Angelides' 'Oversight'

My colleague Michael Finnegan makes this fundamentally important point summing up Phil Angelides' campaign problems: You have to build the groundwork. That means telling voters your background and courting influential groups such as the churches. Showing up at a few churches won't get you elected, but it sends a message to the media and elsewhere that you know the basics.

With 45 days left, it's still not done. Finnegan writes:

"Basic political work has also proved a challenge for Angelides, a former state Democratic chairman, particularly in his appeals to African Americans. By the time Schwarzenegger one-upped him last month by speaking at First African Methodist Episcopal Church, a must-stop for Democrats in South Los Angeles, Angelides had yet to make a courtesy call to its politically influential pastor, the Rev. John Hunter.

"'It was certainly an oversight,' said Kerman Maddox, who handles political matters for the church.

"The Rev. Frederick O. Murph, pastor of Brookins AME Church in South Los Angeles, said he was concerned that Angelides had failed so far to make any 'big thrust, in terms of the African American vote.'"