The California Democratic Party convention wound down this morning in Sacramento. I’m on the blackberry again but I’ll have a few convention-related items for you now and later in the day.

** Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, scheduled to address the convention this morning, ended up as a no-show. Why? Because the LA Democrat, a sometimes fiery former labor official, was playing golf in Pebble Beach. At his big fundraising golf tournament. His big fundraising golf tournament sponsored by AT&T. His big fundraising golf tournament sponsored by AT&T, which is also a principal backer of his bill to allow the the telecommunications companies to get into the business of pumping digital entertainment and information into households now served only by the cable companies.

Tomorrow, in one of those seeming complexities of life, the rising Democratic star, returned from Pebble Beach, will appear at two rallies in Los Angeles promoting the May Day Boycott on immigration issues. Nunez, in an active weekend, delivered the national Democratic radio address yesterday, saying: “We believe that the only way to have real border security is by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented workers, and providing a legal path for workers who want to contribute to the economy of our country. That way, we can focus our resources on catching those who would do us harm, instead of criminalizing those who will make our nation strong.”

** ON THIS NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DRAFT WEEKEND, The Hotline (the national political newsletter/tip sheet), dubbing me a “Mel Kiper” of California politics, cited the real time blogging here of the convention. Who is Mel Kiper? ESPN’s NFL draft player expert. “I see Gavin Newsom shooting up the board in the 1st round.”

** L.A. CITY ATTORNEY ROCKY DELGADILLO’S LONG-SHOT CAMPAIGN for state attorney general is celebrating what it sees as his victory at the state Democratic convention. He is, as you may or may not know, running against former Governor and presidential candidate Jerry Brown for the Democratic nomination. Brown, now the mayor of Oakland, has huge leads over both Delgadillo and the Republican candidate, Central Valley state Senator Chuck Poochigian in yesterday’s L.A. Times Poll. So what is the Rocky crew celebrating? Well, their strenuous efforts — which included a big Friday night party for delegates (the famously cheap Jerry Brown hosted no party) — succeeded in narrowly blocking Brown from getting the state party endorsement. With 58% of the vote, the one-time state Democratic chairman was just shy of the 60% needed for endorsement. Delgadillo himself trailed Brown with 34% of the vote. Which is better than he does in polls of voters.

So, how significant is this? Well, with regard to the party’s endorsement of Phil Angelides for governor over Steve Westly, I asked a prominent Democratic operative, who does not want to be quoted, when the state Democratic Party endorsement made any difference in a statewide race. I could not recall an instance when it had. The only race this person cited was the 1994 nomination for state insurance commissioner. That nomination was won by then state Senator Art Torres, who went on to lose in the general election.

So we see that getting the state party endorsement has had very little significance, and then only in a down ballot race. But in this race, pitting an ambitious LA official against one of the most famous politicians in the country, the candidate who actually needed the endorsement came nowhere near getting it. But he did gain the support of a third of the delegates, which might stand him in good stead in a future race. Call it a moral victory, with something for the future thrown in for good measure.

** THEY CALL IT “LITTLE BLUE PILL.” Actually, that name is going to change. Inspired by the success of the conservative Republican FlashReport, run by NWN friend Jon Fleischman, three prominent Democratic advisors and operatives are planning a Democratic counterpart. Jason Kinney, a partner in the powerful and stealthy California Strategies firm headed by courtly Republican uber-honcho Bob White, Steve Maviglio, deputy chief of staff for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, and Roger Salazar, partner in the rising Acosta/Salazar PR firm, are all plotting to launch a new blog/web site. In addition to linking to relevant news stories and analysis/commentary like the Flash Report does, it would also, like the Flash Report, present a line-up of commentators from partisan ranks, in this case Democratic. Kinney, Maviglio, and Salazar all played major roles with former Governor Gray Davis. Kinney was Davis’s chief speechwriter (hmm, might not want to emphasize that, not that he was responsible for the determinedly un-flashy governor’s habit of reworking speech material into a laundry list of items for the group he was addressing). Maviglio, a former New Hampshire state legislator, was Davis’s gubernatorial press secretary and de facto communications director. Salazar was Davis’s campaign press secretary.

The Democratic version of the Flash Report will go a long way toward addressing the serious shortage of political spin in California. Which has really reached crisis proportions.

Now about that title. They really had come up with “Little Blue Pill” as a title. But I’m told that’s being re-thought. Why? Well, there is the obvious Viagra reference. Which is perhaps not … appropriate. These guys aren’t even that old. (There may also be a trademark problem.) Then there is The Matrix factor. What’s that, you say? Well, in The Matrix, Neo (played by the awesome Keanu Reeves), is given a choice of pills to take. One choice leads to the deeper reality. The other choice keeps one in what you think is the real world, but is actually an illusion. This is getting too deep for me, because I actually don’t remember which colored pill leads where. And I don’t have a copy of The Matrix handy right now.

The kids at Sacramento’s Rio American High School will long remember this prom night. You see, there was this group of grown-ups who kept hustling back and forth through their photo line last night at the Sacramento Convention Center, and one of them was state Treasurer and erstwhile Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Phil Angelides.

Angelides had just won the expected endorsement of the California Democratic Party convention for his now uphill campaign against ex-eBay honcho-turned-state Controller Steve Westly. And through various quirks and changes in scheduling, he ended up holding his press conference accepting the endorsement in the part of the convention center where the high school prom was taking place.

So the mostly sober-for-the-moment high school boys in their rented tuxedoed finery and the teased-hair high school girls in their flashy dresses had to endure groups of journalists and campaign operatives hurrying back and forth between the party banquet and the press conference location before the candidate — who lives three miles away and was not at the banquet — finally drove over to proclaim his victory.

There at the press conference site, a hallway location just down the way from the convention center conference room where the treasurer kicked off his weekend adventure with a Young Democrats rally, Angelides and his screaming blue-shirted backers were giddier than the prom-going high schoolers just 50 yards away. It was as though they had just won the Super Bowl and were headed for Disneyland. Indeed, Angelides seized on a sports metaphor to declare what a difference maker he thinks this event is for his campaign.

“To me,” declared the treasurer, and former state Democratic chairman, “this was the first game of the play-offs. A lot of teams can do well in the regular season, but the real winners come forward in the play-offs.” The Los Angeles Times poll showing rival Westly with large leads over both himself and Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had just been published that morning.

Angelides then launched into a litany of his endorsements: U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, none of whom were campaigning for him at the convention, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who was campaigning hard for him, and a host of unions.

Referring to himself, Angelides noted that “A lot of teams make it into the play-offs with mediocre records. I’m still the underdog. But I’m willing to go to the mat for people.”

Asked about the history of the state party endorsement, which went to then state Attorney General John Van de Kamp in 1990 over then San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein before Feinstein won a big primary victory, Angelides slammed Westly by saying: “Steve Westly’s no Dianne Feinstein. She’s for me.”

Yet he acknowledged that he trails by substantial margins in private and public polling. (Indeed, his highly respected pollster, Paul Maslin, is not present at the convention.)

Taking another shot at the new frontrunner, Angelides said: “I’m not in this like Steve Westly because the polls look good.”

I predicted in my Friday morning column and in a Thursday morning item that the treasurer would win the state party convention endorsement. It helps to have been to a couple dozen of these state Democratic conventions, as I have. The endorsement has usually not meant much in Democratic primary elections, either for governor or for other statewide offices. This doesn’t stop activists from fighting over it. The convention will adopt a state party platform later today. Most politicians, much less voters, will pay little attention to it.

However the primary turns out for Angelides, one thing is for sure. He gave the kids at last night’s Rio Americano High School Prom a memory for a lifetime.

** As predicted on New West Notes and as long expected by political insiders, Phil Angelides gets the California Democratic Party endorsement.

** The Westly campaign is staging a Virtual Convention, with the candidate here on site in an impromptu webcast studio with 75 supporters joined by other participants at remote locations. Canpaign vice chair and old Stanford classmate Greg Larson has warmed up the crowd with a rendition of the campaign’s progress and very good polling news.

Now Howard Dean campaign manager and Internet political guru Joe Trippi is running down his long history with Westly, citing him as the inspiration to Trippi to get going in politics.

Former US House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt’s connection is glitchy, toi Westly’s amusement as he waits off to the side of the room. Former US Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is on now and praising Westly as the best candidate in the country. “Every election is 2 questions, what kind of couintry and in whose hands do we place our future?” He answers in predictable ways.

Now Gephardt is online. He says he’s known Steve a long time and that he mets the key electoral test: “Do I like him and do I trust him?” The ex-presidential candidate’s extolling Westly’s health, environmental views, saying he has “the values and the vision.”

“This is connecting people around the state. He knows tech, he knows how to knit Cali together.” When he wins the primary, he says, “Steve has to take on a movie star. I think people are ready forsomething real, for someone who knows what the hell he is doing. People are sick of incompetence and politicians lacking character and confidence and values.”

Now Westly. Says the 2 majority leaders have led a generation of Americans, now it’s time for our generation to stand up and lead. He+s into Cal as innovative leader, catalytic converters in 70s, climate change in 21st century, stem cells. Emphasizing recruitment and training of new teachers. No issue more important than environmenet, time for Cali to lead. On Kyoto protocols, on the Nunez/Pavley greenhouse emissions bill. Closes with story and challenge.

“500 years ago in Spain, ‘ne plus ultram,’ nothing beyond. Then Columbus went forth and the coin changed to ‘Plus ultram.’ More beyond. It is time for California to lead in that way and we will do just that with your help.”

He calls for work not just over next 5 weeks but next 2 hours, to block the Angelides endorsement here.

Now he throws it open to take questions from the webcast participants around the state.

He’s fielded questions on education and, as it happens, beach sand depletion. The latter of which was new, though he cited climate change as a possible cause of erosion and called on the San Diego area citry councilmembers who asked to help him develop a policy as governor.

Education question
He notes that there are more “bad apples to be gotten rid of in the governor’s office than in all the classrooms in the state.”

Immigration question. Quips after being told
“Westly kids” group online that if it is his kids, 4 and 6, online, he’s in trouble. Gives liberal reform answer on immigration.

Who are his heroes question. Churchill, is the first answer, unusual for a fairly liberal Democrat. For his “never say die” resolve during the Battle of Britain. Steve’s uncles flew Spitfires for Britain during World War II. Gandhi. For obvious reasons. High school coach Ben Parks, who kept imploring all the student athletes to go well beyond what they thought they could do.

Health care question. … Was waylaid into what turned into a lengthy meeting as I was about to finish this write-p following the wrap-up of the virtual event. At the moment, I don’t remember what I was about write. Perhaps it will occur to me when I’m not about to attend the convention banquet.

** The Attorney General Debate. Former Governor and now Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown v LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.

Brown pledges to be “the people’s lawyer,” saying he has enemies because of the fioghts he’s gotten into, pledges the environment, working people, and pro-choice will be his priorities and his opposition to the Iraq War will animate hios helping lead the opposition to Bush.

Delgadillo cites working people, crime, and pro-choice are his priorities.

Asked how they would fight the Republican adminstrations, Brown cites 30 years of fighting various administrations on a host of issues. “And with the notoriety I have, they didn’t call me Moonbeam for nothing, I’ll get in the face of these Republicans and fight for you!” the crowd really likes this, needless to say.

Asked if the office is a tool for economic just as well as criminal justice, Brown says he’ll fight goung insurance and hospital companies, will fight to enforce anti-trust in strike situatiins, will take on the drug and oil companies, and will fight to equalize education spending between rich and poor districts.

Rocky is getting short shrift with his replies. Now he cites his own “poverty” background to get back in the game. Now he is telling a story of a crack house in LA. The house was bought by an investor for 90 grand, then refurbished and sold for 300 grand, becoming an aspirational real estate model for the neighborhood. “I want to do that across California to bring environmental justice to communities.”

As the close, both asked about immigration and Iraq. Rocky leads with a somewhat vague call for immigration reform and honoring immigrants and recognizing the new leadership class of Antonio Villaraigosa and Fabian Nunez. On the war, “Bring on our troops home.” He closes saying Dems should “embrace the future.”

Brown: “If you don’t understand the past, you’re doomed to repeat it.” He cites his record of signing most of the state’s farm labor, health and safety, and collective bargaining bills. Then the Coastal Act, renewable energy, “I’ve tried to come up with innovative ideas.” Oakland, he says, has many more people living in the central city now and ranks as one of the top green cities in the US. He says he wants to enforce worker’s rights laws. “We need the energy and experience to move this corrupt, stagnant status quo.” The crowd likes this quite a lot, too.

Karl Rove indictment now in works. The delegates here don’t know this.

** After a video message from Bill Clinton exhorting state Democratic convention delegates to work hard to take back the California governorship this year, convention chairman Willie Brown introduces his own district rep in Congress, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Her speech was pretty standard anti-Bush material, and was fairly well received.

Barbara Boxer is not here, speaking by video message, and is not here to intro Phil Angelides. So Pelosi returns to do that quite briefly and the Phil rally is underway to the tune of “Shout.”

Now Pelosi is listing Phil’s great traits and I’m reading his speech. It contains a number of anti-Westly references, but none by name. It seems a littlke toned down from his past rhetoric.

Phils framing this as a choice between those who fight for core values and those who sought to “accommoidate” Arnold. He’s proud that he never went with the “Bush-Schwarzenegger” agenda. Labor polling, incidentally, indicates this argunment does not work with voters.

Phil is in thunderous mode now, assailing “big corporate interest” and “winning a victory for Dem values that will ripple across this land.” And we don’t do it by being “Arnold Lite.”

“You know me, you know myvalues,” he exclaims, appealing to the longtime delegates. Meanwhile, scenes from Phil’s life and career are flashing across the jumbotron behind him, invoking his family and liberal icons.

Phil is doing a very good job of speaking, and is giving these delegates exactly what they want to hear, hitting every point on the liberal agenda.

“Now I need you to stand with me … For a California …” Now the demo with Phil walking through the convention floor. A good demo.

Carole Migden, Diane Watson, Kamala Harris, Marta Escutia are now introducing Westly. His cheering claque is clearly smaller than Phil’s. Escutia is emphasizing the polls and Steve’s ability to run against Arnold. Steve takes the stage to Santana’s “Oye Como Va.”

Steve is emphasizing a post-primary unity theme, positive campaign pledge. Calling Arnold the “One-Terminator.” Now talking about his Dem activist background, the values of eBay and its democratic capitalism, running theough a litany of his dem credentials. Only one in race to back Million Solar Homes bill.

Pledging to sign children’s health insurance, back gay rights, clamp down on tax cheats.

Now explaining his work with Arnold on Props 57 and 58. Along with nearly all other Democrats, citing danger of schools shutting down. “You don’t stand up to the governor by standing on the backs of schoolkids.”

Blasts Arnold infrastructure deal, says Dems will have tough fight, must ciontest not just in liberal strongholds but throughout state.

Now closing with the story of his immigrant wife. Once on public assistance, then helped take company public. Did it without public handout but public hand up. He wants that opportunity for all.

Well received but clearly a smaller group of backers. Phil’s people sat on their hands.

** I’ll be real time blogging from the California Democratic convention via BlackBerry at times during the day. This will include during the speeches this morning of Democratic gubernatorial candidates Steve Westly and Phil Angelides.

Here’s a link to that LA Times Poll showing a big Westly lead. Most delegates don’t know about this yet. It should have an impact on their attitudes, which are mostly pro-Angelides, if they find out. (Conventions are little cocoons, somewhat impervious to outside events and other versions of reality.) It will be interesting to see how quickly the Westly people pivot on this information and get it to the delegates. In campaigns I was in, it would already have been duplicated and slipped under every hotel room door in the downtown Sacramento area.

The dynamic of this campaign is pretty clearcut, and should already be familiar to all readers. If Angelides is to have a hope of coming back, he will attack Westly. The Arnold Schwarzenegger folks are convinced it will begin soon. Their read indicates that the positive messaging for Angelides did not work and that it is actually later in the campaign than the calendar — which tells us that the primary is five-and-a-half weeks away — would otherwise indicate. That’s because TV advertising takes longer to make an impression on voters now than it used to. Voters are viewers and viewers are consumers. Consumers are inundated by thousands of commercial messages every day. They tend to blur. And voters are increasingly jaded by politics and politicians. Especially politicians who come off as stock politicians.

Westly’s positive messaging and image positioning have been pooling with viewers for two months. He could still be defeated, it is not impossible, although the most likely scenario for a primary defeat would center on his own mistakes. The credibility of any attack on him will immediately be called into question. And of course his campaign would counter any attack, with more than ample resources to do so.

Most experts I’ve talked to agree that the independent expenditure campaign for Angelides is problematic, for reasons already familiar to readers. There is a penumbra of controversy around it now, not unlike the recent situation with Rob Reiner. It’s highly unlikely that group would be used as a vehicle for a TV assault on Westly, even if its funder, Sacramento development kingpin and longtime Angelides patron and partner Angelo Tsakopoulos, were interested in doing that. Leaders of the firefighters union tell me that they will not allow themselves to be associated with that sort of venture and the consultant doing the advertising, David Townsend, tells me that he will only do positive ads promoting Angelides.

I’ve learned that leaders of the California Labor Federation, the AFL-CIO’s statewide organization, are against an Angelides assault on Westly and have communicated that to the campaign. So we are in for an interesting time.

** Steve Westly has seized a 13-point lead over Phil Angelides in an LA Times poll for tomorrow. The state controller leads the state treasurer, 33% to 20%. In general election match-ups, as usual, Westly fares better than Angelides against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, holding a sizable lead over the former action superstar, 48% to 39%. Angelides is tied with Arnold, 43% to 43%. More to follow.

** A not infrequently tedious afternoon of intel gathering in and around the Sacramento Convention Center. Treasurer Phil Angelides kicked things off with a spirited Young Democrats rally in a convention center conference room. Then Controller Steve Westly walked off an elevator to the accompaniment of screams from his supporters. The two candidates then worked their way through a series of party caucuses — labor, women, ethnic, etc. — throughout the afternoon.

Each man was accompanied — in much the manner of a medieval potentate — by colorfully uniformed supporters waving signs and chanting their names both to herald their presence and imminent arrivals and to ward off the evil spirit of doubt about the leader’s prowess in battle. (The Angelides workers wear blue t-shirts, you know, Blue state. The Westly devotees wear bright orange t-shirts, which are very distinctive but also, frankly, hideous.)

Westly’s and Angelides’ caucus appearances were of course distinctive and different from each other’s … Well, actually, as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom quipped, each man’s spiel for each interest group caucus could be boiled down thusly: “I’m for what you’re for.”

Newsom, one of the party’s rising stars, was on hand to speak at the party chairman’s welcome reception tonight and meet various people. He also sat down in the back room of a capital eatery for a small group session with journalists which rather definitively answered the question of why there is a buzz about him. More about Newsom later.

Meanwhile, this year’s candidates were working the vineyards. Angelides started off snarling, saying that without his Silicon Valley fortune, Westly “wouldn’t even be a candidate for governor, probably not even a legislative race.”

Later, as he was somewhat unaccountably stopped in the hallway, he mock instructed his senior staffer, national advance ace Ed Emerson: “Don’t be nice to the press.” Within two minutes, the few reporters around had departed.

Westly countered by saying Angelides should be “ashamed,” given the “millions” he has spent on his own campaigns. At each of his stops, a staffer dutifully carted a giant “Positive Campaign Pledge” sign to the front of the room, marking Westly’s vow not to launch the first negative TV ad.

It was a theme that Newsom, who has not endorsed in the race, echoed in his own separate remarks, saying that the Republicans’ best hope is for the Democrats to devolve into “a divisive, negative campaign.”

In his other, more futuristic remarks, Newsom sounded more than a little reminiscent of former Governor Jerry Brown. Which is not entirely surprising, since his family is close to the Brown family, and his father was appointed a justice of the state appellate court by Jerry Brown. (More about Newsom later.)

For his part, Brown, the frontrunner for state attorney general, was also making the rounds of the caucuses. At the senior citizens caucus, Brown drew laughter from the attendees and from a waiting Westly when he quipped that he was the only candidate on MediCare.

More intel gathering and conversation tonight at a private dinner of consultants and journalists and a round of parties hosted by Angelides, Westly, and many others. The two candidates address the full convention tomorrow morning.

FLASH: A NEW POLL IS COMING OUT TOMORROW. It is similar to the private Democratic poll I reported this morning.

NOTE: I’ll start writing from the Democratic convention site in the afternoon.

** The Alliance for a Better California (ABC) labor coalition embraced NWN’s “Village People” moniker yesterday at their anti-Arnold rally outside his hotel home across the street from the State Capitol. I’ve taken to calling the iconic firefighter/cop/teacher/nurse lineup which confronted the former action superstar in last year’s special election the Village People, after the old disco group. So there was a little NWN homage at the ABC rally yesterday. Writes ABC’s Robin Swanson: “I decided we had to play a little ‘YMCA’ to pay tribute. I’m liking the Village People analogy - and maybe next time, I’ll expand our repertoire and play a little ‘Macho Man.’ … In any case, our Alliance Village People seemed to have fun with it, although they are going to be hating me tonight when that song is stuck in their head.”

Who says liberals don’t have a sense of humor?

UPDATE: ABC’s Julia Rosen has posted links to rally photos in the comments section below.

** Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has been tapped to deliver the national Democratic radio address tomorrow. (LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave the Spanish language Democratic response to the State of the Union.) What will Nunez talk about? Immigration and gasoline. Might Nunez, a backer of Monday’s controversial May Day Boycott, throw a little gasoline on the immigration issue? Stay tuned.

** So Angelo Tsakopoulos, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides‘ longtime patron and partner, biggest fundraiser for his campaign, and funder of the independent expenditure campaign pushing his election, has the title of Angelides campaign co-chair. Angelides campaign manager Cathy Calfo says he’s not a campaign co-chair like Nunez, Senators Feinstein and Boxer, or House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Because he’s on the fundraising side.

Clearly, he is campaign finance co-chair. But it’s not unknown for a campaign finance co-chair is who is close to the candidate to ask for and get a straight campaign co-chair title. I remember it happened in the Gary Hart for President campaign. The senator had a major supporter who was also a personal friend, a Hollywood studio chief named Mike Medavoy. He’s a very smart guy who didn’t just raise money and help line up movie stars, he gave advice, frequently good advice, to the candidate as well. Just as, surely, Tsakopoulos has given advice to Phil Angelides in this campaign as he has for decades. Medavoy got the title, though he wasn’t viewed as a campaign co-chair in quite the same way as folks like JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen (”Ask not what your country …”) and Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. Medavoy wasn’t, with all due respect, actually Hart’s most important Hollywood backer. That was Warren Beatty, who was so deeply involved in the campaign that he never had any title. Although Hart sometimes referred to him as “The Phantom,” which I suppose is a title of sorts.

We would never have dreamed, incidentally, of allowing Medavoy to do an independent expenditure campaign on Hart’s behalf. For the simple reason that — aside from the fact that it would have been wrong — no one would have believed it was independent. The aggressive national press corps would never have gone along. And he did less for Hart than Tsakopoulos has done for Angelides. He also wasn’t the one with the jet.

Oh, and to further close the circle of synchronicity here, it was Mike Medavoy who greenlighted a little movie called The Terminator. Which is when I first encountered California’s future governor from, you know, the future.

The two Democratic candidates for governor, Controller Steve Westly and Treasurer Phil Angelides, go into the state Democratic convention that begins today in Sacramento with Westly leading in public and private polls and at odds with Angelides over an independent expenditure advertising drive funded by Angelides’ campaign finance co-chair and former business partner. While calls around the party indicate that Angelides is on the verge of winning the long expected pre-primary endorsement of the state party he once ran, a private Democratic poll of primary voters shows a 10-point lead for Westly.

Meanwhile, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his team are breathing a sigh of relief after navigating the difficult straits of a presidential visit to California on Earth Day and successfully launching a series of “theme” weeks, this week being crime. They are also pleased that the Alliance for a Better California labor demonstration outside the fundraiser at his Capitol Park hotel last night, which drew several hundred spirited protesters, lacked the size and intensity of the events which helped drag down the governor’s special election agenda last November.

Westly and Angelides go into this weekend’s convention as very much unfinished products. Neither has presented anything like a complete plan to fund their agendas and balance the budget.

Westly, for his part, acknowledges this, yet emphasizes in his effective TV advertising a proposal — reform of the State Lottery — that he admits would raise only $100 million, which is far less for education than the public thinks. But the idea tests very well in polls and focus groups.

Angelides, who prides himself on being the policy wonk in the race, says he has the “exact” plan to fund his expansive agenda and balance the budget. But more than three weeks after trumpeting his notion of tax hikes for the rich and closing corporate tax loopholes, he has still not produced his plan. His press secretary, Brian Brokaw, is left to say that the treasurer has provided “examples” of what he would do were he to win the governorship.

Neither Democratic candidate is ready for the prime time of running against an incumbent governor who was once the biggest movie star in the world.

Republicans around the former action superstar scoff at Westly’s one term as state controller, saying he has “left no footprints in the snow.” Intriguingly, they don’t talk about his background as one of the key executives at eBay, one of the few truly popular corporations. They are aware of a poll for a group not involved in the primary campaign showing Westly with a decided edge, in the low double digits, over Angelides among swing voters in a general election match-up with Schwarzenegger. But they wonder if he can stand up to the heat of a high-profile campaign.

As for Angelides, while they say they don’t care which Democrat Schwarzenegger ends up facing, his tax-and-spend liberalism and developer background clearly offers them what one calls “a target rich environment.” They respect his greater experience in rough and tumble politics. But they decidedly do not respect his ability as a television campaigner.

As the rivals head into the convention, they do so at loggerheads over their campaign finances. The longtime Democratic powerhouse law firm of Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips (headed by former Democratic National Chairman Chuck Manatt), on behalf of Westly, has filed two complaints with the California Fair Political Practices Commission regarding what he sees as illegal use of independent committees — one of them financed by Angelides’ decades long patron and former business partner, Sacramento development kingpin Angelo Tsakopoulos — to fund the campaign of his opponent for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Treasurer Phil Angelides.

The most intriguing charge concerns Tsakopoulos’s close relationship not only with Angelides personally, but with the Angelides campaign. It seems that the developer, one of California’s richest men, has a lofty campaign title — namely, campaign co-chair, as befits his status as the campaign’s biggest fundraiser — and has been reimbursed more than $40,000 by the campaign for his campaign-related expenses.

I asked the campaign for comment on this. Normally, they get back right away, but in this instance a few hours passed. Finally, I received, not a response to my e-mails and phone messages, but a press release announcing that Angelides was filing a complaint against Westly.

Unlike the Westly complaints, which were attached to the press release and discussed in a media conference call with campaign manager Jude Barry and chief strategist Garry South, the Angelides complaint was not made available. Nor was the law firm involved named in the press release. So it is impossible to evaluate the political counterattack by Angelides, other than to note that he claims Westly violated campaign law by having a “spending imbalance” between his now abandoned controller campaign committee and his gubernatorial campaign committee and that he allegedly paid his gubernatorial campaign staff from the other account. Which the Westly campaign denies.

Shortly after receiving the press release, I received by e-mail a brief statement of response by campaign manager Cathy Calfo to the Manatt law firm’s complaint on behalf of Westly.

I had asked about the role of Tsakopoulos with the campaign. His campaign title, fundraising role, and repeated campaign reimbursements make him, in the Manatt firm’s argument, an “agent” of the campaign.

Here is the Angelides response, from campaign manager Cathy Calfo: “Steve Westly has already poured in $22.5 million from his personal checking account to try to buy the Governor’s race. Angelides 2006 learned of the independent expenditure campaign only through news accounts. The Angelides 2006 campaign co-chairs are Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Dianne Feinstein, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and State Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez. Angelo Tsakopoulos, along with hundreds of others, holds an honorary finance council title. Phil Angelides supports clean money laws, and believes that California elections would be better off with serious campaign finance reform that limits the influence of big money and independent expenditures, and guards against the possibility of the super-rich like Steve Westly trying to buy elections.”

There is a lot of rhetoric there to cut through, but it’s instructive to judge for yourself. Tsakopoulos, of course, hardly ranks among “hundreds” of people in his role as the biggest fundraiser in the Angelides campaign. The title of campaign co-chair — technically, as I pointed out to the Westly people on their media conference call, it is really campaign finance co-chair, though in my experience in presidential and gubernatorial politics, politicians sometimes cater to their very biggest fundraisers in this way by omitting the “finance” part of the campaign title — certainly does not belong to hundreds of people. Nor does the response address why Tsakopoulos has been reimbursed for more than $40,000 worth of campaign-related expenses.

I pointed that out to Angelides press secretary Brian Brokaw. He checked with the campaign management and then, in an e-mail, provided this explanation: “It’s reimbursement for use by the treasurer and campaign staff of a private plane owned by Angelo Tsakopoulos for campaign-related travel.”

This does not separate the funder of the Californians for a Better Government independent expenditure campaign from the official Angelides campaign for which he serves as campaign finance co-chair.

Of course, the Fair Political Practices Commission is horribly underfunded for its task, so don’t expect this matter to be resolved any time soon.

While the performance of the two candidates and their campaigns will be instructive as each seeks to develop into a match for Schwarzenegger, not much will be resolved this weekend, though Angelides will probably gain the state party’s endorsement. Phil Angelides was a great state party chairman, taking over when former Governor Jerry Brown (who had, ironically, defeated Steve Westly, to Westly’s ultimately greater good fortune) resigned to run for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination. George Herbert Walker Bush had just won the Gulf War and things looked bleak for Democrats. Then Bill Clinton went on to win California in 1992, and Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein made it the Year of the Woman, winning both Senate seats. Angelides was important in both their elections, and especially key in the narrow victory of Boxer.

The only other time the state party has made a pre-primary endorsement in a contested primary was in 1990. Then state Attorney General John Van de Kamp — who, like Angelides, had locked up most of the Democratic establishment endorsements — won the endorsement over San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. But Feinstein went on to a big win in the Democratic primary election.

** 7 PM UPDATE: (Note: The “bolding” problem below is due to a web site glitch.)

The Angelides for Governor campaign has responded on the issue of the more than $40,000 in reimbursed campaign expenses for campaign finance co-chair Angelo Tsakopoulous. Angelides press secretary Brian Brokaw, in an e-mail, explains: “It’s reimbursement for use by the treasurer and campaign staff of a private plane owned by Angelo Tsakopoulos for campaign-related travel.”

This does not separate the funder of the Californians for a Better Government independent expenditure campaign from the official Angelides campaign, for which he is the leading fundraiser.

… ON THE MATTER OF THE ABC PROTEST AT ARNOLD’S HOTEL. A good NWN source, let’s call him “Old Advance Man” (OAM), did a drive-by of the labor rally outside the fabulous Capitol Park Hyatt, circling the building a few times in a green British car. He estimated the size of the crowd turned out by Arnold’s “Year of Reform” nemesis, the Alliance for a Better California labor coalition, at “a few hundred.” Noting that he was listening to Schwarzenegger’s favorite film score — the Basil Poledouris classic Conan the Barbarian — as he drove around the hotel, OAM reports that the ABC crowd was spirited and loud, “but not loud enough to drown out the sound of Arnold’s trumpets.”

Since he was in, as he puts it, “Polo mode rather than Armani mode,” OAM did not pull his customary stunt of infiltrating the funder. Did he think that the governor and his extraordinarily well-heeled guests were intimidated by the demonstration? In a word: “No.”

** MY GUT TELLS ME PHIL ANGELIDES GETS THE STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION ENDORSEMENT THIS WEEKEND. I’ve been to a couple dozen of these state Democratic conventions. Delegates are a sentimental lot, on balance. And the interest groups many of them represent have endorsed the treasurer and longtime frontrunner, but either don’t have the money for him in the primary or simply aren’t going to spend the money on his behalf. But they can help get their members who are delegates to vote for him in an endorsement. That would stave off the embarrassment of his not getting what he was long expected to get.

I think that the former chairman of the party, who has worked these delegates assiduously in their Democratic clubs, Democratic county central committees, local Democratic fundraisers, regional Democratic meetings, state Democratic executive board meetings, state Democratic conventions, for many many years, will prevail upon the delegates to endorse him in his home town.

Phil Angelides was a great state party chairman, taking over when former Governor Jerry Brown (who had, ironically, defeated Steve Westly, to Westly’s ultimately greater good fortune) resigned to run for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination. George Herbert Walker Bush had just won the Gulf War. People like Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters asked Angelides at his first press conference why he would even bother to be state party chairman with the Republicans so strong. Then Bill Clinton went on to win California in 1992, and Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein made it the Year of the Woman, winning both Senate seats. Angelides was important in both their elections, and especially key in the narrow victory of Boxer.

There is a lot of sentimentality at work. The only other time the state party has made a pre-primary endorsement in a contested primary was in 1990. Then state Attorney General John Van de Kamp — who, like Angelides, had locked up most of the Democratic establishment endorsements — won the endorsement over San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. But Feinstein went on to a big win in the Democratic primary election.

** WESTLY FILES LEGAL COMPLAINT. The longtime Democratic powerhouse law firm of Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips (headed by former Democratic National Chairman Chuck Manatt), on behalf of Controller Steve Westly, has filed two complaints with the California Fair Political Practices Commission regarding what he sees as illegal use of independent committees — one of them financed by Angelides’ decades long patron and former business partner, Sacramento development kingpin Angelo Tsakopoulos — to fund the campaign of his opponent for the Democratic gubernatorial campaign, Treasurer Phil Angelides.

I am awaiting a response to the most intriguing charge from the Angelides campaign before writing further.

2:50 PM UPDATE: One hour later, still awaiting response from the Angelides campaign.

4:20 PM UPDATE: Two and a half hours later, still awaiting response from the Angelides campaign. Meetings were underway last I heard, although presumably not entirely on this point. As a point of reference, responses usually come very quickly on much more trivial items.

4:25 PM UPDATE: No response to the Westly charges from Angelides, but have just received a press release referencing a legal complaint — which is not attached, so I cannot evaluate it, nor is the law firm filing the complaint named — that WESTLY has violated campaign law by having a “spending imbalance” between his controller campaign committee and his gubernatorial campaign committee, and by allegedly paying gubernatorial campaign staff from his controller campaign.

Former Governor Jerry Brown used to talk about “the squid principle,” in which the sea creature, under attack, sprays dark ink into the water to blind the attacker.

4:30 PM UPDATE: The Angelides campaign has forwarded a response of sorts, from my old colleague, campaign manager Cathy Calfo, to the Manatt law firm’s complaint on behalf of Westly.

There are many aspects to the Manatt complaint for Westly. The one I specifically asked the Angelides campaign to comment on nearly three hours ago concerns Angelo Tsakopoulous. He is, I’ve been told, and documents in possession of the Westly campaign I am told support this, an official of the Angelides campaign. As the treasurer’s biggest fundraiser, he evidently has the title of Campaign Co-Chair. Perhaps more to the point, he has been reimbursed repeatedly over the past few years for campaign-related expensese. These facts, according to the Manatt law firm, tend to make him an “agent” of the campaign.

Here is the Angelides response, from campaign manager Cathy Calfo: “Steve Westly has already poured in $22.5 million from his personal checking account to try to buy the Governor’s race. Angelides 2006 learned of the independent expenditure campaign only through news accounts. The Angelides 2006 campaign co-chairs are Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Dianne Feinstein, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and State Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez. Angelo Tsakopoulos, along with hundreds of others, holds an honorary finance council title. Phil Angelides supports clean money laws, and believes that California elections would be better off with serious campaign finance reform that limits the influence of big money and independent expenditures, and guards against the possibility of the super-rich like Steve Westly trying to buy elections.”

There is a lot of rhetoric there to cut through, but I think it’s instructive to see what I get and judge for yourself. Tsakopoulos, of course, hardly ranks among “hundreds” of people in his role as the biggest fundraiser in the Angelides campaign. The title of campaign co-chair — technically, as I pointed out to the Westly people on their media conference call, it is really campaign FINANCE co-chair, though in my experience in presidential and gubernatorial politics, politicians cater to their very biggest fundraisers in this way by omitting the “finance” part of the campaign title — certainly does not belong to hundreds of people. Nor does the response address why Tsakopoulos has been reimbursed for more than $40,000 worth of campaign-related expenses.

Stay tuned …

A WESTLY EDGE IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE POLLING, AND WHY THE RELATIVELY SMALL LOTTERY FUNDS PLAY BIG IN HIS ADVERTISING

Public and private polls are telling us that California voters really worry about public education but aren’t willing to pay for it. And that they are uninformed about and mistrustful of the education system and the current officeholders overseeing it. It’s a formula for new faces and future recrimination.

The new Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll goes in depth on voter attitudes toward education, turning up widespread voter dismay yet no support for any tax increases except on the rich. Two private polls show that voters have high expectations of State Lottery reform, even though returns would actually be relatively modest.

This is why you’re seeing lottery reform mentioned so prominently in Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Steve Westly’s education ads, even though his own estimation is that it would yield only about $100 million. It’s what most voters mistakenly think. Just as, during the 2003 recall election, private polling for Arnold Schwarzenegger showed that most voters believed that one third of the state’s budget was “waste, fraud, and abuse.” This allowed the former action superstar to say that his budget plan was “to audit all the books.”

With a private poll for an organization not involved in the primary showing a substantial edge among general election swing voters for Controller Westly over his Democratic rival, Treasurer Phil Angelides, in any match-up with Governor Schwazenegger, the PPIC poll focusing on education has Westly’s primary lead over Angelides up five points over his tiny edge in the PPIC poll completed 13 days before this poll began. In this poll, which has a much higher undecided — more than 50% — than the Field Poll due to different methodology, Westly led Angelides 26% to 20%. The poll was conducted from April 4 to April 19. Among voters concerned with education, the top issue, Westly led 29% to 20%.

Support for Proposition 82, controversial movie director Rob Reiner’s universal preschool initiative, was down to 51 percent.

But the poll, conducted over a whopping 16-day period, is clearly not geared to the latest on the political horse race but an in-depth view of attitudes on public education. Conducting it over such a long period of time is valid for what is essentially an issue survey because there were no fast-moving developments affecting issue attitudes.

The 58% of Californians saying education is a big problem is the highest in this decade. A third believe the quality of education has declined in the last two years. Sixty percent say the schools are not doing a good job readying students for work, 53% say the same of readying students for college, 44% believe the schools are doing a poor job even instilling basic skills.

Yet only 36% favor raising the sales tax and 24% favor raising property taxes to fund education improvements; 60% favor raising taxes on high income Californians. The poll doesn’t ask about so-called sin taxes on tobacco and alcohol, but would probably show a willingness by the majority to tax the habits of a minority.

“A lack of trust in government makes people reluctant to pay higher taxes, even for things they wholeheartedly support,” says PPIC Poll director Mark Baldassare. “They need to believe their money will be used efficiently.”

A whopping 83% of likely voters believe better use of existing funds is key to improving education. Accountability is a major underlying theme of the poll results, with over 70% believing that students should have to pass not only a statewide test in order to graduate from high school, but also statewide tests in order to be promoted to the next grade.

No politicians in their current offices fare well on this issue. Governor Schwarzenegger — whose job approval numbers in this poll are 38% approve, 50% disapprove — finds that only 29% approve of his handling of education. Yet that is higher than the 21% approving of the job of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, who faces no serious opposition for re-election. That anemic figure is matched by the Legislature, which with 21% approval and 55% disapproval has much worse numbers than the governor.

The polling on education, public and private, paints a bleak picture. A disgruntled and ill-informed electorate, supportive only of taxing someone else and demanding of internal reforms from officeholders in whom it has no faith. It’s a scenario ripe for a fresh face like Westly, whose campaign themes uncannily mirror the findings. But what happens if he gets into office and, for example, the voters belatedly learn that the Lottery provides only a small portion of the state’s education funding? Abruptly enlightened people are seldom happy.

** AND NOW FOR CALIFORNIA POLITICS AS RUSSIAN HISTORY. Trust my old friend Harold Meyerson to find the metaphor for the California governor’s race you have not heard. Meyerson, as big a journalistic admirer of the labor-left and Phil Angelides as exists in this space-time continuum, pens his Washington Post column for today and finds that it may just be Steve Westly time. And in so doing pegs Angelides as the Nikolai Bukharin for our time. As in the guy who was most appropriate by the party standard (Communist Party, in that case) to replace Lenin as party head. Yet who lost out to someone else. Who I recall being Rykov. I asked Harold if he meant Rykov and darned if he didn’t actually have Stalin in mind. Koba (Boss) Steve Westly. Hmm, maybe not. But you never know. He seems like such a nice fellow.

Would that also make Gray Davis … V.I. Lenin? And who would be Zinoviev?

UPDATE: Incidentally, I remember Phil Angelides when he was not a figure of the labor-left but the hardball chief of staff for pro-business Assembly Majority Leader Mike Roos. And a fast-rising Sacramento developer. But in a different life before that … as the friend of the renters’ rights movement at Governor Jerry Brown’s Department of Housing & Community Development. And as a volunteer so excited to be driving Jane Fonda around that he got in an accident.

** THE RETURN OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE! They’re baaaack. The cop, the firefighter, the teacher, the nurse, the union boss … (Oops, edit final character from commercial.) Those political icons who bedevil California’s once beloved governor in his nightmares. “But, but I vuz a firefighter in Collateral Damage! I vuz a cop in End of Days! I vuz a teacher in Kindergarten Cop! I vuz a nurse in, uh, ve didn’t make dat picture. Vy do they hate me so?!”

Those lovable madcaps from ABC, the Alliance for a Better California for public employees (couldn’t resist, folks) return to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s life tomorrow at 4:30 PM. At his home! His home away from home, actually, the fabulous Hyatt Regency at Capitol Park. Just a short motorcade ride across the street from the State Capitol. Arnold lives upstairs. The scene will be downstairs, in front of and surrounding the building. The governor’s fundraiser will be in the ballroom. Look up for falling paparazzi. Look down for the $100,000 check you dropped.

(QUIZ: Where does the term “paparazzi” come from?)

** A VERY GOOD REPUBLICAN SOURCE SAYS KARL ROVE IS A GRAND JURY “TARGET.” The George W. Bush political maven and White House deputy chief of staff is under the gun for possibly outing a CIA agent in retaliation for her husband’s debunking of an administration claim that helped establish the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) rationale for the Iraq War. My friend and sometime colleague, MSNBC analyst and West Wing producer Lawrence O’Donnell, has analysis.

If Rove is indicted, given the central role he has played in the career of Governor and President Bush, that makes the situation for Republicans across the country, and especially in California, all the more difficult.

** THE ACTION GOVERNOR TAKES ACTION ON THE MINIMUM WAGE. With his raise-the-minimum-wage-with-no-cost-of-living-escalator bill sponsored by Republican state Senator Abel Maldonado going nowhere, and faced with the prospect of a Democratic bill with a bigger hike and the escalator, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is reviving a defunded commission that his California Performance Review recommended for destruction to do it his way by fiat. Never mind that he wants his own staff to get the escalator treatment. Schwarzenegger will use the Industrial Welfare Commission to order the minimum wage increase, bypassing the Legislature as he did in January with his “million solar roofs” measure via the Public Utilities Commission.

Can Phil Angelides come back?

That’s the question just two days before delegates gather in the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s hometown of Sacramento for the annual California Democratic Party convention. The party’s pre-primary endorsement once seemed his for the taking. Now, says Angelides press secretary Brian Brokaw: “Our goal is to get the most votes” of the delegates. The endorsement requires much more than that, 60 percent of the vote. There are signs a separate campaign on his behalf is picking up some steam. But trouble still abounds.

Until very recently, virtually all the experts picked the two-term state treasurer and former state Democratic chairman as the slam dunk choice for the party’s nomination to run against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. That was before ex-eBay honcho-turned-state Controller Steve Westly toned up his candidacy with a test market tour of smaller, more outlying areas of California. That was also before he launched an effective TV advertising drive presenting his upbeat, moderately liberal persona. And before it struck more than a few Democrats that in order to go up against a governor who was once the biggest movie star in the world, it might be a good idea to have a candidate who is good on television.

Responding to Westly’s late February move onto television, Angelides went on the air only two days later, nearly matching him at times in spending. But Westly moved forward and, according to the Field Poll, Angelides’ favorable rating among Democrats during his continuous month of TV advertising actually declined even though there were no ads attacking him. An impromptu April 5 debate between the two men on a Univision program, preceded by the only Angelides-organized rally of the year, this to attack Westly as an Arnold apologist, led to a strong Westly showing head to head with the treasurer and commenced a three-week period of mostly public drift for the once frontrunning Angelides campaign.

Now, with private Democratic polls of swing legislative districts indicating a continuing Westly lead, Angelides is trying to mount a comeback, attempting to tamp down expectations for the Democratic convention he had been expected to dominate, going back on the air with his own TV ad, and thankful for the multi-million dollar help of his longtime patron and former business partner, Angelo Tsakopoulos.

The Sacramento development kingpin and his daughter have funded a controversial independent expenditure campaign, spending $5 million for two weeks airing of an ad featuring the endorsement of firefighters and police unions. The ad was produced by veteran Democratic consultant David Townsend, a longtime Tsakopoulos associate who most recently worked with the developer on a plan to build a new arena for the National Basketball Association’s Sacramento Kings. I spoke with Townsend yesterday as he made the drive to San Francisco for the Giants-New York Mets baseball game.

According to the consultant, who has worked with many top Democratic politicians, the establishment of the Tsakopoulos-backed Californians for a Better Government group and launch of his ad is prompting other Angelides supporters to come forward and fund a third week of advertising.

“Folks who couldn’t afford to do their own IE (independent expenditure),” says Townsend, “for Phil are starting to come forward for this effort. I think it’s coming together.”

“Voters still don’t know who these guys (the two Democratic candidates) are. The primary is still fluid,” he asserts. “Steve doesn’t have this thing in the bag.”

For his part, Angelides yesterday chose the man-bites-dog scenario of pitching his notion of higher taxes on the wealthy and closing corporate tax loopholes at the California Chamber of Commerce conference in Sacramento. But the move didn’t get much press coverage. And the “exact” plan as he dubbed it three weeks ago when he unveiled it at his anti-Westly rally, is still pretty vague.

If Angelides is going to come back, he is going to to have to demonstrate that his brand of leadership is clearly superior to Westly’s. The self-proclaimed candidate of substance needs to be able to answer the where’s-the-beef question with more than a paragraph or two in lieu of a plan. And he is going to have to get out around the state and generate some public enthusiasm. Three weeks after launching his assault on Westly, very little of that has happened. The primary election is now less than six weeks away.