Angelides Camp Says It Gave Arnold Tape to Times
By Nancy Vogel
Times Staff Writer
3:21 PM PDT, September 12, 2006
SACRAMENTO — The campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Treasurer Phil Angelides today said it was the source of audiotapes of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that were published last week by The Times.
Campaign officials said a researcher obtained the tapes legally from Schwarzenegger's website.
A day earlier, Schwarzenegger administration officials had said the tape was downloaded from a password-protected section of the governor's computer system and thus was unauthorized and "a breach of one or more security protocols."
The administration also said the California Highway Patrol, which is responsible for safeguarding state property, would investigate.
David Garcia, director of media relations at The Times, reiterated today that the newspaper "does not reveal its confidential news sources."
Angelides campaign manager Cathy Calfo said her camp came by the audiotape easily without a password or hacking. She said an Angelides campaign researcher who downloads documents daily from government websites got the material by backtracking from a link sent out Aug. 29 by Schwarzenegger's press office.
The link was suppose to connect listeners with a tape of Schwarzenegger discussing Hurricane Katrina and other topics at Cal State Long Beach.
"They're, I think, trying to distort the issue, make this an issue about someone 'hacking' when no one hacked," said Calfo. "They made a mistake and now they're trying to cover it up."
Schwarzenegger campaign manager Steve Schmidt, in a conversation with reporters today, offered no evidence that the audiotape had been downloaded from a password-protected site. He referred to a statement issued Monday by Schwarzenegger legal affairs secretary Andrea Hoch that described the site as private and requiring the use of passwords. Schmidt also questioned why the Angelides campaign would leak the tape if it was publicly available.
Calfo said the researcher used the link in the Schwarzenegger press release to download four hours of tapes that included six minutes of Schwarzenegger bantering last spring with his chief of staff, a speechwriter and a speech coach.
In that casual conversation, the governor described Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) as "hot" — a fiery personality — and attributed that temperament to a mix of "black blood" and "Latino blood."
On the recording, the governor and his staff also comment on other lawmakers: Republican Assembly members Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and George Plescia of San Diego, calling McCarthy "Bakersfield boy" and comparing Plescia to a startled deer.
After The Times published the audiotape last week, the governor apologized and said reading a transcription of his comments made him cringe.
Calfo said that she did not know that campaign workers had obtained the audiotape until Monday afternoon, and she added that she was "not happy" about it. She described Angelides as "surprised" and "disappointed."
"The information was accessible on a public website," said Calfo. "I can say I would have handled it very differently. I think that I would have directed reporters to that public website.
"I feel like a decision like that should have been made at the highest levels of the campaign and it wasn't," she said.
Angelides spokeswoman Amanda Crumley identified the two campaign workers involved in the downloading and leak as researcher Sean Sullivan and press spokesman Dan Newman.
On Monday, the communications director for the Schwarzenegger campaign called on Angelides to denounce "the unethical actions" taken on his behalf.
"Phil Angelides has a long history of gutter politics," said Katie Levinson in a statement, "and it is clear this most recent example was a calculated effort to smear the governor's reputation."
