* Arianna Huffington, the political pundit running a nonpartisan campaign for governor, called for an overhaul of Proposition 13, the popular 1978 initiative that capped increases in California's property taxes. Saying that the state relies too heavily on income and sales taxes, which are vulnerable to boom-and-bust cycles, Huffington said there is a need for a more predictable source of income. Huffington said the law should be modified to increase property taxes on corporations and wealthy homeowners, while still protecting senior citizens and middle-class homeowners.
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Thursday
* Davis offered Indian tribes a key role in picking members of the state commission that regulates tribal gambling as he sought the support from Native Americans in the recall election. Bustamante and McClintock also sought backing during a monthly meeting of the California Nations Indian Gaming Assn. Davis told the tribal leaders that he had done more for Native Americans than any governor in California history, according to people at the meeting. And he conceded that he had erred in January by submitting a budget that called for collecting $1.5 billion in taxes from tribes without first consulting them. The governor said later that he would like to encourage some tribes to "share some of their resources with the state." McClintock and Bustamante endorsed the idea of lifting a cap on the number of slot machines tribes can operate -- a restriction contained in 1999 Indian gambling agreements negotiated by Davis and approved overwhelmingly by the Legislature and California voters.
* Schwarzenegger made his first campaign foray outside of the Los Angeles area, appearing at a series of Central Valley events. The actor and his aides spent part of the day responding to questions about a sexually graphic interview he gave to a men's magazine in 1977. In the interview, he talked of using marijuana and hashish and described an incident in which he and several other bodybuilders had group sex with a woman at a gym in Venice. When asked about the Oui magazine interview, Schwarzenegger said: "I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm here to push my economic agenda." Central Valley residents crashed his appearance at a Fresno charter school and mobbed a rally in front of a movie theater. The actor picked up an endorsement from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.
* Bustamante focused his day on an announcement about controlling gasoline prices. He proposed amending the California Constitution to define gasoline as a public utility and subjecting gas prices to approval by the state Public Utilities Commission. But he also faced questions about his past. As a student activist at Fresno State University in the 1970s, Bustamante was a member of MEChA, the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan, which, among other things, had called for the formation of a Chicano nation. As a fill-in host on a San Diego radio station, McClintock called on Bustamante to renounce his membership in the group. "MEChA is a radical and racist organization," McClintock said, adding that membership is like saying "you're a member of the Klan." Addressing reporters in Sacramento, Bustamante said the group had been in the mainstream at Fresno State when he participated and that he had joined a coalition slate in a failed run for student body president.
* Davis and Schwarzenegger emerged as the most prolific fund-raisers in the recall campaign. The governor had amassed nearly $4 million to fend off the effort to oust him, according to campaign reports filed with the state. Schwarzenegger had raised $3.1 million since announcing last month his decision to run for governor. Schwarzenegger also has spent heavily, with $1.45 million going to purchase TV time. He had $1.6 million in the bank. The actor, who pumped up his campaign coffers with $2 million of his own money, also had $822,000 in campaign debt.
* Green Party candidate Peter Camejo unveiled his plan for a "fair tax" that he said would solve the budget crisis by raising taxes on the state's richest while offering tax relief to low- to moderate-income Californians. With the "substantial surplus" that Camejo said would result from the redistribution of the tax burden, California could invest in solar power and make the struggling renewable-energy industry large enough to be competitive, he said.
