-Caveat Lector- Sunday June 17 8:06 PM ET TV Ads to Attack Calif. Gov. Davis on Energy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The American Taxpayers Alliance, a group with strong ties to the Republican Party, will begin airing a television ad in California this week blaming California's Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) for the state's electricity crisis, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday. The black-and-white, campaign-style ads, which criticize Davis for failing to head off the crisis by signing long-term contracts before power prices soared, were produced by Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist with close ties to the White House, the newspaper said. The first wave of the ads, which will begin airing on Monday in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, cost $350,000 to produce, but the source of the funding for the campaign remained unclear, according to the Times. Time magazine reported in its latest edition that hundreds of corporations have contributed money to the anti-Davis effort, including Reliant Energy, the Houston-based company Davis singled out for criticism last month for alleged price-gouging. A spokeswoman for Reliant could not be immediately reached for comment. The ATA, which is headed by Scott Reed, hopes to raise up to $25 million to keep the ads on the air, Time said. Although public support for Davis has fallen since January, polls suggest voters do not blame him for the state's energy crisis -- a problem he has said he inherited from the flawed deregulation undertaken by a previous Republican administration. The ATA ad campaign charges that while Davis has been ''pointing fingers and blaming others,'' his appointees at the Public Utilities Commission (news - web sites) missed a chance last year to allow the big utilities to lock in long-term contracts that could have avoided this year's spike in wholesale power costs. Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Davis, said that was a misrepresentation since the PUC under Davis appointee Loretta Lynch did allow a number of long-term power contracts. Other Davis aides said state-brokered purchase contracts, which now account for about half of the power California needs on a given day, have been a major factor in driving down spot electricity prices in recent weeks. Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo (news - bio - voting record), a California lawmaker who was among a group that met last week with Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), sent an angry protest letter to Cheney over the ad campaign, accusing Republicans of ``telling Californians that 'gouging' is good.'' ANOMALOUS IMAGES http://www.anomalous-images.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
