After campaigning for Republican Meg Whitman, Michael Bloomberg backs Democrat Gavin Newsom

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who campaigned last week for Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, has endorsed Democrat Gavin Newsom for lieutenant governor.

"Running a city requires creativity and a commitment to solutions that work, regardless of their ideological origins," Bloomberg said in a statement sent out by Newsom's campaign staff Friday afternoon. "Mayor Newsom has demonstrated a dedication to innovative policies that protect the environment, improve the city’s education system, and create jobs."

Newsom is in a close race with Republican Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado. A recent Los Angeles Times/USC poll  found him leading by five percentage points, just outside the survey's margin of error.

-- Kate Linthicum   

 

 

Newsom, Maldonado get personal with new attack ads

        

The leading candidates for lieutenant governor traded searing online attack ads this week. And they got personal. 

On Tuesday, one day after he made a surprise appearance at the Los Angeles campaign rally of his Democratic opponent, Gavin Newsom, Republican Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado released a YouTube video questioning the temperament of the San Francisco mayor.

“Can we trust Gavin Newsom?” a scrolling text asks, as a thumping heartbeat sounds. Then excerpts of quotes from several former Newsom campaign staffers flash on the screen.

“He’s probably the worst mayor in modern history,” says one from Jack Davis, a strategist who worked on Newsom’s 2003 mayoral campaign. “If lightning should strike and [Gavin] . . .  becomes governor amidst the problems that the state has . . . he’d have a nervous breakdown.”

The quotes were culled from a 2009 San Francisco Weekly article about Newsom’s struggling gubernatorial campaign. According to current Newsom staffers, the views represented in that story, and in the ad, are those of a few people with personal grudges against the mayor. 

"I don’t have to look any further from myself to know how distorted those quotes are," said Newsom spokesman Francisco Castillo, who has worked on several Newsom campaigns. "Throughout his career, Mayor Newsom has developed a reputation of high integrity."

On Thursday, meanwhile, the Newsom campaign released its own YouTube ad accusing Maldonado of putting workers in danger at his Santa Maria family farm.

The video cites an Oct. 15 Los Angeles Times article about safety violations at Maldonado’s Agro-Jal farm operation. It features footage of workers sprinting through fields, carrying large flats of strawberries. It also shows Maldonado's response to an interview about the death of a farmhand who was crushed beneath a tractor in 2007.

“There's accidents that are going to happen,” Maldonado says in the clip.  

According to government records, Maldonado's farm has accumulated dozens of violations from California's Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 1990, including multiple citations for exposing workers to toxic pesticides and skirting clean-water regulations. Four of the violations were for running tractors across the fields with no driver at the wheel and no means of steering or stopping the machines.

In a statement Friday, Maldonado said, "We work every day to improve the safety of our employees." And then he turned the tables, raising questions about the safety record at a San Francisco restaurant owned by Plump Jack Group, the restaurant, winery and resort company Newsom used to head.

According to documents sent to reporters by Maldonado campaign staff, the Balboa Cafe was cited for 21 violations by CAL/OSHA in 2001.

Two of the violations, related to the storage of compressed-gas cylinders, were deemed serious. The other violations ranged from electrical infractions to inadequate ladder maintenance.

Castillo, Newsom's campaign spokesman, said comparing the violations at Balboa Cafe to those at Maldonado's farm "is like comparing a parking ticket to a hit-and-run.” 

"Unlike Abel Maldonado, Mayor Newsom took responsibility and fixed them," Castillo said. "The bottom line is all of them were recognized, settled and corrected in a timely manner."

Neither video has had a very large audience. As of Saturday morning, Maldonado’s video had 453 views, and Newsom’s had just 282.

-- Kate Linthicum  in Los Angeles   



First Take: Speaker moves to restore child-care cuts. Maldonado crashes Gavin Newsom campaign event.

An unfortunate typo directed Twitter followers of a Meg Whitman spokeswoman to a most unorthodox YouTube video.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez has devised a plan to restore cuts to child-care programs made by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Two weeks before election day, Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina are squabbling about the no-fly list.

Gavin Newsom got a surprise visitor at his Los Angeles campaign stop Monday -- Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado.

The district attorney's office is building its case against Sen. Rod Wright.

Rep. Laura Richardson's Sacramento home has been listed for short sale.

-- Anthony York

It's only two weeks until election day. Make sure you're up on all the latest from the campaign trail. Follow PolitiCal on Twitter.

Gavin Newsom stumps for the Latino vote -- and gets a surprise visit from Abel Maldonado

The first candidate to show up at Gavin Newsom's campaign rally Monday was not Gavin Newsom. It was Abel Maldonado, Newsom's Republican opponent in the hard-fought lieutenant governor's race.

At about 11:30 a.m. Monday, Maldonado strolled into Café de Camacho, a coffee shop near Olvera Street where Newsom was set to speak alongside a group of influential Latino leaders, including civil rights activist Dolores Huerta and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. 

The cafe was packed with Newsom supporters holding blue Newsom campaign signs. They looked on in confusion as Lt. Gov. Maldonado, dressed in a gray suit and alligator boots, ordered a cup of coffee and settled down with several advisors at a table near the back of the restaurant.

When asked what they were doing there, an aide for Maldonado said: “Just getting coffee. We were a little thirsty.”

In a race that has seen scathing attack ads and debates that seem like shouting matches, Maldonado’s surprise appearance Monday was a bold move. And although the candidates avoided any direct confrontation, there were plenty of awkward moments.

Take Villaraigosa’s introduction of Newsom, who had been greeted by a cheering crowd when he arrived about 11:50 a.m. (and who  had studiously avoided eye contact with Maldonado).  

“We welcome the lieutenant governor!” Villaraigosa began -- before correcting himself. “The next lieutenant governor of the great state of California.”

Maldonado, munching on a banana muffin, grinned.

The event Monday came one day after Newsom picked up a critical endorsement from La Opinion, the state’s largest Spanish-language newspaper, and four days after the Los Angeles Times published an article that cited a history of safety violations at Maldonado’s family farm in Santa Maria.

Speaking sometimes in Spanish, the speakers Monday called on Latinos to support the San Francisco mayor.

“What do we want?" asked Maria Elena Durazo of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. “Do we want someone with a Latino last name? Or do we want someone who delivers for the Latino community?”

She praised Newsom for supporting the Dream Act, declaring San Francisco a “sanctuary city,” and implementing universal healthcare in his city.

Maldonado listened but at one point leaned in to talk to his advisors. At that point a young union organizers strode over to the group, put her finger to her lips and whispered, "Shhh!"

When Newsom took the microphone, he derided Maldonado’s record on immigration issues, saying Maldonado supported Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot measure that would have prohibited illegal immigrants from using health care, public education and other social services. Maldonado has denied that he supported that initiative.

Newsom never spoke directly to Maldondo. After a 10-minute stump speech, he bade farewell to the crowd.

“Thank you again, all of you, for taking the time out of your busy day to be here," Newsom said.

Maldonado smiled and took another sip of coffee.

-- Kate Linthicum

Jerry Brown, Bill Clinton rally thousands at UCLA

Former President Clinton campaigned throughout Southern California on Friday, urging Democrats to shake off their moribund mindset and head to the polls so the Obama administration can finish the job it started.

Clinton told thousands of listeners at an evening rally at UCLA that they bear responsibility for the nation’s future.

"It is not enough to have voted for a new president if you will not help him govern and stick behind the members of Congress who stood for him," Clinton said as a light drizzle began to fall. "I am pleading with you, you need to go out and tell everyone who is not here tonight that any college student in the state of California that doesn’t vote in this election is committing malpractice on your own future."

Kicking off a string of high-profile appearances by political surrogates in California, Clinton campaigned for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, who is running for lieutenant governor, at UCLA, and, earlier, for Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) in Santa Ana.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will rally Republicans in Anaheim on Saturday, the same day U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) campaigns with GOP Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina in San Diego.

Next Friday, Obama is scheduled to rally supporters at USC.

Brown’s GOP rival, Meg Whitman, said Clinton’s appearance in blue-leaning California shows the desperate straits Democrats face.

"We’re seeing more Democrats come to California than we’ve seen in many years," she told reporters after mingling with voters at an In-N-Out Burger in suburban Sacramento. "Clearly, there’s a battle going on here … It’s going to be a real fight to the end."

Brown and Clinton have a fraught history, dating to their tangle in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary. Whitman used 1992 debate clips of Clinton slamming Brown's tax record and character in an ad she aired earlier this year.

Frustrated by the ad, which relied partly on an inaccurate report, Brown lashed out, calling Clinton dishonest and joking about his dalliance with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Brown quickly apologized, and Clinton endorsed him soon after.

Both men have said that their past is forgotten and they have a common cause, but on Friday the Whitman campaign had some fun with the matter, premiering a six-minute film called "The Way We Were: Starring Jerry & Bill," at a downtown Los Angeles theater. It featured scathing footage of the two men attacking one another.

-- Seema Mehta

Lt. governor debate dissolves into a shouting match

A radio debate between the two top candidates running for California lieutenant governor turned into a shouting match Friday as the candidates sparred over education, the environment and immigration.

As in their two previous debates, Republican Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado repeatedly berated Democrat Gavin Newsom for San Francisco's "sanctuary city" policies that he said protected illegal immigrants during Newsom's time as that city's mayor.

But this time Maldonado stepped up his attack, blaming Newsom directly for the 2008 death of Tony Bologna and his two sons, who allegedly were shot by an illegal immigrant and reputed gang member who had been arrested as a juvenile and released.

"Danielle Bologna lost her entire family because Gavin Newsom couldn’t step up to the plate," Maldonado said Friday. "Danielle lost her family because of your policies."

"I’m just distraught," Newsom responded. "It’s a cheap shot."

The confrontational, half-hour debate was broadcast on KPCC. At several points, the moderator tried to stop the candidates from shouting over each other with pleas of "Time out, time out!"

Education was another contentious topic.

Maldonado said he would like to see the University of California and California State University systems invest more in online education, which he said would be a less expensive alternative to building new campuses. Along with other duties, the lieutenant governor sits on the UC Board of Regents and the CSU Board of Trustees.

"I think it’s a way up and a way out for a lot of people who can’t afford to go to a campus," Maldonado said of online classes.

"I think we can do a lot better than just going for an online education," Newsom interrupted.  He blamed Maldonado for casting the key vote for the 2009 state budget, which included cuts to education.

"Abel, I think, with respect, that you represent the last 10 years of educational failure in the state of California," Newsom said.

"If you want to talk about failure, let’s go to the city of San Francisco," Maldonado shot back.

Maldonado went on to criticize San Francisco's budget, including its allocation of several hundred thousand dollars to groups that work with transgender people.

"Attacking the transgender community and going for the lowest-common-denominator cheap shots is not going to get people educated in this state," Newsom said.

When the discussion turned to the environment, Newsom chided Maldonado for voting against AB 32, the state's landmark law to combat global warming.

Maldonado responded by accusing Newsom of having money invested in Transocean Inc., the drilling company that leased to BP the oil rig that ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico in April.

According to a financial disclosure statement, a trust controlled by Newsom's wife invested between $10,000 and $100,000 in Transocean Inc.

Friday's debate probably was the last before the Nov. 2 election.

In his closing statement, Maldonado touted his accomplishments since being nominated to the lieutenant governor post this spring. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger left the state for a trade mission rip to Asia in September, Maldonado signed a $1.2-billion education bill and a series of government reform measures in Bell. 

Newsom, in his closing remarks, emphasized a fact that was, by that point, quite clear. 

"We have a very different point of view on the fate and future of this state," he said.  
 
-- Kate Linthicum

Abel Maldonado, Gavin Newsom exchange barbs

The two candidates for California lieutenant governor clashed in a debate Thursday, talking about a wide range of political issues including education, the environment, immigration and government reform.

Republican Abel Maldonado tried to stress his political centrism, while Democrat Gavin Newsom tarred the appointed incumbent as too conservative for California.

The post of lieutenant governor is a job without much power or influence, and is often a political stepping stone for ambitious politicians.

Before Maldonado was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this year, the last three lieutenant governors all ran for higher political office.

Newsom touted his record as San Francisco mayor while blasting Maldonado for voting for "the biggest tax increase in California history and the biggest education cuts in California history."

Maldonado essentially called Newsom a hypocrite, pointing out that Newsom urged voters to support those same proposals in a May 2009 special election. "You can't have it both ways," Maldonado told Newsom.

Newsom repeated numerous times that Maldonado supported Proposition 187. Maldonado denied the charge.

Maldonado took repeated shots at San Francisco's policy of not turning felons over to federal immigration authorities. He said Newsom was "thumbing his nose at the law. You can't do that."

He also sought to strike moderate tones, repeating his support for the state's open-primary election law at every turn.

Newsom said "Democrats have had it too easy," and that he opposes Proposition 27, which would repeal a recent law that would hand power to draw legislative district maps over to an independent commission.

"I think our democracy would be well served with some competition," he said.

Maldonado said he wants to extend the power of the independent commission to congressional districts and supports Proposition 20 on the November ballot.

"You can't have your cake and eat it too," Maldonado said. "The partisanship is in Washington also. It's not just here."

-- Anthony York

Gavin Newsom-Abel Maldonado debate: Redistricting

Gavin Newsom says "Democrats have had it too easy," and that he opposes Proposition 27, which would repeal a recent law that would hand power to draw legislative district maps over to an independent commission.

"I think our democracy would be well served with some competition," he said.

Abel Maldonado said he wanted to extend the power of the independent commission to congressional districts and supports Proposition 20 on the November ballot.

"You can't have your cake and eat it too," Maldonado said. "The partisanship is in Washington also. It's not just here."

-- Anthony York

Gavin Newsom-Abel Maldonado debate: Government reform

The candidates for California lieutenant governor were asked about structural reforms to state government.

Republican Abel Maldonado said he opposed the concept of a majority-vote budget.

"I've been there, I've watched what happened," he said.

Maldonado said changing the way legislative districts are drawn and the new primary election laws adopted by voters in June would help ease partisanship in California.

"I'm embarrassed for the Legislature," he said of the budget stalemate in Sacramento.

Democrat Gavin Newsom said he would support a majority-vote budget, which will be before voters with Proposition 25 in November.

He said it would help curb "all the back-room deals" that mark Sacramento budget talks now.

Newsom said he also would like to see more control revert to cities and counties.

-- Anthony York

Gavin Newsom-Abel Maldonado debate: Proposition 23

Abel Maldonado was asked to explain why he voted against the state's greenhouse gas law, AB 32, while in the Legislature but now opposes a measure on the November ballot that would suspend the law.

"I will be voting no on Prop. 23 because I believe in my heart it sends the wrong message" to all the new green technology firms in California, he said.

Maldonado said he voted against the bill because it was vaguely drafted.

"Why would I vote for something when there's no concrete regulations? It was a shell that was going to be given to [the Air Resources Board], which is accountable to no one," he said.

Gavin Newsom said AB 32 has been "a godsend for the economy of this state and this nation," and criticized Maldonado for opposing the law.

-- Anthony York