A victory and a lesson

Voters weary of casting ballots four years running needed a compelling reason to get excited about the June primary. Instead, they were treated to a barrage of negativity.

Controller Steve Westly slapped the dirty developer label on Angelides, making the tenuous claim he had once dumped crud in Lake Tahoe. Angelides didn't do much to distance himself from his past by receiving an unprecedented $8 million in independent support from Angelo K. Tsakopoulos and his family.

Based purely on the issues, voters made the best choice in picking Angelides over Westly. Throughout the campaign, the treasurer was more forthright than his opponent on how he would increase funding for public schools while addressing the state's fiscal woes. And for the past four years, he has been amore effective state officer than Westly.

Angelides now has secured the fight he's been itching for since Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor. The impassioned techno-wonk who wants a more expansive role for state services will be going head-to-head with a Republican governor and retired action hero who once said he wants to "starve the monster" of government.

For now, Angelides seems to be the underdog. He isn't as well known as Schwarzenegger and doesn't have the strongest TV persona. The governor, meanwhile, is riding the wave of a strong economy and success with the legislature, whose Democratic leaders have agreed to help him place a $37 million infrastructure bond on the November ballot. He is launching a pre-emptive victory lap that begins today with a bus tour of Northern California.

For Angelides to have a chance, he must go beyond his liberal base and figure out how to appeal to independent voters and disaffected Democrats, particularly in the growing Central Valley. Many of these voters care about basic family issues -- improving schools; getting their kids to college; ensuring their neighborhoods are clean and safe. Many commute long distances to their jobs, and would rather be spending that time at home and in their communities -- or at least commuting on decently maintained roads.

Angelides, who has a strong vision of how California can alter its patterns of growth and still prosper, could possibly make this a winning issue, but not if the upcoming campaign turns negative. As we -- and he -- saw from the primary, the concerns of ordinary Californians tend to get buried once the snowball of attack ads start rolling. If he hopes to gain the office he so clearly cherishes in November, Angelides should bear in mind that lesson from his victory in the primary.<