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California recall race intensifiesDavis' rivals begin airing commercials, ideas
From John Mercurio
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The campaign to recall Gov. Gray Davis intensifies this week as the top candidates hoping to replace him broadcast their first TV and radio ads, and others unveil their plans to fix the state's economic ills. Davis himself plans a major speech Tuesday in which he will acknowledge his shortcomings while saying Republicans are bent on circumventing elections they can't win, according to campaign sources familiar with the speech. (Full story) Also on Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the leading Democrat on the October 7 ballot, makes his first major address on the state's economy. A spokesman said Bustamante, who was elected independently of Davis in 2002, would lay out a "bold, practical" plan -- including cuts in state spending -- to avoid a recurrence of this year's budget debacle. California had a $38 billion deficit in its nearly $99 billion budget for the current fiscal year. Recent legislation eliminated it through cuts and borrowing, but created an expected shortfall of at least $8 billion for the next fiscal year. Bustamante's plan, which aides label "Tough Love for California," includes $7.9 billion in new revenue and $4.5 billion in cuts and savings. Bustamante is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. (1 p.m. EDT) in Elk Grove, a suburb of Sacramento. Davis' speech is scheduled for 5 p.m. (8 p.m. EDT). Arnold Schwarzenegger, the leading Republican, will hear Wednesday from a panel of top advisers on the economy. The body builder-turned actor, who has been criticized for failing to disclose his thoughts on key policy issues, is planning to hold a summit in Los Angeles with his top economic advisers, including Warren Buffett and George Shultz, and other business leaders. Aides say the venue for Schwarzenegger's summit could be the University of California-Los Angeles or a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. Schwarzenegger plans to broadcast a 60-second television ad Wednesday in the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets during news and prime time programming, sources told CNN. The sources said the spot, expected to be the first TV ad of the recall race, would maintain a "positive tone" and would not criticize Davis or any of Schwarzenegger's rivals. Aides said Schwarzenegger has no immediate plans to respond to radio ads GOP rival Bill Simon began broadcasting Monday. In his ads, Simon calls Schwarzenegger a liberal and compares him to Davis. "I'm Bill Simon," he says in the ad. "Gray Davis tripled our car taxes, and now Arnold Schwarzenegger's team wants to triple our property taxes, which just goes to show you, don't send a liberal to do a tax-fighter's job. I've signed the pledge not to raise taxes. Isn't it time Arnold told us where he stood?" (Full story) Peter Ueberroth, a Republican businessman who brought the Olympics to Los Angeles and later was baseball commissioner, is expected to formally unveil his campaign Wednesday. At the same time, he is to kick off a series of roundtable discussions across California. Ueberroth will be in Los Angeles on Wednesday and travel to San Jose on Thursday. A Field Poll released over the weekend showed Bustamante holding a slight lead over Schwarzenegger, 25 percent to 22 percent. Four days after the latest Field Poll showed that 58 percent of likely voters support the effort to oust the governor, Davis aides said they recognize the need to fight the campaign more aggressively. Meanwhile, a federal judge said Monday that he would try to rule by Wednesday on a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that requests a delay of California's gubernatorial recall election. The ACLU filed the lawsuit earlier this month arguing that as many as 8 million California voters could be disfranchised by what it described as defective machines that still use punch card ballots. The state argued that the October 7 election would be fair and should be allowed to proceed. (Full story)
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