Simon Did It Right

California Political Review ^ | March 20, 2002 | William E. Saracino

[ElkGroveDan]

I don't think anyone in the mainstream media has even come close to getting it right.

Saracino hit the nail dead-on. Of course he's a movement conservative so that is to be expected.

[ElkGroveDan]

PING

[eureka!]

The pressholes don't want to get it right. They want to spin it as a Grayout victory--everybody loves a winner--except not Grayout. He is loathed by many, including 'Rats. Simon has a real good chance to end Grayout's political career, and I pray he does...

[KC_Conspirator]

With that lethal combination of advisors, the Riordan campaign set its initial strategy, which, from all appearances, was to insult, defame, and vilify the Republican voter base at every opportunity. If you didn't agree with Dick Riordan you were obviously anti-woman, anti-immigrant, and probably antediluvian.

And just in case any casual Republican missed the message that they were stupid, bigoted, and hopelessly behind the times, Riordan went out of his way to insult former Governor George Duekmejian at the GOP state convention.

The conceit of the Riordan loyalists and their media megaphones is that the Davis anti-Riordan commercials swung the election to Simon. They did not.

I don't live in the state, but this is a pretty comprehensive analysis of what transpired in last month's primaries. From a political prospective, whoever ran Riordan's campaign is a total idiot. This piece labels the Riordan camp as (paraphrase) myopic liberals who are out of touch with the average Republican and it seems likely this is true. I agree that if Riordan emphasized his past efforts on ending bilingual education and getting rid of Rose Bird, the worst judge ever in California's history, would have sealed the primary for him.

(Did you know Rose Bird commuted every single death sentence before her? The numbers of communations, which totaled over 60, is bad, but the circumstances surrounding some of the cases showed a clear disregard for the law by her. The most striking one was a case where an employee walked into his old office with a gun and a list of "People to Kill". No premeditation here folks! The point is that I don't even live in CA but a mention of this in Riordan's campaign could have swayed the average GOP vote like myself)

[dalereed]

There is still a big problem within the State Party and Republican State Central Committee. As has been the case for the last 40 years that I know of, the percentage of RINO elected officials compared to the percentage of liberal Republican voters is extremely high and most of the appointments made to the Central Committee are made by those elected. This has made it an uphill battle for the conservatives to maintain or even gain control of the party.

It is past time for conservatives to field and fund solid conservatives in the primaries and put the RINOS out of office and replace them with good people that reflect the beliefs of the voters.

[monkeyshine]

This piece labels the Riordan camp as (paraphrase) myopic liberals who are out of touch

Yes. Now the real test. Are the state's democrats out of touch? With 61% of the voters voting against teaching math and history in Spanish, and 61% of the voters voting against gay marriage, and 63% of the voters voting for the legalization of medicinal marijuana... and with Davis squandering $20 billion in a corrupted energy boondoggle and trying to take credit for the conservation efforts that the citizens themselves initiated to save our power, and his unwillingness to remove MTBE from the gasoline as it poisons our water supply, it should be pretty easy to cast Davis as a hard-core tax and spend special-interest liberal who doesn't care about the will of the voters.

Is the Simon camp up for kicking Davis while he's down? I sure hope so.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this!

The maggots in the left wing media will never print anything that is true and not a prop spin for their head maggot Herr Davis!

[hopespringseternal]

As has been the case for the last 40 years that I know of, the percentage of RINO elected officials compared to the percentage of liberal Republican voters is extremely high and most of the appointments made to the Central Committee are made by those elected. This has made it an uphill battle for the conservatives to maintain or even gain control of the party.</i.

Those who scream the loudest about intolerance are the most intolerant.

The RINO line goes, "If you vote for us, it is that many more republican votes you can count on. If you vote against us, you are an extremist bigot." Of course, once elected they prove they can't be counted on and that they are power hungry extremist bigots.

[hattend]

The campaign hierarchy, filled with partisan Democrats, had no idea how to appeal to Republican primary voters.

Something I did not know, but suspected, and has now been confirmed. Thank God that Simon prevailed.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

bttt

[Mike Fieschko]

I'm reminded of an old Rolling Stone epithet, "we're all bozos on this bus."

Oh brother ... it was the Firesign Theater.

Who is George Papoon endorsing, anyway? Who is Jello Biafra endorsing? President gonna give ya a new pair of shoes?

[antaresequity]

[antaresequity]

This is the bumper sticker I am having made. I have ordered 5000 at .13 each and will freely distribute. I should have the first 5000 in 3 weeks. Please email me if you would like 100 of these stickers to distribute far and wide.

Mail

[Mat_Helm]

Simon already up 7% in the poles and growing over Davis.

[antaresequity]

I am willing to pony up the money no sweat. If anyone wants to pledge more cash for each 100 stickers feel free. I will have the production run increased. Estimated time to delivery your door would be 4-5 weeks.

[goldstategop]

Dick Riordan ran an awful campaign. To say he turned off the GOP party base is the understatement of the year. This guy couldn't even get a majority of votes in his own home county and he had no real appeal in the new Republican heartland outside of L.A. With a campaign like the one he ran, you can be sure Gray Davis would have had him carved up for dinner in November. I'm really glad rank and file Republican voters did not listen to the chattering elites and the liberal media who urged them to go with the "moderate" winner. And as they say the rest was history.

[lasereye]

I didn't know Simon was running in Poland.

[lasereye]

I wonder who he'll endorse in the general election. I suspect it'll be Davis, not only because his views are closer to Davis', but one of his themes in the primary was that conservative Republicans are doomed in CA, i.e., the only Pubbies who can win statewide have to be indistinguishable from Dems. A Simon victory would probably add insult to injury from his perspective.

[Euro-American Scum]

He (Grayout) is loathed by many, including 'Rats. Simon has a real good chance to end Grayout's political career, and I pray he does...

This is the key to the election now isn't it? Do the libs hate Davis more than the evil, hate-filled, homophobic bigot, Simon.

It's a reach for the Kalifornia socialists. It would take a powerful level of revulsion of the libs to jump ship and go with Simon in November. And I fully expect to see media video footage of Simon shaking hands with Hitler before this one's over.

[eureka!]

Grayout is an incumbent pulling in the low 40s in a democrat state. Not good and shows that many 'Rats are not strong on him. Though many will still pull the 'Rat lever, I think many will not. Simon is in this one to win and seems to have a good team. As to the race, you are right. It will be ugly, real ugly...