Kalifornia's Race for Guv

[USA11B]

CAMPAIGN 2006
The emerging power in Westly's campaign
Anita Yu Westly stumps for husband in Cantonese

Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Voters get last chance to see guv hopefuls face off (5/10)

Two unknowns, Lockyer in the race for treasurer (5/10)
Politics Blog
Chronicle political writers offer news and analysis on California's upcoming election.

SFGate Politics page

Anita Yu Westly, wife of state Controller Steve Westly, has a life story that could be the antidote for the critics who say her husband, the former eBay executive, is just a rich guy trying to buy the governor's seat.

She's a Chinese immigrant who came to the United States from Hong Kong as a child, whose father died when she was just a teen, and whose family of five kids went on public assistance at one time to make ends meet. Through it all, as the eldest daughter, she assumed a role helping her single working mother, who, to this day, works on an assembly line.

Yu Westly, whose first language was Cantonese, went to public schools and became the first woman in her family to go to college, at San Diego State University.

"I think our family demonstrates California, the whole melting pot -- very much like America has,'' she said in a recent interview. "I'm not a native Californian, but I like to think I am.''

Just a few weeks ago, at the state Democratic convention, Yu Westly was still getting her feet wet in politics, making the rounds with her husband and cautiously edging her way onto the campaign stage, still a little shell shocked at the change in her life.

"It was a little feeling in the pit of your stomach as you were about to walk out there,'' she said, recalling the moment when her husband delivered a critical address to a teeming auditorium of Democratic delegates with a battalion of media and TV cameras present.

But Yu Westly, a sharp and spirited woman, recently took on her own challenges, hitting the campaign trail to help her husband in his campaign against state Treasurer Phil Angelides for the Democratic nomination for governor in the June 6 primary.

Yu Westly, who speaks Cantonese and is learning Mandarin, launched Asian Americans for Westly, an effort to reach California's estimated 3.6 million Asian American voters. She also visited Filipino communities in the East Bay -- an extension of her outreach to Asian Pacific Islander voters, which began recently when she toured Oakland's bustling Chinatown to campaign.

Staffers, watching her go into banks, shops and fish markets to talk to state voters, have pronounced her a natural.

"People love her,'' said Nick Velasquez, spokesman for Westly's campaign. "She's very genuine, frank -- and she doesn't mince words."

Already, she's helped shape and star in what Westly's campaign said is the first campaign Web site in Chinese for a candidate for governor. (www.westly2006.com).

And the campaign last week released what it said is another first -- commercials in Cantonese and Mandarin featuring Yu Westly stressing Westly's education policies.

Yet she isn't the only spouse taking a role in the governor's race.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spouse, Maria Shriver, is a veteran campaigner who was considered instrumental to his first political win in 2003. She played a prominent role in the governor's trip to China last year and is expected to be a fixture on his behalf in the fall general election.

Julie Angelides, wife of state Treasurer Phil Angelides, who is Westly's chief Democratic opponent, has been a familiar face in political circles for years. But this year the couple's grown daughters, Megan, Christina and Arianna, have taken the most high-profile roles in the campaign. All three daughters have leading roles in Angelides' television campaign ads and mailers.

In all these cases, the women in the families have shown an easy talent for reaching voters and making the case for their candidate.

So much so that Westly jokes maybe "the wrong person's running for governor.''

"My wife is the best ... she's tough as nails, she's beautiful, and I know people will like her,'' he said.

The couple recently celebrated their ninth anniversary, and have two children, Matthew, 4 1/2 and Christina, 6.

But Yu Westly's comfortable life as a 39-year-old full-time mother in Atherton is far different from the experiences of her youth.

Six years after the family's arrival in San Diego when she was 8 years old, "my dad passed away, and my mom raised us,'' she said. "Life was not easy, and I have to say, as a mature adult and as a mom -- I really appreciated and understand now, the sacrifice that she took and the life that she made for us. I have great admiration for my mother. She told us to stay in school.''

Her mother took a job at San Diego-based Kyocera, "as part of the assembly plant. She's on the assembly line, in the clean room where she gets on a white outfit and works with the parts,'' said Yu Westly, whose husband's net worth is valued at more than $220 million. "I told her it's time to retire -- but Mom is very loyal, and she says, 'If I can do the work, I can live myself and be useful.' ''

As the oldest daughter in a family of five, Yu Westly said her role has been described by siblings as "the vice mom.''

"It wasn't my choice, but I definitely stepped up in terms of helping my mother, also in things like English dealings,'' when she would act as a translator for her immigrant mother, she said.

"We each had our turn, and we're a very close-knit family and we all thought this was the least we could do. I'm honored that I was able to do it.''

She recalled the early days, watching her mom struggling to learn English, and today, she knows the feeling again. "I'm learning Mandarin, so the reverse is happening,'' she said. "I'm going to the adult language classes, I have the tapes.''

The Westly children are also taking Mandarin.

"They're far in advance than their mother because their voices, their tones are so much more pure,'' she sighed. "I'll say something and my daughter will say, 'Mom, say it like this.' ''

With two weeks until the primary, the candidate's wife said she intends to use the time to get out her husband's message.

"Steve, in my humble opinion, would be great as a governor,'' she said. "He's very into building the future for the state -- partly because we are young parents looking at the next generation.

"For our children, I hope they'll have the opportunities that we both had,'' she said. "Because the world is changing, and it's changing fast.''
SOURCE

[USA11B]

This "Left Coast" face off of "Ethnic" proportions could be the most interesting political race to come along this season.

[Betty Boop]

Although it is not my political preference, I thought it quite interesting that the California Democratic Party officially endorsed Phil Angelides for the primary when Steve Westley was clearly ahead in the polls of registered Democrats.

I think it will be an interesting election - and if the choices do become Westley and Schwarzenegger for November - then for the first time in a very long time, Californians will be making choice for a chief executive who is not of the traditional political machine making mold.

Although come November, I will be voting for the Republican who has the endorsement of the California Chamber of Commerce because of the economic rebuild he has in part effected in his short time in office.