be a perception within the top Democratic Party leadership that Westly may be more pro-business than the Democratic Party is willing to go. Whereas Angelides can court the Big Labor groups in saying he supports completely supports labor interests--even though Angelides himself was a businessman in developing a residential community in Laguna West. Another possible reason for the Angelides endorsement could be name recognition. The top Democratic Party leaders may have felt that Angelides' name recognition among voters is a greater asset than the unknown Steve Westly, when going up against Governator Arnold--even though both Angelides and Westly are well known within California politics and the Democratic leadership. Or perhaps the party leaders may have felt that Westly was a "loose cannon" to have as a Democratic candidate in going up against Schwarzenegger and winning the November race, so the party bigwigs decided to take a "safe bet" with Angelides--I mean, what would the legislative agenda of a Westly administration be like, once Westly moves into the governors mansion?
Now this is all speculation. I can't even say if there was a back-room deal between Angelides and the party leadership. What I can say is that we have a race between two candidates to go up against Scharzenegger in November. The Democratic Party bigwigs are throwing their support for Phil Angelides, over the supposedly unknown Steve Westly. At this point, the among half the California Democratic voters that have chosen a side, the unknown Steve Westly has taken the lead over that of the name recognizable Phil Angelides, as according to yesterday's LA Times poll. Both candidates are wooing the other half the California Democratic Party electorate that hasn't made up their mind--even as the electorate view both candidates with favorable ratings. So we have an interesting race here between a Democratic Party-endorsed name recognizable candidate verses an unknown populist underdog.
Interesting race.
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