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With new ads, California recall takes nasty turn
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the California gubernatorial recall will take place as planned on October 7, the campaign took a nasty turn. The leading replacement candidates waged personal attacks on the airwaves in a barrage of new television ads. Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger put out a pair of ads on Monday, reversing his pledge that he wouldn't go negative. The first ad denounced Democratic Gov. Gray Davis for "mismanaging" the state's economy. The second television commercial slammed several of Schwarzenegger's opponents for taking campaign contributions from Indian tribes in return for special tax breaks. It charges: "Indian casinos play money politics in Sacramento... All the other major candidates take their money and pander to them. I don't play that game." Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, locked in a dead heat with Schwarzenegger in the latest statewide poll, fired back with his own television ad on Tuesday questioning Schwarzenegger's values. This was also the first attack ad for Bustamante, who is featured in the spot saying "Arnold doesn't share our values...He doesn't live in our world. He lives on Planet Hollywood." Bustamante stepped up the hot rhetoric when I talked to him on Tuesday's "Inside Politics." "Arnold is pretty phony on this whole issue," Bustamante said. "He's a hypocrite because just a year ago, he had a brunch with tribal governments and he raised $62,000 for his effort." Repeating his claim that Schwarzenegger is a "phony," Bustamante charged, "It's just like a lot of his policies that haven't been well thought out. I think that's why he's being desperate and he's trying to talk about it." When CNN asked Schwarzenegger's campaign about this latest back and forth, campaign spokesman Todd Harris defended the ad. He argued it was time someone said "enough is enough" and stood up for the people's interests, instead of the special interests. As for the money from tribal governments, campaign aides say that was for an after-school ballot initiative that Schwarzenegger supported and was not something that he personally benefited from. Meanwhile, Darrell Issa, the GOP congressman who financed the effort to recall Davis, said he was trying to get the attention of fellow Republicans when he warned that he would reverse course vote against the recall unless the party could unite behind one candidate. Issa also revealed that before the election he had an understanding with Republican State Sen. Tom McClintock, another of the recall candidates. "Well, I haven't said this publicly before, but I should say it here. I talked to Tom McClintock before he got into this race. He told me a couple of things that I'm going to hold him to. One, he said he wouldn't get in if it wasn't a crowded field. Two, he said he wouldn't be a spoiler. And, three, he said he could do the math." Issa warned that time was running out for the GOP to rally behind one candidate, suggesting that McClintock needed to step aside in order for Schwarzenegger to win. "It's not a crowded field anymore," Issa said. "It's only crowded by one too many. Both of them can do the math. And both of them don't want to be spoilers. One of them has to make the right decision and has to make it in the next two days." As the replacement candidates battled it out, Davis kept hitting his theme that the recall would be disastrous for the state. Former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart, a Democrat from Colorado, joined the chorus of those arguing against the recall. "I think it is the substitution of power for the democratic ideal," he told me. "And that's not good for America or democracy or, for that matter, the state of California." Meanwhile, the group Californians Against the Costly Recall released its own ad with a grim warning: "Whoever takes over, the bad feelings and political chaos may get even worse." Judy Woodruff is CNN's prime anchor and senior correspondent. She also anchors "Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics," weekdays at 3:30 pm ET.
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