Westly drops another $5 million into race

State Controller Steve Westly has contributed another $5 million to his campaign for governor today, according to reports filed with the secretary of state. That donation brings Westly's total contributions to his campaign to $27 million--more than state Treasurer Phil Angelides has raised in total. "When it came to the communications program, we realized that the Westly could write a check and spend as much money as he wanted," Cathy Calfo, Angelides' campaign manager told me earlier this week. And with four weeks until Election Day, Westly has done just that. "While Steve Westly is supported by thousands of Californians, campaigns in California are very expensive endeavors and he's augmenting that support with his own personal investment in his candidacy," said Nick Velasquez, Westly's press secretary. In yesterday's debate, Angelides accused Westly of trying to buy his way into the governor's office. "If you think you can just put $22.5 million of your own money to try to buy the governorship without examining your record, you're wrong," he said. Early last month Team Angelides made the decision to take their own television ads off the air for three weeks as Westly had begun buying air time more than three months before Election Day. While the Angelides campaign was off the air, a $5 million independent expenditure campaign was launched by former Angelides employer and Sacramento-area developer Angelo Tsakopoulos and his daughter Eleni. The ads aired statewide. To match Westly's own contributions to his gubernatorial bid, Angelides would have had to raise the maximum contribution of $22,300 from more than 1200 donors--a monumental task. Of course, as Dan Weintraub has pointed out, "And even if he did that, Westly could simply write another check and start the money race all over again."