In its closing days, the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination has evolved into two parallel contests.
There is the tawdry one seen by millions of Californians in TV commercials: a brawl between rivals Phil Angelides and Steve Westly over corruption and environmental misdeeds.
And there is the other one, more civil but less visible: the two men traveling the state, saying where they stand on schools, taxes, healthcare, immigration -- areas where a governor can make a difference in voters' day-to-day lives.
With Tuesday's election five days away, Angelides and Westly have opened new lines of attack this week in the TV ad fight, a clash that has often misled or, by some accounts, deceived viewers.
On Wednesday, Angelides started airing a spot saying that Westly was the "strongest ally" of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when the Republican was "cutting education, healthcare and aid for the disabled."
But Westly did not, as the ad implies, endorse cuts to education, healthcare or aid for the disabled.
A new Westly ad says that the state sued Angelides and other developers for dumping 1 million gallons of sludge into Lake Tahoe, "jewel of the Sierras." But there is no evidence that Angelides knew of the dumping.
A late spurt of positive ads has offered some respite from such assaults. But for the most part, both candidates have relegated talk about the direction they would take the state to personal campaign stops, which have nowhere near the reach of their attack ads.
At a time of voter disgust with public corruption scandals, analysts say, negative advertising could be particularly effective in a contest between two candidates who were little known before the campaign began.
"Everybody talks about how unpopular it is, and how they wish it wouldn't happen," USC politics and law professor Elizabeth Garrett said. "But in the end, polls and focus groups tell you that it works. And that's why I think you will always see it in a campaign, and you will tend to see it in the end."
Less noticed -- and less effective because of their narrower reach -- are the candidate stops at schools, factories, hospitals, senior citizen centers and scenic coastal spots.
On the Santa Cruz oceanfront, Westly, the state controller, pushed plans Tuesday to widen the use of solar energy and electric cars.
