[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.

[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!

[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.

[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]

[Mat_Helm]

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

[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 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.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

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

Yep, Saracino was a leading light in YAF in California back in 1969, when he saved California YAF from the anarcho-Libertarians (who included Dana Rohrbacher, by the way, Dana has frequently demonstrated bad political judgement.) I was working in NJ YAF doing the same thing at the same time.

[patriciaruth]

Can't say I'm weeping any tears for Riordan, but I am glad he got in the race. It gave the Republicans a focal point for energizing themselves. We're miles ahead where we would have been with Simon if this primary hadn't generated a lot of publicity.

Now, where do I get the nitty gritty information about Simon? I need his bio, his stand of the issues, and the information that the Dems will use to attack him and his side of that information.

I have to do some pre-emptive strikes in the precincts around here to help define Simon in their minds before Davis gets a chance to define Simon in the negative ads he'll be running.

[GeronL]

There are even FReepers who don't get it