With big-name Democrats passing up the chance to make a run at ousting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the party's June primary is taking shape as a race between two virtual unknowns who appear headed toward a harsh campaign that some party leaders fear could benefit the Republican incumbent.
"The Democrats can't afford a bitter and nasty campaign," said state party Chairman Art Torres. "The voters will be turned off by that."
Both Democrats -- state Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly -- hold obscure jobs that draw scant public attention. That void offers opportunity to both, but is fraught with danger too. When Californians start to tune in to their campaign for the nomination, each will be striving to introduce himself before the other defines him as unfit to lead the state. Foreshadowing a spiteful race ahead, both have launched efforts to undercut the other's credibility.
The opening of what looks, for now, to be a two-man Democratic contest comes as Schwarzenegger prepares to unveil a 2006 agenda in January that will serve as a roadmap to his reelection campaign. Wounded by voters' rejection last month of his ballot measures, the Republican incumbent will propose billions of dollars in public construction projects with potential appeal beyond his conservative base.
Low poll ratings notwithstanding, the governor still holds key advantages over both Democrats: the vast powers of incumbency, a bold personality and a name well known to voters.
At first glance, the similarities between Angelides and Westly are striking: both are white men who became rich in private business and toiled for years in the trenches of party politics before winning election to statewide finance jobs.
For the most part, Angelides and Westly have taken similar stands on high-profile issues. Both favor abortion rights, gun control and gay marriage. Both have been forceful advocates of environmental protection. Both have championed organized labor.
Both are also strangers to most Californians: a Times Poll in October found 70% of likely voters knew too little about Angelides to have a good or bad impression of him, and 83% drew a blank on Westly.
The biggest policy issue on which they differ has been taxes.
Westly has resisted most calls for higher taxes, although he supports a June ballot measure to raise income taxes on the wealthy to fund universal preschool. He casts himself as the moderate in the race.
Angelides has appealed to the party's liberal base, in part by becoming one of the capital's most outspoken Democrats in favor of higher taxes to relieve the state's chronic budget crunch without shortchanging schools, healthcare and other needs.
Privately, some top Democrats have groused about the caliber of the party's contenders to take on Schwarzenegger, questioning whether either Westly or Angelides has the stature to withstand side-by-side comparisons with a Hollywood icon.
The state's most popular Democrat, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has declined to reprise her 1990 run for governor, but will seek another Senate term instead. Also staying out are actors Rob Reiner and Warren Beatty, two of Schwarzenegger's best-known critics, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
With the field apparently narrowed to Westly and Angelides, many Democrats now fear a messy primary that risks damaging whoever emerges as the party's nominee.
Yet signs point in that direction. Westly has reunited much of the core team that ran several brutal attack campaigns for former Gov. Gray Davis. Among them are senior strategist Garry South and TV ad makers David Doak and Tom O'Donnell. They have left little doubt that they plan to revive assaults used by previous Angelides rivals on the treasurer's record as a Sacramento developer.
"You'd have to be pretty foolish to think that won't be fully explored during the campaign," South said.
As for Angelides, he gained a reputation for slash-and-burn tactics with his 1994 television ads against rival treasurer candidate David A. Roberti, a former state Senate leader. In one spot, he attacked Roberti's opposition to abortion by highlighting the fatal shooting of a doctor at a Florida abortion clinic.
"When you get to the point of saying someone's in league with murderers, or terrorists, I think that goes over the line," said Roberti, the star guest at a Westly fundraising reception this month at the California Club in Los Angeles.
Angelides, 52, a former state Democratic Party chairman and prolific fundraiser, defeated Roberti in the 1994 primary, but lost the general election to Matt Fong. Angelides made another attempt at the treasurer's race in 1998, and that time he won. Four years later, he sailed easily to reelection.
Westly, 49, has served on the Democratic National Committee for more than two decades. He ran against former Gov. Jerry Brown for state party chairman in 1989, but lost. In 2002, he won the controller's job in a razor-thin victory over Republican Tom McClintock.
