Molly Munger blasts Jerry Brown's tax plan in new ad [Updated]

The battle between two rival tax plans on the November ballot escalated Tuesday as Molly Munger and supporters of Proposition 38 used a new campaign ad to take aim at an initiative backed by Gov. Jerry Brown. 

Munger is backing an across-the-board income tax hike to raise money for schools. Brown, meanwhile, is the chief architect of Proposition 30, which would temporarily hike taxes on upper incomes and sales to help patch the state's budget.  

Until now, the two sides had avoided mentioning one another in paid advertising. But that all changed Tuesday with the launch of a new commercial paid for by Munger.

The animated "Yes on 38" ad shows money flowing into a schoolhouse on one end, and back out the other. "Prop. 30 sends money in here, but let's politicians take it out here," the ad states. "That's why Sacramento is behind it. ... Don't be misled by the politicians. To really help our schools, vote yes on 38."

In a statement sent to reporters Tuesday, backers of the governor's initiative targeted Munger and her brother, Charles, who has given more than $22 million to a committee that is opposing Brown's plan.

"The Munger family has doubled down today, spending millions on a destructive campaign that would deny our students the education they deserve. If the Mungers do not reverse course immediately, the Munger name may soon be synonymous with devastating cuts to California's schools and universities," said Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Assn.

[Updated 3:21 p.m.] According to the disclaimer on Molly Munger's ad, it is not funded out of the "Yes on 38" committee, which is backed by the California PTA. Instead, it is paid for by a separate committee sponsored by the Advancement Project, a nonprofit civil rights group for which Molly Munger serves as president.

Neither PTA President Carol Kocivar nor "Yes on 38" spokesman Nathan Ballard were immediately available for comment.

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Molly Munger pushes Proposition 38 despite blow-back

Skelton: Proposition 31 unrealistic medicine for California

Proposition 30 campaign takes aim at Molly and Charles Munger

-- Anthony York in Sacramento

Jerry Brown notably absent from new Proposition 30 ad

The Proposition 30 campaign launched its first television ad Wednesday, but there was something conspicuously missing from the spot -- Gov. Jerry Brown.

The initiative is Brown’s effort to raise sales and upper income taxes to help balance the state budget. But the governor himself is not in the first commercial of the campaign.

Instead, the ad features state Controller John Chiang and focuses on a message of accountability, arguing that the money would be placed in a special fund guaranteed for public schools that "Sacramento politicians" won’t be able to touch. What the ad doesn’t mention, opponents say, is that the new money can effectively be deducted from the money otherwise owed to K-12 schools and community colleges. 

In a conference call with reporters Wednesday, a spokesman for the No on 30 campaign said that because of the complicated formulas that dictate school funding, money for education would increase even if the measure fails. “Schools get more money either way,” spokesman Aaron McLear said. "This money goes right to politicians to spend on anything they want. It doesn’t necessarily go to schools.”

A Yes on 30 spokesman did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the ad, but the Yes on 30 YouTube page has a number of new 30-second spots, some of which do include Brown.

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Support slips for Brown's tax hike

Poll shows close call for Jerry Brown's tax plan 

Proposition 38 campaign pushes taxes, blasts Sacramento

-- Anthony York in Sacramento

Democratic rival nabs campaign bloopers of GOP Rep. Gary Miller

The campaign team for Democratic congressional candidate Pete Aguilar, the mayor of Redlands, got its hands on campaign commercial bloopers of Republican rival Rep. Gary Miller of Diamond Bar -- and on Monday took great glee in sharing them with the world.

Miller is shown in a white dress shirt, no tie, in front of a “green screen” at what appears to be a typical commercial shoot for a campaign ad. The outtakes show Miller repeatedly stumbling over his lines and having a little trouble with the teleprompter but nothing that would be considered a major political gaffe or serious foot-in-mouth.

The Aguilar campaign offered a review -- and, as one might expect -- it was thumbs down.

“It  shows a guy who is out of touch after years in Washington and who is making fun of what it takes to connect to folks," said Doug Herman, a spokesman for the Aguilar campaign. “His image is contrived to what he thinks it should be, not who he really is.’’

Herman said the outtakes were found on the YouTube channel of the political firm Revolvis Consulting and that the video was publicly available.

In a press released sent out Monday, the Aguilar campaign included screen shots to show that the outtakes were left unprotected and available to anyone to download. The Aguilar campaign posted an edited version of the outtakes on its campaign website and YouTube.

The Miller campaign didn’t flinch and responded by posting the outtakes on Miller's own campaign website.

"You should have seen some of the ones that weren't in the outtakes,'' said Chris Marsh, spokesman for the Miller campaign. "It was a lot of fun making the videos, and even funnier when we got a chance to see them, like the outtakes at the end of a Jackie Chan movie.''

Marsh said the experience taught the congressman two valuable lessons: never to film near an airport and always read what the technician loads into the teleprompter beforehand. 

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California lawmakers act to pave way for driverless cars

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Year later, California oil regulators unsure what caused worker death

-- Phil Willon in Riverside

Internet poker battle waged in Sacramento

A group of casino operators has taken to radio and television with ads urging state lawmakers to legalize Internet poker in California, prompting opponents to step up pressure for legislators to table the proposal for the year.

The ads by the California Online Poker Assn. say legalizing web-based poker could help the state avoid deep budget cuts. The spots started airing in the Sacramento area this week. Legislators are less than a month away from the deadline to act on bills this year.

“Online poker will provide California with $250 million dollars immediately and billions more in the future,’’ said Ryan Hightower, a spokesman for the association.

The group includes Commerce Casino, Bicycle Club, Hollywood Park Casino and operators of American Indian gaming facilities, including the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

Other American Indian tribes have joined the California Tribal Business Alliance, which Tuesday sent a letter to legislators asking them to drop two pending pieces of legislation for the year.

The alliance includes the Pala Band of Mission Indians, which operates a casino near Temecula. The alliance argues that Internet poker could take customers away from brick-and-mortar casinos.

"There are numerous stakeholders who stand to be irreparably harmed should legislation be 'ram-rodded' through this legislative year, and this surely would be a disservice to all Californians, tribal and nontribal alike," Robert H. Smith, chairman of the alliance, wrote in the letter to lawmakers.

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Roman Porter, executive director of ethics agency, to step down

Villaraigosa against waiving environmental rules for NFL stadium

California tax revenues plunge, deep cuts to schools could be triggered

-- Patrick McGreevy

Brown campaign lays out final push to election day

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown will blanket the state and the airwaves between now and election Day with 22 campaign events and spend nearly $1 million a day on advertising, according to his campaign.

“We expect to be able to match the [Meg] Whitman campaign in terms of both TV and radio advertising,” said Steve Glazer, Brown’s campaign manager.  “We saved about $12 million for the final 14 days. We believe we’ll be more than competitive.”

Glazer held a conference call with reporters after several news reports in recent days highlighted the prowess of Whitman’s campaign machine.

Brown’s campaign has contributed $4 million to $5 million to the state Democratic Party’s get-out-the-vote effort, and along with the party has set up 85 offices around the state, with plans to open 54 more.  The campaign has rounded up 25,000 volunteers, hoping to contact 1.5 million voters, and is spending $4 million to $5 million to send up to 15 million mailers to voters.

Glazer highlighted recent polls that showed Brown gaining an edge over Whitman and said claims that Whitman would win support from Latinos and women were proving untrue.

“The race is following along historical voting patterns in California,” he said. “We have a solid lead but are taking nothing for granted.”

-- Seema Mehta in Los Angeles

Clinton brushes off Brown jab, says Whitman has made him 'a household face again'

Former President Bill Clinton said he understood the frustration that led Jerry Brown to make a joke about Clinton's dalliance with a White House intern and said that any lingering tension with Brown from their 1992 presidential primary has long been forgotten.

Brown was irritated by a Meg Whitman attack ad that uses 1992 footage of Clinton assailing Brown during a presidential primary debate, and lashed out, Clinton said.

"This Meg Whitman ad really got under his skin but I understand why -- it's a devastatingly good ad, if it had been accurate … but it wasn't, so I decided I should put out a statement," Clinton said. "Then I heard about the press conference. I've known him 34 years, I knew exactly what happened. I'm not young, he's a couple years older than I am, and he was tired and frustrated and he said something he regretted and the next day went out and apologized for it. I've reached the point now where I just don't care about that stuff anymore."

Clinton was referring to Brown's remarks last week where he called Clinton a liar and made reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Brown apologized Monday and Clinton endorsed him Tuesday.

Clinton made his remarks in an interview about the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting with Yahoo! News and the Huffington Post.

The former president seemed bemused by his appearance in the 30-second Whitman ad, which remains on heavy rotation on California television stations.

"Unbelievable," Clinton said. "Meg Whitman made me a household face again and my younger self, too, which I'm very grateful for."

Clinton, who will visit California in October to stump for Brown and Lt. Gov. nominee Gavin Newsom, said he planned to help Brown all along and that rumors about continuing hostility from his 1992 presidential primary battle with Brown are simply wrong.

"We buried that campaign hatchet years ago," Clinton said.

His endorsement of Newsom in the gubernatorial primary, which many in the chattering classes cite as evidence of his disdain for Brown, is misunderstood, Clinton said.

"Gavin Newsom I believe is one of the most innovative and accomplished mayors in America, one of a handful. And I believe that there aren't more than a handful of people who worked harder for Hillary [in her 2008 presidential run] than he did, so I owed him," Clinton said. "It wasn't anything against Jerry Brown."

Clinton said he is backing Brown because he believes the former two-term governor's combination of innovation and fiscal restraint make him the best candidate to govern California. He again praised Brown's work as attorney general and Oakland mayor, though, as in his endorsement statement, he did not mention Brown's prior two terms as governor.

-- Seema Mehta in Los Angeles

Whitman refuses to remove anti-Brown ad with questionable information; she says 'essence' of it is true

Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman refused Tuesday to take down an advertisement that attacks Jerry Brown’s record that is based, in part, on a discredited report.

“Absolutely not, the essential elements of that ad are absolutely true,” Whitman said on the “Good Day  L.A.” show on KTTV.

The ad features footage of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton attacking Brown’s record and honesty during a 1992 Democratic primary debate. Clinton cites a CNN report that said taxes were higher when Brown left the governorship in 1983 than when he took office in 1975; the state Department of Finance confirmed Friday that taxes actually fell during Brown’s tenure. The Brown campaign has been calling on Whitman to take down the ad.

Whitman defended her decision to keep airing it, saying that when annual state taxes were averaged over Brown’s eight-year term, the average was higher than when he took office. She added that other claims in the ad, such as Brown’s opposition to Prop. 13, were true.

“The essence of that ad is absolutely true," she said, "and we stand by it.”

-- Seema Mehta in Los Angeles

Jerry Brown, trying to defend his record, trashes Bill Clinton [Updated]

Jerry Brown has spent much of his race for governor assaulting the character of his Republican rival Meg Whitman. But now, in a jaw-dropping bit of rhetoric, he's extended his criticism to a former Democratic president, Bill Clinton. And he did so by referring obliquely to Clinton's dalliance with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

“Meg Whitman. She stops at nothing. She's even got Clinton lying about me. That's right. No, did you see that? Where he said I raised taxes. It's a lie,” he told a crowd at an East Los Angeles event Sunday. “… I mean Clinton's a nice guy but whoever said he always told the truth? You remember, right? There's that whole story there about did he or didn't he. OK, I did… I did not have taxes with this state.”

The last line was a play on Clinton’s defense against the brewing scandal in early 1998 that he had a relationship with Lewinsky. At the time, Clinton asserted, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Clinton subsequently admitted to an improper relationship with her and faced impeachment proceedings.

[Updated at 3:04 p.m.: Brown apologized at a hastily called news conference. "Bill Clinton was an excellent president. It was wrong for me to joke about an incident from many years ago, and I’m sorry," Brown said before attempting to steer the discussion back to questions about Whitman's honesty.

"She hasn’t told the truth about my record as governor. She hasn’t told the truth about my record as mayor. She hasn’t even told the truth about her own record," Brown said. "I’ve made my share of mistakes, and my inappropriate joke about President Clinton is one of them. But from me you’ll always get the truth."]

Brown and Clinton have a tense history because of the 1992 presidential primaries, during which they  tangled as they vied for the nomination. After Clinton racked up enough delegates for the nomination, Brown declined to endorse him at the party’s convention. Last year, Clinton returned the favor by endorsing Gavin Newsom in the California Democratic gubernatorial primary. Newsom quickly dropped out because he couldn't raise enough money to compete with Brown, a fixture on the California political scene for four decades.

Clinton became an issue in the gubernatorial contest last week, when Whitman began airing a 30-second television ad that features 1992 footage of Clinton, then a presidential candidate, trying to refute Brown's claim that he lowered taxes as governor. The video came from a Democratic primary debate that featured both men.

"CNN. Not me, CNN says his assertion about his tax record was, quote, just plain wrong," Clinton says in the ad. "He raised taxes as governor of California…. He doesn't tell the people the truth."

As the Times reported Friday night, the CNN report was based on erroneous data.

The Brown campaign has called on Whitman to take down the ad; the Whitman campaign has refused, saying it remains factually correct because taxes on average did go up during Brown’s tenure as governor from 1975 to 1983.

-- Seema Mehta in Los Angeles

Claim about Brown and taxes in Whitman ad is false, according to source

The source cited in a Meg Whitman advertisement said Saturday that his claim that taxes were higher after Jerry Brown’s two terms as governor was inaccurate.

“… I was wrong when I said that ‘state taxes were still higher’ during his last year than when he began. In fact, they were a bit lower,” Brooks Jackson, whose 1992 CNN report has been cited by the Whitman campaign, wrote in a post on FactCheck.org. Jackson, who founded the organization after leaving CNN, said he used the wrong year as a baseline in his calculations.

The CNN report was raised in a Whitman television ad that features 1992 footage of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton slamming Brown's claim that he lowered taxes as governor. The video came from a Democratic primary debate that featured both men.

"CNN. Not me, CNN says his assertion about his tax record was, quote, just plain wrong," Clinton says in the ad. "He raised taxes as governor of California.... He doesn't tell the people the truth."

When the ad debuted Thursday, the Brown campaign protested that taxes were lower after he finished his second term in 1983 compared to when he took office in 1975, and on Friday, the state Department of Finances confirmed that to be true.

Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Brown, renewed his call Saturday for Whitman to take down the ad.

“For Meg Whitman to continue running an ad she knows is false is intentional dishonesty, and voters should expect better from a candidate for governor,” he said.

The Whitman campaign stood by the ad, saying the average state tax burden over Brown’s eight-year tenure is greater than when he took office.

“CNN is a lot less relevant than the indisputable fact that Bill Clinton, not me, said that Jerry Brown turned a $6-billion surplus into a  $1-billion deficit, opposed Proposition 13 and ‘doesn’t tell people’ the truth," said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

-- Seema Mehta in Los Angeles

More unions weigh in to help Brown, slam Whitman

Organized labor continues to weigh into the governor’s race, launching a $2-million television advertising buy this week in support of Democratic nominee Jerry Brown and distributing fliers at workplaces around the state.

The ads will begin airing possibly Thursday, according to Willie L. Pelote Sr., assistant director of the political action department of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has 179,000 members in California and 1.6 million nationwide.

Pelote declined to release details of the ads before their airing, but said the message includes positive statements about Brown and criticism of his Republican rival Meg Whitman.

“There are some things the public needs to know about both candidates,” Pelote said. “Our job is to help the public understand some of the facts from the misleading statements.”

The California Labor Federation announced Tuesday that it is launching the first of three worksite blitzes, in which 150,000 fliers about Brown's and Whitman's records will be distributed.

Brown is locked in tight race with Whitman, and has had to conserve his resources while Whitman, a billionaire who has spent $91 million of her own money on her campaign, has continued saturating the airwaves through the summer.

Other unions have taken up the slack for Brown during the summer, raising and airing millions of dollars in ads.

Brown’s support from the unions has led to claims from Whitman’s campaign that Brown will be beholden to union interests if elected.

-- Seema Mehta in Los Angeles