Hypocriti-Phil

Los Angeles Times

A TV ad by state Treasurer Phil Angelides excoriates Controller Steve Westly for raising campaign cash from "a corrupt Chicago businessman" — yet Angelides apparently sought fundraising aid from the same man.

Angelides, who is competing with Westly for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and his aides placed repeated calls to Chicago attorney Joseph Cari in early 2005 in search of fundraising help, a Cari spokesman told The Times. Cari had raised money for a number of nationally prominent Democrats, including former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.

Angelides' calls, placed over a number of weeks, amounted to "stalking," said the spokesman, Ken Jakubowski, a Chicago attorney and longtime Cari associate who called the treasurer's TV ad "misleading."

Cari, who awaits sentencing on criminal charges in an Illinois pension fund scandal, declined to comment.

Angelides, asked as he campaigned over the weekend whether he had contacted Cari for help raising money, did not deny calling him.

"I've called a lot of people over time for my campaigns, and the fact is I never accepted money from him," Angelides said.