SACRAMENTO — Hundreds of delegates to the state Democratic convention erupted in cheers Sunday morning as a beaming Phil Angelides -- the self-described underdog in the party's primary for governor -- waved from the podium and vowed to halt a "30-year attack by the right" on Democratic values and to "drive Arnold Schwarzenegger from the statehouse."
The crowd, waving blue and yellow Angelides signs, sent their newly endorsed candidate off with chants of "Go Phil, go!"
The state treasurer did, indeed, receive a huge psychological lift when he won the California Democratic Party's endorsement for governor Saturday night. But whether that victory translates into meaningful support outside the confines of the party's convention hall is a wide-open question.
From the start of his campaign, Angelides has been the favorite of party insiders, and he long counted on a formal endorsement as the Democrats' institutional seal of approval.
His win over state Controller Steve Westly -- by a lopsided 67%-28% margin among almost 1,800 delegates -- came as welcome news to a campaign that, despite its establishment dominance, has foundered in recent statewide polls. A Los Angeles Times poll published Saturday showed Angelides trailing Westly by 13 percentage points.
The Angelides campaign team sees little difference between the party hard core -- those who would give up a sunny weekend to listen to hours of political speeches -- and the ranks of everyday Democrats and independents who will vote in the June 6 primary.
"This is an angry Democratic primary electorate," said Bob Mulholland, a senior Angelides advisor. "What the Democratic voters want is someone to stand up and take punches at Schwarzenegger and Bush."
But Westly has taken his own shots at Schwarzenegger and President Bush in his ubiquitous TV spots, telling voters that he stood up to the governor on school cuts and took on the president on offshore oil drilling. Westly, a dot-com mogul, has tapped his personal wealth to reach a broader swath of Californians with those ads than Angelides has in his commercials.
Still, for Angelides the endorsement could serve as a significant cue for Democrats at a time when polls show many voters know little about the candidates vying to carry their party's standard into the fall campaign. "People figure we've vetted the candidates," said Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party.
