(originally wrote for dkos and mydd)
Let me set something straight here folks, here in California we will have a new Governor in November and his name will be Phil Angelides. Arnold Schwarzenegger will go back to making bad movies and California will be delivered from Wilson-ian nefariousness.
However, I am now going to use this post to both tell you why this will happen, and take a few well deserved potshots at naysayers, people still fighting the primary and a few other folks (including Arnold)…
Let’s start off positive, Phil Angelides is the best candidate we’ve had for Governor in years. Why do I say this?
We’ll start with his announcement to run in early 2005, when Arnold’s poll numbers were ridiculously high. Lockyer passed, Feinstein passed, Newsom wasn’t interested, nobody wanted anything to do with being a sacrificial lamb. Yet Phil Angelides, a lifelong mostly backbencher party building democrat stepped up to the plate and said:
“Me, I will do it, because it needs to be done.”
He said this knowing full well that it was going to be an uphill battle, both ways. He said this knowing that to be pragmatic he would need to do some pretty unpopular things like raising taxes (blasphemy!), to pay down the preposterous debt the rolling blackouts and Enron have caused, and the ridiculous bond borrowing Arnold has championed.
Phil Angelides has NEVER been afraid to be a Democrat, not just a Democrat, but a Pragmatic Progressive Democrat.
To get Feinstein AND Boxer to both endorse? That’s a beautiful thing, and it shows the unity between the progressive wing of the party and the establishment. WE AGREE! For once… we finally agree on something, let’s now blow it.
Also he’s friends with Al Franken (college chums I believe) and Matt Groening (the Simpsons/Futurama), major cool points there.
ok so let’s talk issues:
in May in Santa Monica, Angelides announced his support for Vinod Khosla’s Clean Alternative Energy Initiative which, if enacted, would assess oil company profits by $4,000,000,000 over the next ten years and use the proceeds to invest into research for alternative energy such as ethanol. The measure has language explicitly preventing oil producers from passing the costs on to consumers. It also would reduce California’s oil dependency by 25% over the next ten years, and would increase the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
pretty good right?
All of those bunk attacks about his enviornmental record are ridiculous
Westly’s ads in that matter were later criticized by the executive directors of Vote the Coast, Sierra Club, California League of Conservation Voters, and California Coastal Protection Network in a letter saying “All of the environmental organizations who do endorsements believe Phil has the vision to be the greenest governor California has ever had. Don’t let Steve Westly’s attacks prevail over the environmental movement’s best judgement in this election.”
See?
ok, how about this:
On May 23, 2006 Angelides wrote Barbara Boxer, a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, urging her to support net neutrality.
she did, and is one of it’s biggest advocate now.
Also pretty good.
Just the other day Angelides expressed his support for equal rights, and pledged to legalize same-sex marriage if elected governor, stating
“I would sign the marriage equality bill because I believe if we can get behind people to build a lasting relationship, that is a good thing.”
that’s huge!
Look, I could sit here and quote issues all day, or you can look for yourself
Ok, for those who are still sore that Westly didn’t win, i’m going to say three words for you:
GET OVER IT
Hey i’m sorry, your candidate didn’t win, it happens, every time you trash talk the nomineee you make it that much easier for Arnold to continue on his merry way pretending to be some kind of moderate while he destroys everything good about California.
Is that what you want?
Is Steve Westly that important to you?
Would you rather burn the village to save the village?
If you have nothing nice to say, please don’t say anything at all, that is my request of you. If you feel you must say something bad, please keep it from being vicious, this *IS* our next governor we’re talking about, and he and Steve have already buried the hatchet.
As for those, who only apparantly started paying attention to this race a few weeks before the primary. I’m sorry if you think that both candidates stink and it was relentlessly negative. Both candidates were actually good, but it was relentless negative, that much I will concede. I’m mad that Westly’s words are being used to attack Phil, but i’m not surprised.
A lot of that blame can go to Garry South, a famous negative campaigner, who was Gray Davis’ axe man.
You guys remember good ol’ Gray right? Nobody liked him, but he was a ruthless campaigner… yeah, there you go.
The compaint everybody had about the campaign was how negative it was, the message was given, hopefully we will learn from this and move on and be better for it.
Now as for Arnold?
Oh man, that’s a whole extra post, but let’s look at it this way (especially for those outside of California), he’s never had to win in a regular election.
The recall election was a fiasco whose special series of events will (hopefully) never happen again. Democrats were divided completely about what to even do, and Arnold snuck in by having the star power.
He has never had to debate before, not in a real debate anyway… the recall debates were a joke in the worst way.
Also, he’s tied in to Enron and the rolling blackmail in the worst way.
Palast’s archives have much more on that.
(you’ll want to read that article)
Anyway Arnold’s faux moderate push may be gaining him numbers in the short term, but there are a lot of people that remember how he treated the nurses and firefighters and policemen…
hell there are a lot of people who won’t think it’ll be as “funny” to vote for him this time either.
Either way, Phil Angelides is the best gubernatorial candidate we’ve had in years, and he will be the best Governor as well, but only with your help.
-C.