After getting lost while yacking on the phone or reading email your guide made it to the Butte County seat for Steve Westly and his walking tour and address to a charter school class. Incidentally, I just noticed the Westly van drive off earlier than anticipated while I sit in my car in the free city parking lot, so I may need to adjust my scheduling to find my way to the next event at a health clinic.

I’ll add more color and detail when I’m not on the blackberry, but one great little moment came when the street touring gubernatorial greeted a guy on the street, explained who he was and found an especially attentive audience. The man, it turns out, wants a pardon. His crime? Oh, nothing major. Just assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm. Not a moment candidates look forward, especially.

Westly handled it pretty well, though he did not, shall we say, look all that pleased. He asked for the details, listened carefully, applauded the fellow for becoming a small businessman, and said he’d look into it.

What I’m going to look into now, since that van drove off a few minutes ago, is how to get to the next event. I have a very funny story from lunch involving the rivalry between the Democratic campaigns, but that, I am afraid, will have to wait.

… I found the clinic without any problem, aside from roaring past it the first time after a swift picturesque past Oroville Dam. Westly is talking with various officials at the county facility, one-third powered by solar, listening to nurses describe their care for low-income patients while staff whisper among themselves about the upcoming schedule and reporters dutidully take notes. Westly chats knowledgeably with the county folk about the public nursing programs … It is always a little difficult to tell what these sorts of events amount to, other than an arguable learning experience for the candidate which simultaneously demonstrates to press that he is engaged and intelligent.

Just love Willie Nelson! Right. I’ll be running around the next couple days checking out Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly, so we’ll see how the BlackBerry fares in the bustling metropoli of Butte and Yuba counties. Assuming there’s much to immediately tell about during the day besides cows and zebras. Or is it elk?

So Richard Costigan tells the Sacramento Bee’s Dan Weintraub that he isn’t actually leaving his gig as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s legislative secretary just yet (and that he will not go to Ameriquest). Although he will leave sometime this year.

I reported Sunday that the former state Chamber of Commerce chief lobbyist “looks headed out the door.” For his part, Jon Fleischman, a good guy, in his popular conservative Republican Flash Report said he had “six confirmations” that his fellow conservative was already gone. Don’t cue the Eagles ‘cause the boy is back, er, never left.

In politics as in science, the act of observation often influences the behavior of what’s being observed.

My sources, who are very reliable, told me tonight that Costigan decided to take a high-paid job with controversial mortgage lender Ameriquest in the middle of last week. Indeed, the same job they say he decided to take six months ago. At that time, as word circulated in Schwarzworld, some Arnistas pointed out that this was not necessarily a fantastic idea. Ameriquest was radioactive, with charges dogging it across the country that its lending practices ripped off the poor and its largesse provided many political perks. And Arnold and Maria wanted him to stay.

Something similar is reported to have happened again this time. When Flash Report declared that Costigan was gone, it did not report two things reported here. Unlike others who have departed in the ongoing shake-up of the Arnold circle, the First Lady, who is not an anti-conservative ogre (nor nearly as liberal as advertised), likes Costigan and wants him to stay. Notwithstanding his ideology, he was not part of any supposed pro-liberal purge of the Brown Suite, er, horseshoe. Nor did Flash mention another important fact. Ameriquest is still quite radioactive. The company just agreed to the second largest settlement of claims for predatory lending in U.S. history. With the Jack Abramoff scandal soiling the Republican national lobbying and Congressional communities, and hence the party’s reputation around the country, and with nagging questions about Arnold’s own staff and consultants, a Costigan segue to Ameriquest would increase a target-rich environment for Democrats in this election year.

So there is one person who hasn’t left. Of course, people who are said to be leaving not infrequently say they are not, but actually do leave. My most amusing incident concerned former Arnold communications director Rob Stutzman. I reported he would be leaving the Governor’s Office after the special election; he said he would be staying. That’s fine. Then when I reported that after he left, he would not be going to Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign, as it was said he would, I told him of my report and asked him what his comment was. He replied: “Depends who told you.” Fantastic! Last week I revealed that he and former chief of staff Pat Clarey had landed on the state Republican Party payroll. I’d like to discuss a big Democratic soap opera, since I really don’t know Republicans much, but they don’t seem to have one. It’s very disappointing. Maybe one can be provoked.

I’ve learned that Mentzer Media Services, an East Coast-based media buying firm, is checking TV advertising rates and time availabilities around California. Mentzer has bought air time for many Republican governors and U.S. senators, and the Republican Governors Association. In the 2004 presidential election, Mentzer handled time buying for the two biggest conservative Republican “527″ committees, the Progress for America Voter Fund and Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth. Unlike political action committees regulated by the Federal Elections Commission and state agencies, a so-called 527 organization is governed by section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code. 527 committees do not fall within the regulatory realm of the Federal Election Commission and are not subject to the same limits as FEC-regulated PACs and state agencies. They are permitted to accept contributions in any amount from any source. This might be a move by as yet undisclosed Republicans to help battered Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has begun a recovery in the polls but who faces the prospect of seeing two well-funded Democrats on TV between now and their June primary. His own re-election campaign is very low on money and the California Republican Party is not exactly flush, either. And this year, unlike last year, Schwarzeneggeer cannot raise money in huge six-figure chunks. Contributions to the gubernatorial campaigns from sources other than the candidate are limited to $22,300 each.

I’ve learned that the bombshell four-part LA Times series earlier this month implying corruption in the United Farm Workers has triggered a detailed legal counter-attack from the famed union. A 101-page UFW “white paper” on the series and its allegations by veteran reporter Miriam Pawel was delivered to Times editor Dean Baquet on Friday. The union has engaged a Los Angeles law firm with a specialty in libel law, which also on Friday formally presented the publisher of the Times with a 62-page letter demanding a retraction.

In a recent conversation with UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta, she denounced the Times series. “It was completely lacking in political context,” she said. “That reporter didn’t talk to the current union workers. She didn’t concentrate on the law or the ALRB (Agricultural Labor Relations Board). She went looking for people who left many years ago and made some of them out to be great things they are not. You know, we may have made mistakes, but nobody is getting rich. The money goes into operations. Paul Chavez (Cesar’s son, head of a big UFW program) lives in a trailer.”

This is a complex and troubling story, which I’ll delve into when I’m not concentrating on election year politics. Many are disappointed that the UFW has not fulfilled the promise it seemed to have. Many, who wish ill of union organizing among some of the poorest workers in the nation, are gleeful that it has not. There is much more to say, but I’ll conclude for now by saying that the Times series, on which Pawel spent nearly a year of work is, in my opinion, at best incomplete.

I’m told that Treasurer Phil Angelides, who has a narrow lead in the Democratic primary for governor of California, shot his own TV spot late last week in Sacramento to match the advertising that his rival, Controller Steve Westly, is rolling out in test markets. The spot is said to include footage of the frontrunner before enthusiastic supporters at a faux rally. Is this spot intended for air in the very near future, which might trigger a premature spending war with the super-rich Westly? Or is it intended, at least at the moment, to reassure financial supporters? The Angelides campaign says its policy will be to not comment on the existence or lack of same of the ad or about its plans.

Actually, they don’t call them that. I wonder why. It was fun to have some people I voted for win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. People such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, best actor in a feature film for what people who knew Truman Capote say is his spot-on interpretation of the great manipulative writer in Capote. Capote’s true crime novel “In Cold Blood” is a classic, and the story behind the story is as well. It’s good to see a great character actor like Hoffman, who is good in everything, take the lead. And Kiefer Sutherland as best actor in a television drama for his great portrayal of, yes, Jack Bauer, in 24. There was a time when it looked like Sutherland would forever be best known as the guy who ended his engagement to Julia Roberts right before their wedding. Instead, his gripping work in the key piece of post-9/11 cinema has earned him what would have been his third straight best actor award had longtime Law & Order star Jerry Orbach not died a week before last year’s voting started, earning the veteran character actor a big sympathy vote. Who says Hollywood isn’t like politics?

Speaking of politics, the gay-cowboys-in-love-story of Brokeback Mountain, winner of most of the critics awards so far, was somewhat surprisingly shut out. Other politically charged favorites had mixed results. The fabulous Rachel Weisz won best supporting actress for her portrayal of the compelling and confounding activist wife of a British diplomat in the film adaptation of John Le Carre’s The Constant Gardner. But George Clooney, at least momentarily abandoning his Ocean’s 11 coolest-guy-in-class crown for political cinema, did not win best supporting actor for his world-weary CIA agent in Syriana, an intriguing film which never quite ignites.

Clooney’s fine Good Night, and Good Luck, about crusading TV journalist (isn’t that a modern oxymoron?) Edward R. Murrow in the McCarthy era, lost out for best motion picture ensemble to the politically tinged LA slice of life drama Crash. Geena Davis’s steely first woman president (hello, Hillary) in the semi-cartoonish Commander In Chief lost out for best actress in a television drama. Alan Alda’s very finely etched California Senator and Republican presidential candidate in The West Wing (some staffers were stunned by how compelling a Republican might be) lost out for best actor to Sutherland’s powerhouse 24 performance. As did the long-running political drama itself in the best television dramatic ensemble category, to the trendy new Lost. Which I like a lot, however, but how about it, Mr. Abrams, the show’s not going to go all Twin Peaks on us with answers that are never really answers, is it?

From inside the pipeline: Yet another of the old Team Schwarzenegger looks headed out the door. This time it is gubernatorial legislative secretary Richard Costigan, the conservative former chief lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce. But not to return to the Chamber. I’m told he’s had a job with Ameriquest, the wildly controversial mortgage lender (the company recently reached the second largest predatory lending settlement in U.S. history), lined up for months. (Why do I think that Harvey Rosenfield, Jamie Court, and the professional Arnold-haters at ArnoldWatch will have a field day with this?)

But, contrary to the fears of conservative Republicans, who amusingly see the shadow of Maria Shriver and her supposedly very liberal politics everywhere, the First Lady doesn’t want him gone. He is not a victim of a “liberal” purge in the new Governor’s Office. His ideology notwithstanding, Costigan is said to be quite adept at buttering up the First Couple. And Shriver knows that an R in hand is worth one or two in the bush. Still, even with Costigan’s top-of-the-line government salary controversially supplemented with private campaign contributions, Ameriquest can pay far more. And with his political margin for error all but used up, the wounded governor no longer has the luxury of doing things the Chamber of Commerce way in this election year.

The new Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Poll has, as usual, a lot of interesting information. (The real zinger to this piece, incidentally, is at the end.) The obvious stuff has already been reported in the mass press, so you know that Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing better with the public, people like that he is talking about “quality of life” issues, as the governor calls them, they’re for a big infrastructure bond, they are fine with his budget proposal, and so on. There’s no question that the new Team Schwarzenegger is doing much better. The U-boat is off the bottom of the ocean floor, beginning its ascent to the surface. But there is some cautionary information around this poll for the former action superstar, along with some other fascinating nuggets, with, as mentioned, the real zinger at the end.

A top Republican consultant notes that, while it’s good for the governor that his job approval numbers have gone up, from 33% to 40% among all Californians, and 38% to 45% among likely voters, “he’s nowhere near hitting his targets in key voter groups.” This is a significant problem, since he is a candidate with near universal name recognition running against candidates who have only a fraction of his recognizability. He’s also recovering while Democrats hold their fire against him. The only people attacking him are on the Republican right. There is no reason for me not to believe that, when the Democratic primary is over, the same Alliance for a Better California labor coalition that won last November, with strategist Gale Kaufman and company, will light up another murderous barrage against Schwarzenegger in the general election. Some other fascinating nuggets from the poll  …

* 61% say they’d rather pay higher taxes and get more government services. 31% pick lower taxes and fewer government services. The hardy independent crowd hardly predominates. This isn’t Utah. Of course, the dirty little secret is that people are really quite willing to have others pay more so they can get more.

* Overwhelming support for Schwarzenegger’s idea of a Big Bang Bond, 68% to 23%. But nearly half favor education being the top priority in infrastructure spending, only a quarter picking the Arnold emphasisis on transportation. Could be because Kaufman and her education lobby allies are right, that more money for education was the real message of 2005. Or it could be that respondents found the question confusing. The question referred to “surface transportation;” some may not have been sure what that meant. While there is strong support for Schwarzenegger’s $25 billion bond for this year, there is even stronger support for a $10 billion bond, like that first proposed last year by Senate President Don Perata.

* Raising the minimum wage is a consensus issue in California. 81% support it; only 18% don’t. For all the criticism of Schwarzenegger coming from Republican ranks on this  –  try to find a Republican legislator who’s for it  –  66% of Republicans support raising the minimum wage, making Arnold the mainstream California Republican on this issue.

* On the Iraq War and the Terror War, results to dash the hopes of the right and the left. Only 34% say it was worth going to war in Iraq; 62% now say no. Mission not accomplished. But in this blue state, a relatively low level of support for a favored activist issue, resisting a rollback of civil liberties. 50% of likely voters (including 41% of Democrats and 48% of independents) say it’s necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to fight terrorism in America; 46% say it’s not. Your lawyer is not here. Jack Bauer will be in shortly to ask you a few questions.

* The sleeper factoid in the poll, partisan identification. 42% say they are registered Democrats, 34% registered Republicans. But when asked which party they feel closer to, the numbers change. Badly for Republicans. 43% say they identify with Democrats; only 26% say Republicans. A sense of demoralization and dissatisfaction seems to have set in among nearly a quarter of Republican Party members. That can’t be good at the start of an election year.

… F1.