Worried Democrats said Sunday that Phil Angelides failed to achieve the breakthrough he needed in the sole gubernatorial debate and expressed fear that his campaign's trajectory threatened others on the statewide ticket.
Fellow Democrat John Garamendi, in a tight race for lieutenant governor against Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, has started to distance himself from Angelides. He said in a television interview aired Sunday that he disagreed with an Angelides plan to raise taxes on corporations and the well-to-do.
"I don't think it's necessary," Garamendi, now insurance commissioner, said on KNBC's "News Conference."
Though few thought Angelides did poorly in the debate, there was wide agreement that Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger benefited the most from Saturday night's allotted 55-minute session, largely because nothing occurred to change the essential dynamic of the race.
Angelides, the state treasurer, entered the evening desperately needing to redefine a contest that by all measures -- polling, fundraising, party morale -- was going badly for him. And he needed the lift not just for himself, but for fellow Democratic candidates counting on him to spur a strong turnout Nov. 7.
On Sunday, the example cited repeatedly by Angelides' disappointed party brethren was the 1994 election, when then-Treasurer Kathleen Brown lost in a landslide and dragged several fellow Democrats down with her.
"When you have a situation like we had in 1994, when the top of the ticket collapses, it clearly has a downdraft effect," said Democratic strategist Garry South.
He said it was time for "triage" and a shift of party resources from Angelides to the races of lieutenant governor, secretary of state and controller. Though some may detect a whiff of sour grapes (South ran the campaign of Angelides' primary rival, Steve Westly), others also expressed concerns about a 1994 rerun and a determination to avert it.
"This year, we have no intention of allowing that to happen if the momentum in the governor's race doesn't shift our way," said Los Angeles County Democratic Chairman Eric Bauman, an advisor to Garamendi.
Angelides, who set off Sunday on a two-day bus tour from Los Angeles through the Central Valley to San Francisco, brushed off talk that he might harm the rest of the ticket, saying 2006 would turn out to be a good year for Democrats in California. "I'm not daunted by any of this," he said aboard his bus, covered in a blue sleeve bearing his new campaign slogan: "Always On Your Side."
