Capitol Weekly "Poll" Gets Some Ink

For our first issue of Capitol Weekly we did a "poll" of thirty statewide politial insiders to see who would be the toughest opponent for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger among the Democrats vying for his office (declared or not). The answers were all anonymous and the winner of the straw poll was State Controller Steve Westly--with 38 percent of the vote. Westly and State Treasurer Phil Angelides are the only two declared Democratic candidates, but Angelides is considered the clean front-runner, in part because he has raised more money, and in part because he has spent the better part of hte last two years preparing for the race. Desperate for some good news in a campaign where there has not been much, the Westly campaign quickly fired off a press release of the poll, including some of the "expert" quotes. The first one was: “Westly’s got a powerful general election message. He can say that he at first tried to work cooperatively with the governor. Angelides is a slimy developer…” The Angelides campaign is furious, demanding an apology and arguing that the Westly campaign went negative nearly 9 months before a single voter goes to the polls. The real issue though is that the fledgling Capitol Weekly is getting some press in the Los Angeles Times over the whole debacle.