Recast, Schwarzenegger primes for a second act

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s one-year quest for political redemption faces a final judgment today as California voters cast ballots in the race for governor and decide whether to launch the state’s most ambitious rebuilding plan in decades.

From Orange County to the Bay Area, the Republican governor and his Democratic challenger, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, made closing appeals for support Monday. Schwarzenegger also pushed for billions of dollars in bonds to build and repair highways, schools and levees.

With 13 statewide propositions up for a vote, along with hundreds of candidates in races around the state, a record-breaking political ad blitz hit its peak Monday with back-to-back television commercials. Showering voters with conflicting advice were oil and tobacco companies, labor unions, hospitals, home builders, environmentalists and candidates.

For Republicans, the main question is whether Schwarzenegger’s political strength can carry his party’s other candidates to victory, helping the GOP isolate California from a national election tide that favors Democrats. For Democrats, the big unknown is whether the troubled candidacy of Angelides threatens to depress turnout of the party’s voters, harming its other statewide candidates.

On Monday, Angelides zipped from San Diego to Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento, dismissing Schwarzenegger’s election-year breach with fellow Republicans as a “head fake.� Pledging to do a better job than Schwarzenegger on schools, healthcare and the environment, the underdog Democrat said he would pull off the “biggest upset in California political history� but conceded he faced a “steep mountain.�

“We’re going to defeat Arnold Schwarzenegger,� Angelides told a few hundred sign-waving supporters chanting, “Go, Phil, go!� at a Los Angeles City College rally.

Appearing confident of victory, Schwarzenegger limited himself Monday to talk radio and two low-key campaign stops in Los Angeles and Irvine, where he plugged the public works bonds on today’s ballot.

At a cramped Republican call center in Irvine, he posed for photos with volunteers and signed autographs. Joining the phone bank, he urged a caller named Bill to support the bonds but reject other measures that would increase oil, tobacco and corporate taxes to raise money for alternative energy, healthcare and political campaigns.

“Definitely ‘no’ on all the propositions that will raise taxes,� said Schwarzenegger, whose TV ads have pounded Angelides for supporting higher taxes.

Polls open today at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Absentee voters have already returned more than 2 million of the 8.7 million ballots expected to be cast, according to the secretary of state’s office, which projects a 55% turnout overall.

Snafus with new electronic voting machines have erupted in recent California elections, but today, Alameda and Nevada counties are the only ones using new balloting systems for the first time, said Ashley Snee Giovannettone, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Bruce McPherson. Security measures will ensure “that every vote cast will be accurately counted and recorded,� she said.

Voters seeking polling locations or ballot information can call the secretary’s hotline at (800) 345-VOTE. They can also call that number to report irregularities.

In addition to the race for governor, Californians vote today for attorney general, treasurer, controller, insurance commissioner, secretary of state and lieutenant governor.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, is seeking reelection, facing Republican challenger Richard Mountjoy, a former Monrovia state senator. And the state’s 53 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for grabs, although the only incumbents facing serious threats are Northern California Republican Reps. Richard W. Pombo of Tracy and John T. Doolittle of Roseville. To a lesser extent, Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Carlsbad) faces a tough reelection battle.

Also up for a vote are 100 of the state Legislature’s 120 seats. There, too, strategists for both major parties say, district lines drawn to protect incumbents have left just two in jeopardy: Assemblywomen Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) and Nicole Parra (D-Hanford).

With polls showing a lopsided advantage for Schwarzenegger in the governor’s race, the most competitive statewide contest appears to be the one for lieutenant governor, with state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) facing Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi.

To gain a last-minute bump, Garamendi took the unusual step of airing a new 60-second TV ad on the eve of the election. It hammers McClintock for opposing stem-cell research, an attack that Garamendi also pursued at the Los Angeles campus rally with Angelides.

“The reality is McClintock is extremely right-wing,� Garamendi told reporters at the rally.

McClintock spokesman Stan Devereux brushed off the assault as “just more of the same from Mr. Garamendi to try to paint Tom in that fashion.�

“Voters like elected officials who give straight talk, not doublespeak,� Devereux said of McClintock, who campaigned close to home Monday in Santa Clarita.

Dominating the airwaves Monday were clashing ads over ballot measures -- many of them on Proposition 87, a plan to tax oil companies to raise money for alternative energy. One of the oil industry’s final No on 87 spots featured a firefighter arguing against it, while Yes on 87 kept running an ad with former President Clinton urging approval.

The Yes on 87 group also showcased its latest Hollywood supporter at a Los Angeles event with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: actor Brad Pitt.

Among the most far-reaching -- and costly -- proposals up for a vote are the $37 billion in bond measures that Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers put on the ballot: Propositions 1B (transportation), 1C (housing), 1D (schools) and 1E (levees).

At a Republican phone center in Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger pointed to the bonds and other legislative agreements he struck with Democrats as evidence of his bipartisanship.

“I don’t believe in, ‘This is a Democrat issue, this is a Republican issue,’ � he said. “It’s people issues.�

Angelides, along with the Democrats who campaigned with him Monday, tried to maximize his party’s customary edge in California by reminding voters of the potential to seize control of Congress from Republicans in today’s midterm election.

At an Oakland rally with Angelides, Feinstein told supporters crammed into a nurses’ union hall that voters had a chance “to send a message to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. that we don’t want to stay the course� in Iraq.

“We want a new course,� she said. “We don’t want a country of which we’re so proud to be one of the most hated nations in the world. We want a new foreign policy.�

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Times staff writer Christian Berthelsen contributed to this report. For exclusive Web features, including the new Political Muscle blog, go to latimes.com/calpolitics.