FLASHREPORT

STEVE WESTLY: SERIOUS CANDIDATE OR EMPTY SUIT?

An original column penned for the FlashReport by Bill Whalen. Whalen is a correspondent for the FR, as well as being a fellow at the Hoover Institution.

[Publisher's Note:  As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, I am pleased to present this column from Bill Whalen (pictured to the right).  Biographical and contact information for Mr. Whalen can be found beneath his column.]

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If you live in the Sacramento, San Francisco or Los Angeles viewing markets, there’s no escaping Steve Westly these days.

The State Controller and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful is on the air, around the clock, running feel-good bio spots that play up his resume as an (alleged) government innovator, struck-it-rich eBay executive and an honest-to-gosh, I-heart-kids teacher (never mind the fact that Westly taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which is not to be confused with Jaime Escalante or an inner-city classroom).

The tag lines to Westly’s ads are the promise of “a different kind of governor” and “a different kind of campaign”.  That’s no accident.  In fact it’s a variation of the “different kind of Democrat” boast that Bill Clinton used in 1992 to sell a wary public on his credentials as a middle-class tax-cutter and welfare reformer.  Westly is playing the same game in the June primary – offering himself as a more moderate and nuanced alternative to State Treasurer Phil Angelides.

On paper, at least, it has a potential to work. In the latest Field Poll, Westly holds a 41%-37% lead over Gov. Schwarzenegger. Angelides is tied with the guv, at 39%-all. But in a Democratic primary, Westly trails Angelides, 26% to 18%, with 54% undecided.  Meanwhile, 72% of Field’s respondents said they didn’t have a strong opinion about the Controller. Time will tell if the “different” campaign resorts to the usual negative tactics to close the gap in the primary – or to fight back once attacked.

As for being “a different kind of governor”, a more appropriate slogan might be: “too cute by half.”

Take the issue of taxation. Angelides say he’ll raises taxes to fully fund education. If indeed he wins the June primary, it may turn out to be a suicidal promise, like Walter Mondale’s same vow in 1984 (uttered, appropriately enough, at that year’s Democratic National Convention in San Francisco). But at least give Angelides credit for honesty.

Westly, on the other hand, says he won’t raise taxes. Instead, his Web site offers pie-in-the-sky rhetoric about collecting $6 billion annually in unpaid taxes from deadbeats and the underground economy, the proceeds of which would go to fund roads, hospitals and schools. But for a “different kind of governor”, it’s not exactly groundbreaking stuff. During the 1988 presidential campaign, Michael Dukakis promised to unleash the IRS to ring down the federal deficit to the tune of $30 billion a year.

How else is Westly too cute by half?

He vows to “expand local control” for education, yet there’s not a peep about charter schools. He opposes “any effort” to expand vouchers. Meanwhile, the candidate who won’t himself raise taxes supports the tax-raising Reiner initiative. All of which is music to CTA’s ears, even though the teachers’ union went the other way and endorsed Angelides after making both candidate jump through their hoops. Westly promises to sign legislation to raise the income threshold for subsidized healthcare and insure coverage for every child in the state (cha-ching!). Yet he also assures reporters that he’s a “fiscal moderate” (whatever that is). As for environmental policy, Westly’s platform promises to make environmental justice “a centerpiece of his agenda.” And what, pray tell, is “environmental justice”? The federal EPA defines it as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” That’s either terribly noble, or terrifically litigious.

And just so . . . cute – it won’t offend Democrats, it won’t alienate independents with a green streak. But, come Inauguration Day, it begs the question of how Westly would get along with the Legislature, which would see a “different kind of governor” as the means to picking up where they left off before recall: higher taxes, drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, same-sex marriage, weakening crime laws, etc. Would Westly stand up to the Legislature or, like Gray Davis, back down and go along with their various whims? 

One other way to judge Westly’s candidacy is his record in office these past four years. Here again, he disappoints. With the authority to audit all aspects of state government, the State Controller should be the least popular man in Sacramento. Had Tom McClintock won the job in 2002, odds are that by now he’d need a full-time food taster and someone to start his car every morning given the various sacred cows he would have offended as the auditing Controller from Hell.

But Westly’s record suggests a selective approach to the job – again, too cute by half, especially when his platform promises that in a Westly Administration all corners of government will be held accountable. To his credit, Westly recently called for an audit of the state’s stem-cell institute. The Controller’s office also sprung into action to investigate scandals surrounding the city of South Gate and the Oakland Unified School District. But where is Westly to be found on the current flap involving the use of First Five tax dollars to lay the groundwork for universal preschool and Proposition 82? So far, Westly is missing action while other Democrats (most notably Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata) have come to recognize the obvious: something is rotten in the state of Reiner.

Ironically, both the Westly and Angelides campaigns have this much in common: they embody politics at a most cynical level. If the State Treasurer wins his party’s nomination, it’s because he took a very calculated course from the day after recall – bash Arnold before other Democrats piled on – and succeeded in kowtowing to the most powerful of Democratic special interests: labor and education.

But with the State Controller, it’s a different type of cynicism: the thought that political consultants could tap into the resources of a candidate with a personal fortune exceeding $200 million, talk him into spending ten of millions of his own dollars, and turn an otherwise blank slate into a candidate to run a world-class economy.  

Talk about political legerdemain. Westly has told reporters, “I'm not a career politician. I’m a businessman who created thousands of jobs.” Yet for the past quarter of a century, the self-styled outsider has stayed busy in Democratic politics (congressional aide, Carter Administration appointee, state Democratic party officer at the age of 23). Still, his campaign will do its best to convince Democratic voters that Angelides is the only insider on the ballot. As for that business savvy, did a single start-up or Silicon Valley business in need of a turnaround try to recruit Westly after he scored big with eBay?

This is not to single out Steve Westly for condemnation – all three major players in this gubernatorial election (sorry, Peter Camejo) are fabulously wealthy. But behind the wealth, there is the question of substance and genuineness (tellingly, the candidate doesn’t utter a single word in either of his two cookie-cutter commercials). Westly may, at some point, try to promote himself as California’s next great performer. But the only Democratic bloodline here is Al Checci and the art of checkbook campaigning.    

For Team Westly, the candidate’s fortune affords the luxury of an impressive team of consultants and the ability to spend what it takes to bull through what may very well be an expensive and contentious primary between now and the first week of June. Indeed, $200 million buys quite a wardrobe.

And, unfortunately, one empty suit.
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You can reach Bill Whalen, via the FR, here.

Bill's Biography:

Whalen writes frequently for leading California opinionmakers including the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Diego Union Tribune. His by-line also appears on the Weekly Standard's website, www.weeklystandard.com. He has been a guest political analyst on the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN. He can also be seen and heard on Bay Area radio and television, commenting on current events, in addition to frequent appearances on the nationwide radio program hosted by Hoover media fellow John Batchelor.

Whalen also serves as a media consultant for California political hopefuls and aspiring policy leaders. His clients have included Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former California secretary of state Bill Jones, former congressman Tom Campbell and former Los Angeles mayor Richard J. Riordan.

From 1994 to 1999, Whalen was the chief speechwriter and director of public affairs for former California governor Pete Wilson. In that capacity, he was responsible for the governor's annual State of the State address, as well as other major policy addresses.

A native of Washington, D.C., Whalen was steeped in politics long before he relocated to California. From 1985 to 1991, Whalen was a political correspondent for Insight Magazine, the national newsweekly and sister publication of the Washington Times, where he was honored for his profiles and analyses of candidates, campaigns, Congress, and the White House. In citing Whalen as one of its "top-ten" political reporters, The 1992 Media Guide said of his work: "The New York Times could trade six of its political writers for Whalen and still get a bargain." During those years, Whalen also appeared frequently on C-SPAN, National Public Radio, and CNBC.

In addition to his time in Washington as a political journalist, Whalen served as a speechwriter for the Bush-Quayle reelection campaign in 1992. In 1993, he was a senior associate with the public relations firm Robinson-Lake/Sawyer-Miller, offering media and political advice for domestic and foreign clientele.