Overwhelming support for Westly at polls means naught to Democratic Party insiders who throw support behind the organized labor pick. Once again the Dems consider their own voters to be dupes too easily manipulated by television ads, an assessment trumpeted by the Los Angeles Times.

This Democratic-voters-are-easily-manipulated attitude appears to be supported by the Los Angeles Times which attributes polling differences between the candidates to Westly’s “dot-com” personal wealth which has allowed him to outspend Angelides on television ads. God forbid someone would believe that the state’s voters actually form an opinion on their own about what candidate that they prefer.

While on the subject of the Times and Westly, the Times’ anti-Weslty bias is evident with this characterization of Westly’s personal wealth, described as “gained at the height of the dot-com boom” as if these were somehow illicit gains or that Westly dumped inflated stock on unsuspecting investors as so many did during the time. The Times could have just as easily said that Westly’s wealth “was the result of an entrepreneurial effort that resulted in the creation of one of the true success stories of the late 90’s that continues through today.” He was an executive at eBay not Pets.com or Webvan and as the chart below shows when insiders have sold stock to the public via exercising and selling their options the investors who were on the other side of those trades have continually made money. That would indicate that the company was fairly valued during the late 90’s (most likely one of only a few during the period) and not the result of a boom.

In fact the Times rarely writes an article about Westly without calling him “a dot-com mogul.” Why not call Angelides as a “real-estate speculator” or note that he has made his money off of selling real estate at “inflated prices” or that his wealth is the result of the “real estate boom”?

This negative spin on what should be positives for Westly (job creation, wealth creation, successfully introducing an entirely new business model that has allowed thousands of individuals to start home businesses selling products through eBay) has been endlessly promoted by LAT’s George Skelton who said:

“One Democratic candidate — state Controller Steve Westly — is trying to buy the office with riches collected by being in the right place at the right time with EBay.”

Has their been a “wrong time” to be at eBay? Of course Skelton’s feelings on the race are pretty clear, here is how he describes Angelides:

“He’s consistent. He’s committed. He’s even courageous.”

Here’s another George Skelton assessment (emphasis added):

“Angelides may have the right policy — California should be investing more in its future — but Westly probably has the correct politics. He’s offering the public a panacea without pain — and a cogent rationale for avoiding higher taxes.”

It will be interesting to see what effect the combination of the Los Angeles Times and organized labor has on the enormous number of undecided voters and whether it will turn out better for their interests than their pairing in the last gubernatorial race.

Update: May 1, LA Times again: “Westly, a dot-com mogul, …”

Update: A quick scanning of two Northern California papers (SF Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News) shows far more balance in their depiction of Westly as a candidate than the Los Angeles Times. Both papers regularly referring to Westly as “Controller Steve Westly” instead of the Times’ “dot-com mogul Steve Westly.” When the financial background of the candidates was deemed relevant the San Jose Mercury News made mention where both candidates made their millions:

“Angelides, who made millions of dollars as a developer, … Westly, who made his fortune as an early employee at eBay.”

It is hard to tell why the Times is covering the candidate as they are but it appears that they are alone in depicting and covering his candidacy in this manner.

tags: steve westly phil angelides los angeles times LA Times

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 30th, 2006 at 10:05 am by Insider and is filed under Los Angeles Times, California Schemin'. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.