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Posted on 08/03/2002 12:14:47 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
LOS ANGELES – Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon yesterday sought to pre-empt the damage from his latest campaign setback by all but inviting Gov. Gray Davis to attack him over a $78 million fraud judgment entered against the Simon family investment firm.
"Every day that Gray Davis is attacking me, people confirm what they already know," Simon said at a news conference here. "He has no vision for the future. He has no successes on which he can base a credible re-election effort."
On Wednesday, a Los Angeles jury ordered William E. Simon & Sons to pay $65 million in punitive damages and $13 million in compensatory damages to Paul Edward Hindelang of Santa Barbara over a failed pay telephone venture.
Simon maintained his confidence that the judgment would be overturned and insisted Hindelang's criminal record in drug trafficking was instrumental in the failure of Pacific Coin, even though the jury didn't buy it.
"You don't always know why juries do what they do," he said. "That's why you have appeals."
The Pacific Coin episode did little to allay mounting Republican fears that despite Davis' poor poll numbers, the Simon campaign is too snake-bitten to capitalize on it.
"More than a few Republicans are reaching that point about now," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at the University of Southern California. "The Republicans that I've talked to, I sense a real frustration. It is really, I think, a serious blow to Simon."
Simon, a Los Angeles investment banker running for office for the first time, yesterday dedicated a physical fitness center underwritten by one of his family foundations at Fremont High School in South-Central Los Angeles.
The subject shifted quickly from physical fitness to political fitness at a news conference in the school library as rival campaign protesters chanted loudly outside. Some of the Davis supporters sported cardboard box masks painted black as pay phones, reading "1-800 Simon Fraud."
Simon claimed he would welcome it if Davis added the Pacific Coin judgment to the litany of attacks in the governor's harshly negative television advertising campaign.
The GOP candidate cited a recent poll commissioned by ABC News showing him ahead by two points as proof that the Democratic governor's barrage is misfiring.
"I am sure now that Davis' people are busily making new ads and I hope they do," he said. "Because if they want to attack me now for a bad verdict and take the side of a convicted drug trafficker who's presently involved with the federal government in four separate litigations, then Davis is welcome to choose that side."
Yesterday, the Davis campaign began airing the fifth in a series of spots assailing Simon's business record. That ad was made before the Pacific Coin verdict, which a Davis campaign spokesman noted is surely grist for future ads.
"We haven't been hesitant to share with the people of California how much of a business failure he really is," said Roger Salazar, Davis campaign press secretary.
Republican political professionals not affiliated with the Simon campaign stressed the importance for the Republican nominee to get the word out about the favorable side of his record, particularly when business scandals have created a hostile political climate toward corporate CEOs.
But that's something Simon seems ill-equipped to do when Davis has six times as much money in his campaign account.
"It's imperative that Simon mount a viable campaign that makes Gray Davis the issue," said Republican strategist Arnold Steinberg. "In the current business climate, if questions persist about Simon, the Republican voter base of active investors and pensioners is threatened."
Yesterday's dedication ceremony marked Simon's first public appearance with former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan since Simon defeated him in the March Republican primary election.
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One simple question. If Gray Davis is so great, how come Avila wasn't sentenced to jail BEFORE he killed Samantha?
At every speech he has given, he has gone after Davis' record. But the press doesn't report that.
Every press conference, he highlights a new plan for Simon and how Davis failed. But the press doesn't report that, either.
We have three months until the election. Plenty of time for Simon to get on the airwaves. People aren't focused this early. Remember the primary when everyone said, "Too little, too late?" Simon won by 19 points.
I don't think he's going to beat Davis by 19 points. But I think that he's going to get over 50%. That's all that matters. (Heck, he can get 47.5% and still win.)
And that Bebitch person is an idiot. The press ALWAYS goes to her when they want a negative on a Republican. She NEVER says anything good about ANY Republican, liberal or conservative, but she particularly hates conservatives.
Dump Davis!
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