The race for governor continues to pick up speed on this first full week post-primary, as Governor Schwarzenegger’s team cranks up its opposition research efforts in cyberspace and the Phil Angelides campaign signs on a well known Democratic strategist.

First, Team Arnold’s email assault. The Democratic primary campaign resulted in a deluge of pointed barbs landing in the email of political reporters across the state. The memos were almost always more scathing that anything the candidates would actually say in public.

Looks like the Schwarzenegger folks are now joining that fray. In fact, today’s emails arrived from email addresses seemingly stylized for the occasion.

The first one, sent from an account marked, “CFS [Californians For Schwarzenegger] ‘06 FACTS ON PHIL,” criticized Angelides for remarks made as far back as 2001 talking about the possibility of revisions to the landmark tax cutting Proposition 13. The issue apparently came up today in a Q&A between Angelides and reporters in the Bay Area.

For his part, Angelides said at the Sacramento Press Club last month that he no longer favors many of these tax plans, focusing instead on only the increase for wealthy Californians and some sort of changes in corporate taxes.

But the state treasurer has a long public record, and Team Arnold appears ready to highlight every bit of it. The second e-mail came from an account marked, “CFS ‘06 TYPICAL PHIL,” and criticizes Angelides for not fully renouncing his past Prop 13 pronouncements.

Meantime, the Angelides campaign has announced that well-known Democratic strategist Bill Carrick is signing on as a media consultant. Carrick, who has worked on past campaigns for U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Attorney General Bill Lockyer, adds some considerable experience in statewide campaigns as Angelides sets his sights on November.

That’s the latest from Democrats in the Assembly and Senate, with the budget conference committee finishing its work this past weekend. But will there be enough GOP votes for the budget? For now, Republicans are expressing skepticism.

The two leading Dems on the conference committee, Assemblymember John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) and Sen. Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata), told reporters today the committee’s end product will be voted on Thursday. And if you haven’t checked your calendar, that’s June 15… the constitutional deadline for the budget to go to the governor. The last time that deadline was met: 1986.

Democrats also handed out info detailing the bottom line of the 2006-07 budget, as it stood after being passed out of the conference committee on a straight party line vote (both GOP members, Assemblymember Rick Keene, R-Chico, and Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, voted no).

The conference committee budget would spend $101.167 billion next year. That’s more than the governor’s May budget proposal of $100.985 billion, but less than the amount the governor’s staff now supports, an amount pegged at $101.277 billion.

What changed? Well, to name a few: the state picking up $100 million in costs of the federal government’s delay in Medicare changes… an extra $33 million for state employee salary and compensation… and $7 million in repairs to the Capitol building complex.

Of course, almost everyone’s budget proposal– the one favored by Democrats and the ones advocated by Governor Schwarzenegger– would spend more than the state actually takes in next fiscal year. Each version outlined today results in at least a $7 billion operating deficit. But due to at least $9 billion in cash on hand from this year’s unexpected tax revenues, state government would technically be operating in the black.

To hear Governor Schwarzenegger tell it, he didn’t need any convincing by Democrats to support a separate bond measure for more affordable housing. And he wishes the infrastructure package was much, much bigger.

In one of the unreported tidbits from the Wednesday north state press bus interview (items that didn’t appear here due to a really nutty day of tech problems), Schwarzenegger was asked why he didn’t mention the $2.85 billion housing bond at his town hall event that morning in Redding.

He blamed it on a simple oversight, not having his notes in front of him. But he didn’t stop there.
“To be honest with you,” he said, “I don’t even know why I didn’t have it in my State of the State address. Because when Fabian [Nunez] and [Don] Perata brought it up, it was not even a debate.”

That’s interesting, if for no other reason than it was indeed a debate among his fellow Republicans in the Legislature, who balked for weeks at long-term borrowing for housing.

That wasn’t the only revelation in Wednesday’s discussion. Schwarzenegger said that he wished the infrastructure bond offering would have been much larger than the $37 billion agreed to… even bigger than the $68 billion in bonds he proposed in January.

“As a matter of fact,” he told reporters, “I wanted $150 billion. I think we need so much to really, if you’re serious about rebuilding.” Schwarzenegger, however, said he also understood that some legislators were not “comfortable” with such a large proposal.

Governor Schwarzenegger didn’t mention his Democratic opponent by name during this week’s campaign bus tour. But his new TV ad does, and today his top strategists vowed to go right at the dreaded “T” word.

Taxes.

Schwarzenegger’s TV ads hit the airwaves today, though the campaign refuses to say how large of an ‘ad buy’ they’ve made (note: political reporters always ask about the size of the ad purchase to determine whether the ads are really intended for broadcast, or rather for reporters to write about them… thereby getting a lot of ‘free’ media coverage).

You can view the new ads here. Ad #1 is a feel good ad, of which its Spanish version includes an extra snippet about the money the governor restored to education funding. Ad#2 is the critical ad, likening Phil Angelides’ campaign as an effort to take the state “backwards” to its deficit-ridden past.

And key to the anti-Angelides ad is the issue of taxes. Team Arnold repeats the charge that the Democratic nominee wants to raise $10 billion in taxes. But does he really?

“I think this matter is largely settled,” said campaign manager Steve Schmidt, in response to a barrage of reporter questions this morning about the validity of that number. Campaign strategist Matthew Dowd attempted to put the question in broader terms. “It’s a difference in philosophy,” he said.

So is the $10 billion estimate legit? Depends on whose numbers you use, and what you’re counting. In my own reporting during the weeks before the Democratic primary, I came up with a smaller number, based on the following Angelides campaign promises:

* Rescind all Schwarzenegger-era tuition increases at UC, CSU, community colleges AND increase student enrollment by 20,000 students: approximately $1 billion (source: LAO)

* More high school counselors, more teacher training: $500 million (source: Angelides campaign)

* Expansion of state-run health care for kids: $130 million in year 1 (source: legislative analysis)

* Pay back school funding borrowing in 2 years, versus Schwarzenegger’s 7 year payback plan: $1.6 billion in year 1 (source: education interest groups)

Add those up, tack on the projected 2007-08 deficit of $3.5 billion, and you get about $6.7 billion in needed revenues.

The Schwarzenegger campaign is also tacking on the cost of Proposition 82, the universal preschool proposal voters rejected… but Angelides endorsed. Is that fair, even though Prop 82’s no longer on the table? You be the judge. They also add on supposed Angelides statements about “additional” education funding. In the end, they pencil out his tax revenue needs at almost $11.1 billion.

The governor’s anti-Angelides ad also talks about “a time… when soaring taxes forced jobs and businesses to flee our state.” That, too, provoked tough questions from reporters today, who pointed out that except for the well-known ‘car tax,’ Gray Davis never raised taxes… and Schwarzenegger hasn’t cut taxes. And the Angelides campaign disputes the ‘fewer jobs’ theory, sending out a memo that claims job growth in California between 1995 and 2003 outpaced the rest of the nation.

Outside of the Team Arnold campaign offices, Angelides’ bulldog staffer Bob Mulholland was waiting for reporters being briefed on the ads. He took his own swing at the issue of taxes, saying that Schwarzenegger has “shredded the dreams” of middle-class Californians, with things like tuition hikes… he says those should be counted as, you guessed it, tax increases.

[NOTE: GOP stalwarts think I should credit the governor for one important tax cut: the axing of the VLF increase, the ‘car tax.’ So noted. Of course, it was actually a ‘fee’ and not a tax… and as the governor himself said earlier this year when proposing a fee on water users, “You know, a lot of times, you know, fees are fees and taxes are taxes. And that’s why they’re called fees. And that’s why they’re called taxes.”]

[NOTE: This posting was written at midday, and is only being posted now after server problems… apologies.]

The big orange buses were hard to miss rolling through downtown Redding.

On Day 1 of the general election campaign, Arnold Schwarzenegger made his way through some of California’s northern red counties, shaking hands and fielding questions on everything from gas prices to the need for a new veterans’ home.

The first event was actually early in the morning outside of Eureka, where the governor apparently jumped up on a table in a local restaurant and exhorted patrons to join him in his campaign. I say “apparently” because the traveling press corps was not there, and instead on a bus en route to event #2.

That event was in a scenic park near Redding, just steps away from the area’s landmark Sundial Bridge that crosses the Sacramento River. The setting for this town hall, where the general public was invited, looked like a theater in the round. About 200 citizens gathered as Schwarzenegger roamed the crowd with a microphone.

A word about the buses: twin behemoths both, decked out in the new orange and red Schwarzenegger campaign logos, set against a backdrop of a Yosemite photo. (As an aside, I have no idea what gas mileage those suckers get, but one of them made for an interesting backdrop as Schwarzenegger told one audience member how more vehicles need to be gas efficient in response to high prices at the pump.)

But the audience was friendly, and Schwarzenegger seemed to enjoy the give and take. His aides took great pains to point out that the audience was not hand picked, as were so many of those seated for events in 2005.

The governor did not mention his newly minted Democratic opponent Phil Angelides by name, only talking about the “other side”… and how while they talk about the future, “we are building the future.”

(Campaign aides say Schwarzenegger and Angelides actually spoke for about 5 minutes today, with the governor congratulating the treasurer on his victory.)
And an interesting moment came when a GOP supporter from the tiny town of Hayfork asked Schwarzenegger to visit the town. Put on the spot, what could he say? Schwarzenegger said he’d do it.

After that, it was on to Chico.

The general election campaign begins in earnest today, and for Governor Schwarzenegger the trail begins up north.

This posting comes to you from the press corps bus for Schwarzenegger’s visit to four northern cities– Eureka, Redding, Chico, and Auburn (the governor actually flew to Eureka on his own, and we headed to Redding). The format for the 10:15 a.m. Redding event is a town hall. But unlike last year, where such events were open only to loyal supporters, campaign aides say today’s events are open to anyone who wants to talk to Schwarzenegger. Team Arnold also has a new look for the 2006 race: an orange and green logo that says, “Schwarzenegger: Protecting The California Dream .”

The campaign also announced its statewide coalition of campaign chairpersons and co-chairpersons: a list of 82 people. That’s a lot of “chairs.” Included on the bipartisan list are everyone from political heavyhitters (Nancy Reagan, George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson) to celebrities (Dennis Miller, Rob Lowe, Ben Stein).

Check back later for updates from the road, and a full report tomorrow morning on The California Report.

It was an interesting night.

Around 11:30 p.m., supporters of Phil Angelides filed out of the Sheraton Grand ballroom in downtown Sacramento, hopeful but not assured based on very close returns. Within a half hour, Angelides staffers were scurrying back into the room, hustling the crowd back in, and exchanging high fives. It appeared the all nighter was coming to an end sooner than expected. Current returns show Angelides with what looks to be a 4 point victory over Steve Westly.

There will be plenty of time for the post-game analysis… including items like Angelides’ strong showing in the traditional coastal Democratic counties versus Westly winning the more moderate/conservative Central Valley counties… the apparent fizzle of the Westly campaign, which was 13 points ahead in a statewide poll just over a month ago… and whether Angelides can successfully link Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with (who the polls say) is the most unpopular politician with Californians: President George W. Bush.

Here’s how Angelides framed the issue in his comments early Wednesday morning:

“This is a clear choice election, between the agenda of George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, where you help those who have the most and hope the crumbs will fall to the rest, and an agenda of hope and opportunity, where we work for the common good, where we balance our budget, where we invest in our people, where we roll back massive tax breaks for multi-millionaires and corporations, so we can have the best schools, send more of our young people to college, and expand health care.”

The day begins early… stay tuned for reports from the Schwarzenegger bus tour of the northern region, which departs Sac-Town at 6:30 a.m.

Early word is that voting machines in some parts of Kern County weren’t ready for the voters this morning… forcing an airborne 11th hour fix in some rural areas.

My colleague Sasha Khokha in our Central Valley bureau in Fresno reports that some of Kern’s electronic touchscreen machines didn’t have voting access cards that had been properly programmed. The machines, made by Diebold Elections Systems, have removable cards that have to be programmed with all of the specific ballot information before each election.

Sasha’s note on what happened is below:

“The problem was resolved quickly in Bakersfield, but Kern County is huge and has some towns as far as 2.5 hours away. I spoke with Chief Deputy Registrar Sandra Brockman. She said they had to use sheriff’s department helicopters to fly the reprogrammed cards out to some of these areas. Apparently, the issue was largely resolved by mid-morning.”

The primary contest for governor and a host of other seats is underway, with turnout predicted to be the lowest in years… or worse.

Phil Angelides gathers his supporters in downtown Sacramento; Steve Westly will hold his election night event in Los Angeles. And Arnold Schwarzenegger will make a quick cameo at his campaign HQ, before heading out for a bus tour early tomorrow morning.

More on the details later tonight…

As expected, Governor Schwarzenegger has signed the memorandum of agreement that will send members of the California National Guard to the Mexico border.

You can read more about the document in my posting last week by clicking here. A copy of the document is online here.

[12:40PM UPDATE: Schwarzenegger has also issued the formal order to the Guard to join Operation Jump Start. The document released by the governor’s office reiterates that the 1000 troops to be used should first be volunteers, and that “the military personnel shall not be armed during the performance of their duties.” The order expires on December 31, 2008.]