Calif. Candidate Wants State Troops Home

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's Democratic gubernatorial candidate said Tuesday he'd fight to withdraw California National Guard troops from Iraq if elected, a proposal that has drawn mixed reviews in a state with a deep military tradition.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign already has attacked the idea, noting that while the governor has responsibility for Guard troops deployed within the state, those deployed overseas are under federal control.

Phil Angelides, the state treasurer, in a speech Tuesday pledged to petition the Bush administration to begin withdrawing the state's troops from Iraq immediately, lobby Congress and, if necessary, sue to bring the troops home. He then would mobilize governors "to force a change in national policy."

"When a shameful and phony war compromises the governor's basic ability to meet the needs of our people, when it puts us at greater risk of injury and fatality when a disaster strikes our state, then you'd better believe that it's an issue in the race for governor of the state of California," he told about 200 cheering students.

It's high-risk strategy for Angelides' struggling campaign but Kareem Crayton, a professor of law and politics at the University of Southern California law school, said it was perhaps the only one Angelides has left.

"I give them credit for novelty. I didn't expect to hear this by the end of the election," Crayton said. "To make it the centerpiece of your campaign strategy, it's surprising."

A nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California poll released Tuesday had Schwarzenegger leading Angelides 48 percent to 31 percent. The poll, a telephone survey of 1,091 likely voters conducted Sept. 13-20, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Katie Levinson, communications director for Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign, blasted the state treasurer's tactic as a sign of "political desperation."

"Phil Angelides is spewing political rhetoric calling for action he knows is both illegal and unconstitutional, in another shameless effort to try to get traction in the polls," she said in a statement.

Mark Baldassare, research director for the Public Policy Institute of California, said dissatisfaction over the war resonates with a lot of Democrats and independent voters, who both make up roughly two-thirds of California's electorate.

But he said it might be tough to convince them that Angelides can do anything about it. "If Angelides was running for senator, that would have a very clear meaning," Baldassare said. "As governor, people aren't going to necessarily connect the dots."

A Field Poll in July found only three in 10 Californians support Bush's handling of the war. A majority _ 58 percent _ said they want either total or partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. But the poll also found Californians sharply divided over whether to set a timetable for withdrawal.

Talking about the war is also another avenue for Angelides in his attempt to link Schwarzenegger to Bush, a strategy his campaign and the state Democratic Party have been employing for weeks.

In an NBC interview in February, Schwarzenegger defended Bush's decision to go to war but said the country should "get out as quickly as possible, but also in a sensible way."

The governor also said he is concerned the Iraq deployment could leave the state short on Guard troops in case of an earthquake or other disaster.

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Associated Press Writer Aaron C. Davis in Sacramento contributed to this report.