Politics Verbatim blog
Election Day has come and gone. The confetti has been swept up, the pundits are busy doing postmortems on how someone could possibly spend a gazillion dollars (that may not be the exact figure) and still lose by double digits.
As the analysts and talking heads dissect what went wrong in the most expensive statewide campaign in history, let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?
(Team Whitman is also in a nostalgic mood. Their YouTube retrospective doesn't make mention of whores or housekeepers, but we like the soundtrack.)
Here are some of the more quotable moments ... Read more
Meg Whitman may down in every poll except her own, but the GOP nominee isn't giving up hope.
Today her team sent out an e-mail pointing out that the latest Rasmussen poll shows Whitman trailing Brown by only 4 points. Brown had 6 points over Whitman last week.
Team Whitman trumpeted the poll as evidence of momentum in Whitman's favor. "Meg Surging!" reads the subject of the e-mail from campaign manager Jillian Hasner.
Two points is hardly a surge, but it does put the difference within the poll's 4-point margin of error.
Whitman has had a tumultuous ... Read more
Withstanding attacks from the opposing party is hard enough, but things really ain't good when politicians on the same side of the aisle start predicting your demise.
The Sacramento Bee notes that in an e-mail seeking donations, LA district attorney and attorney general candidate Steve Cooley suggested to supporters that he's the guy for the job because he's the "only Republican ahead in the polls and the only candidate strong enough to stand up to Jerry Brown and the Democratic establishment during the next four years."
Ouch.
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You've probably seen it by now, but just in ... Read more
Some interesting ads from the candidates as they make a last-ditch effort to appeal to voters this week.
If Meg Whitman's use of Democratic heavyweight Bill Clinton in an ad ruffled feathers a few weeks back, Jerry Brown has stepped it up a notch with his latest spot starring Whitman herself.
The 30-second clip begins with Whitman saying: "You know, 30 years ago anything was possible in this state." Cut to black and the words: "Who was governor 30 years ago? Jerry Brown." Then the standard stuff about ditching the limo and the governor's mansion, jobs, clean energy ... Read more
Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown are both getting some help from party heavyweights today. President Obama is appearing at USC with Brown, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is in San Jose with Whitman. Brown's campaign is buoyed by a recent poll that gave him an 8-point lead over Whitman, breaking the virtual tie the candidates have been locked in for months despite Whitman's massive spending. Watch the live stream of Obama's appearance here starting at 2 p.m.
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A new Whitman ad features police officers calling Brown soft on crime and attacking his death penalty ... Read more
A new Public Policy Institute of California poll has Jerry Brown leading Meg Whitman by 8 points, a significant change since a September survey that found the two virtually tied. California Watch Senior Money and Politics reporter Lance Williams has the story over at the WatchBlog.
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Team Whitman had some Twitter trouble the other day, which could help launch the career of a spirited Japanese musician. In an attempt to link to an endorsement by the San Diego Deputy Sheriff's association, Whitman staffer Sarah Pompei apparently accidently left a letter off the URL. This mishap resulted in a link ... Read more
Meg Whitman may have ruffled some feathers over at the Brown camp with her Bill Clinton ad a few weeks back, but today it's Team Whitman crying foul over an attack ad that compares her to fellow Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The ad, called Echo, is a montage of nearly identical Whitman and Schwarzenegger soundbites, pulled from Whitman's current campaign and the governator's previous run for office. Sharing a split screen, Whitman and Schwarzenegger say the same things about jobs and running the state like a business and so on.
Team Brown has also put a one-minute spot ... Read more
Magic Johnson is stumping for Jerry Brown in a new radio ad.
In the ad, sponsored by labor groups, the retired basketball player says he supports Brown because of his job-creation record and stance on public education funding.
"We need someone who will work with President Obama to protect the services that are so important to our community," Johnson says in the ad. "So on Tuesday, Nov. 2, it's showtime. Join me in throwing one down for Jerry Brown." The L.A. Times has the ad.
FYI, for those of you basing your vote strictly on celebrity endorsements, Kris ... Read more
The week ends on a positive note for Jerry Brown. The latest Rasmussen poll shows the attorney general with a 6 point lead over Meg Whitman, 50 percent to 44 percent respectively. The difference is still within the poll's 4 point margin of error and is virtually identical to the last Rasmussen poll, which two weeks ago found Brown at 49 percent and Whitman at 44 percent.
If anything, the poll - based on a survey of 750 likely voters on Oct. 13 - shows that two weeks of scandal topped off by a fiery debate hasn't had much of ... Read more
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't endorsed either candidate but he slammed both via Twitter today. The governator went after Meg Whitman over allegations that she traded pension protection for law enforcement endorsements and attacked Jerry Brown for the anonymous aide caught on tape privately calling Whitman "a whore" in response.
Schwarzenegger is currently across the pond en route from Russia. In between chowing down with British troops and advising Prime Minister David Cameron "not to be an economic girlyman," he apparently found time to weigh in on the California campaign issue du jour - Whoregate.
First, he posted this: "Anyone, Rep ... Read more
