“LAT poll cancelled
“In most election years, the Los Angeles Times Poll would be out in the field this week with a final look at the governor’s race and the other statewide offices and propositions. Not this year. I’m told that interviewers last week had been alerted as usual to set aside Oct. 25-30 for a California-wide poll. Then the word came down: cancelled. Apparently the LAT-Bloomberg partnership doesn’t include state polls, and the Times didn’t want to absorb the cost alone this time around. The source who emailed me, and requested anonymity, called the failure to do a final poll another surrender of Times influence in California. I called poll director Susan Pinkus, who referred my inquiry to managing editor Doug Frantz …”
Notwithstanding its continued enormous heft and reach, the influence of the LA Times is slip sliding away, due in part to the really swell way in which it is being run by its bean counting out-of-state corporado owners and in part to the emergence of a new media era.
UPDATE: But there will be an exit poll. Those are interesting, if very much after the fact. It would be useful to have a public poll before the election on all the down ballot and proposition races, although knowledge of the private polls makes that less necessary.
** Here is an interesting question. What is the Democratic Party doing spending several hundred thousand dollars for Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, in the process of going down before super-rich moderate Republican insurance commissioner candidate Steve Poizner? That is money that could help rescue other down ballot candidates with a real chance.
** That venerable stalwart of left-liberalism, The Nation magazine, has written off Phil Angelides. In an article for the new issue of the magazine (to which I’ve contributed in the past), old New West friend Marc Cooper gets into it.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. After rising the last couple of days on signs that the OPEC production cutback would be less than advertised — suggested by the legendary former Saudi Oil Minister Sheik Zaki Yamani’s London-based think tank — crude oil prices have slipped a bit back to $60 a barrel. Why? Signs of growing inventory in the US, itself perhaps a sign of slowing economic activity.
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26 Comments
1. OldPhil:It’s sad to see the Good Ship Otis heading toward the briny deep…
Oct 26, 2006 - 1:14 pm 2. Mike:How is the Dem party spending the money for Bustamante?
I am confused on what their possible rationale could be - maybe they saw that Angelides is doing well still with Latino voters, and somehow think that Bustamante will turn them out for the ticket?? Who decides which down ticket candidates get funded in the Dem party? in the GOP?
Oct 26, 2006 - 2:16 pm 3. Bill Bradley:Mike, you have an endless stream of questions for me. This is not Ask Dr. Science. Bring some information.
Oct 26, 2006 - 2:24 pm 4. Ann:Add this reason to decline of La Times, not very good.
Oct 26, 2006 - 2:40 pm 5. NickM:Gee, I wonder how much insurance companies contributed to the Democrat Party recently with wink-and-a-nod earmarking for Cruz. [Last time it happened for the GOP Ins. Comm'r candidate.]
Nick
Oct 26, 2006 - 2:45 pm 6. Jonathan Hemlock:The Los Angeles Times has not been very good since Shelby Coffey was the editor. The liberalism came hot and heavy at intervals, yet it was well done, stylish liberalism. The institution is too slow, ponderous, and superficial.
Oct 26, 2006 - 3:40 pm 7. Kandy Kid:Republican statewide downticket candidates are like our good friend Spaulding from Caddyshack whose grandfather tells him “You will get nothing and like it.”
Historically the state GOP says “all of our resources are going to the top of the ticket, slates and GOTV.” Any party advertising for an individual downticket candidate is usually just passing through from somewhere else.
There is no grand meeting in a smoke filled room or a contentious conference call with candidates. The answer is almost always NO. Any candidate who expects help from the State Party cavalry is destined to lose.
Oct 26, 2006 - 3:55 pm 8. Einstein:Bill - Do you know if Tom Cruz Bustamante, took out any Insurance, in case he loses. lol
Oct 26, 2006 - 4:04 pm 9. SCC Dem:It makes no sense for the LA Times to enter into a partnership with Bloomberg for polling if it can’t poll the only meaningful top-of-the-ticket race its readership cares about. Somehow it benefits the LA Times more to commission a poll about the Tennessee Senate race than one covering the home state gov race. Why did they bother to enter this partnership in the first place?
Oct 26, 2006 - 4:19 pm 10. SCC Dem:Having just seen the new Cruz commercials, his campaign message seems to be:
Keeping promise to lose weight = will keep promise to lower insurance rates
With all due respect to the Lt. Governor, and I mean that because I do have a certain amount of respect to those who dedicate themselves to public service, these are miserable ads. These ads will not only fail to close the gap, but may very well cost him some votes.
Oct 26, 2006 - 4:32 pm 11. goodFURyou:The CA Democratic Party is loyal but also selfish: a deadly combination when the party is backing longtime stalwarts who are really just bricks in the old, crumbling institution. Angerlides (thank you, Ann) and Bustamante are among those.
The Party has blinders on because it wants its candidates to win at any cost (in the case of this election cycle, that cost is vomit-inducing). It never sees beyond the old guard, and it is arrogant in its defence of those members.
Ironic that they call themselves “progressives,” no?
If the Party wants to find out why it’s on the brink of losing a slew of statewide offices, it might want to start mulling over the way it played God in dragging certain candidates through the Primary. It might want to start focusing on the 21% crossovers who are voting for AS.
Maviglio, do we need to crack 50% of the crossovers before we start giving them a chance? Maybe the Party should stop spinning crap while in a state of denial? Just a thought.
I’m waiting for 11/8 to start taking my antibiotics. Please don’t make me any more sick.
Oct 26, 2006 - 4:37 pm 12. AthlonGuy:In today’s LA Times, Nuñez comments on the tribes dumping Chiang in favor of Strickland:
“If the intent is to send a message to me, it is a damned weird way of doing it,” Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) said Wednesday. “This is a political drive-by shooting. The guy did nothing to hurt them.”
Indians shooting at Nuñez? I tend to vote conservative most the time, but I really can’t stand what these casinos are doing, what they get away with, and how poorly their customers dress. Too funny - Dances with Wolves no longer supports the Dems. Kevin Costner, Robert Redford, and Michael J. Fox need to have a joint press conference to set us straight on all this confusing stuff.
Oct 26, 2006 - 7:09 pm 13. Bill Bradley:Some really amazing work happens in Cali down ballot races …
And some at the top of the ticket, as well. The new Angelides TV ad, which I’m mercifully not focusing on, is dreadful.
Oct 26, 2006 - 8:07 pm 14. Barbara:The Tribes and the DEMS:
This has become a fight, but it is more about a rightly or wrongly perceived besmirching of the DIGNITY of a people…and it is not about the Speaker personally, it is much more about the type of political attacks that Labor has become infamous for…they go over the top and they hit under the belt…and the Indians are saying in part by this IE, “we are not going to take this!”… Labor is even correct about some of their concerns about working conditions but there is a way to express yourself without attacking the dignity of someone.
I am not anti-Labor but last year’s victory just got them all pumped up and well, here we are…heck, if they could have, they would have COMPLETELY derailed Antonio’s School reform plan…but his political skills and passion to help kids got them to at least pullback and compromise, so that he could get the clusters…
This is really going into overdrive, the Indians have ALL the DEMS in a dizzy!…it’s kinda strange reaction from the DEMS….like the “tribes” should not be political players and flex their muscle…they are behaving no different than the prison guards….who were wooed for months by Susan Kennedy but then went with Phil..IF the prison guards had gone with Arnold, the DEMS would have shook their heads and said well they chose the “winner”.
At least the Tribes finally got Labor doing what it should have done a month ago!!! …help the down ticket especially Garamendi and Chiang!!!!…So the Speaker and everyone should just see this as a blessing in disguise! That’s how I try to see problems! and it always works out well in the end if you do just that !!!!I think Chiang will win and he will be a great Controller, but it is not like Mr. Leonard’s political ambitions and good relationship and ties to the tribes were unknown …even to NON -POLITICAL folks here in Sacto!…and the TRibes have made it clear for sometime now they are not happy campers…but everyone is so wrapped up with Mr. Toxic Phil …no one is listening or thinking straight…They still are not …I opened up CMR which is supposed to tell me about the DEmpolitical races and read the titles and closed it…it is just an extension of phil’s campaign…like he is at this point the most important candidate around!!!!…but, what can you do!
Oct 26, 2006 - 8:32 pm 15. Bill Bradley:Many points there. On one of them … The prison guards are backing down before Arnold Story in the AM leader.
Oct 26, 2006 - 8:36 pm 16. Barbara:Mr. Bradley:”Many points there. On one of them … The prison guards are backing down before Arnold Story in the AM leader.”
Well, you see the Prison Guards have been at this longer and are better at this game…BUT the TRIBES are NOT the bad guys here…
Oct 26, 2006 - 8:44 pm 17. Bill Bradley:A. You are for John Chiang.
B. Casino tribes are going all out to beat John Chiang.
A+B=Disconnect?
Oct 26, 2006 - 8:50 pm 18. HeHateMe:Cruz Boostyourmoney should have just dropped out of politics after his incident with the FPPC. Then to accept money from insurance companies that he’s going to regulate is just plain dumb and arrogant. Maybe he can go into business with Angerlides when they’re done. Angerlides can fill in some wetlands for Boostyourmoney to build a fitness resort.
Oct 26, 2006 - 9:16 pm 19. Barbara:No “disconnect”…
Look, the tribes will support candidates I like and candidates I don’t like, so does Labor the Enviros, women orgs etc…that’s life…I am a big girl…I understand that…
Oct 26, 2006 - 9:26 pm 20. jillian:Chiang is the better candidate, but if he does not win it is not due to the TRIBES it is due to the DEM leadership and their cadre of consultants wearing blinders for months… and mostly due to Labor’s hubris…they should have anticipated funding from some IE group going for John’s opponent once the polling showed this race was winnable to the REEPS…like I said, EVEN non Political types know how important this office is to shape the State’s fiscal policy…I have been posting for sometime here ..that this race needs to get the DEMS attention…I don’t blame anyone for not listening to me Mr.Bradley…but it was clear something like this was going to happen…this is probably why the REEP Conservatives are so docile this election with Arnold …they understand the power of heading up Controller office, the Boe and the FTB! and the icing on the cake willbe Mr. McClintock eloquently articulating a new fiscal direction for the state from the Lt Guv office!…they have their eyes on the ball,for them the big ball! the Dems are behaving so fricking stupid I am going to quit now or I will go into orbit !
I would be hysterical over the possible loss of Lt Guv and Controller offices going to ultra conservative anti immigrant REEPS except the Dems will have Congress and get CIRA thru so these guys won’t be able to make carry out their threats of deportation!
This is the first election cycle at the governor level to have dollar limits on contributions….the money that used to go to the top of the ticket now goes other places…this is what campaign finance reform has brought to the table…the rise of IE groups, 527’s, etc. has changed the way the money flows but not per se the amount of money available…political parties are getting much more money than they used to under the old laws at the state level…
Oct 26, 2006 - 9:27 pm 21. SCC Dem:Bill, what about setting up a pool that lets people guess the point spreads for the various statewide races? It’ll inject a little fun into this otherwise mundane, and slightly sad, election landscape we currently find ourselves in.
Oct 26, 2006 - 11:21 pm 22. Bill Bradley:I’m thinking. In my, extra, time before the computer screen. Set up betting pool on election. Or watch Ali G/Borat vids.
Oct 26, 2006 - 11:55 pm 23. Dana:Poochigian new radio ad is edgier, goes for the undocumented criminasls angle–promises to deport them after they serve their sentences and complains Brown is soft on this. As Bill notes, radio alone don’t win elections in the 21st century. Plusa isn’t trying to shore up support in your base this late a bad sign?
I touch screen voted last night. How tedious to work through all the offices, measures, etc. But I slogged to the end and am relieved for me the election is over. But I still have to watch the ads until the 7th.
Oct 27, 2006 - 9:29 am 24. goodFURyou:touche. But don’t watch too many of them, Bill. Like me, you’ll ruin your movie-watching experience next weekend.
dzienkuje.
Oct 27, 2006 - 9:30 am 25. Bill Bradley:Dana, why are you posting this on yesterday’s thread. Also, Poochigian is hopelessly behind. Radio is irrelevant in that situation.
Oct 27, 2006 - 10:18 am 26. Paul Burton:An interesting comment posted on Cal Progress Report last month re Bustamante:
With the possibility great that Poizner will beat the inept Democratic candidate Cruz Bustamante, giving us another Chuck Quackenbush for the next four, or eight, years, the people of California would be well served by the following course of events: Bustamante should withdraw from the race, throwing his support to the only two candidates who truly represent the interests of this state’s residents: Tom Condit and Larry Cafiero. One of those two should also withdraw, leaving the voters a clear choice between a do-nothing dot.com Republican or a crusading progressive regulator who will act in our interest. For a fuller statement of this suggestion, go to http://www.csupomona.edu/~reshaffer/insurex.htm
- Ralph E. Shaffer
Professor Emeritus, History
Cal Poly Pomona
While Bustamante hasn’t and won’t withdraw, he has abandoned his ad campaign as you pointed out here.
Tom Condit is the best candidate here. http://tomcondit.org
Oct 27, 2006 - 11:19 am