Republican Candidates for CA Governor Debate

Bill Jones, Liberal Dick Riordan and Bill Simon are starting it up now. Any other Freepers out there watching the show?

Fair points on the props, though recent elections have not gone as well (bond issues ruining us, etc.). Fair enough on Boxer and Feinkenstein's dispirited opposition, except that Herschensohn was not a poor candidate. That one's all on the idiocy of the CA voter.

If every person in California voted, Republicans and conservative issues would most likely lose all the time. But the fact of the matter is, most people don't care about politics or elections, and liberals are more likely to stay home than conservatives.

The key to winning a conservative initiative -- like Prop. 13 and Prop 22 -- is to bring out YOUR voters to the polls. This means that you have to convince people who would otherwise agree with you on the issue that it is IMPORTANT and VITAL that they cast their vote on election day. It's easier to sell a conservative issue than it is a person, because people cave almost all the time. It's hard to trust politicians who say they are a conservative, largely because so many have given in (read my lips!)

However, when a conservative issue is on the ballot, conservatives generally win. You mentions us losing on bond votes. In March of 2000, Prop. 22 won handily (nearly 62% of the vote) and the majority vote for school bonds went down miserably. Unfortunately, by November, conservatives turned away from Bush for one reason of another ... either he didn't excite them, or they didn't believe him, or they were furious about the drunk driving thing. They stayed home. The 55% for school bonds passed.

Herschensohn BARELY lost in a bad Republican year (1992). He would have won if Bob Mulholland hadn't exposed that ill-fated visit to the porn shop right before the election. Many conservatives were angry and frustrated, and Herschensohn didn't have time to explain what really happened -- the election was, therefore, over. NOT because Herschensohn was a conservative, but because he did something conservatives couldn't forgive in three days. Ditto on the Bush drunk driving thing ... and remember, Democrats drop these at the last minute, the Friday before the election, because there is no time to cut a radio ad, tv ad, send a mailer, or respond to the people. It's their strategy.

The key for conservatives to win in 2002 is to rally behind ONE conservative for Governor. That conservative is Bill Simon. The reason he has the best chance of beating Gray Davis is because while he is a principled conservative --- and no one can dispute that after his endorsements by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California ProLife Council and his "A" rating by the NRA --- he is warm and articulate and smart. He can bring a conservative bent to policy and, like George W. Bush, build coalitions that continually strive to reduce the size and scope of government. Jones is a government bureaucrat who has been in office too long, and Riordan is a liberal Democrat.

However, all conservatives need to rally around Bill Simon. We need to tell our friends, tell our neighbors, send post cards, volunteer, walk our precinct ... do anything and everything to get conservatives to the polls.

Prayer helps too ... every Freeper who believes in the power of prayer needs to add Bill Simon and the voters of California to their prayer list EVERY DAY between now and the election. When he wins (!?!) the primary, we need to pray EVERY DAY through the general election.

But like the story about the guy who drowned because he thought God would save him and ignore the three boats, we can't tread water and think that faith alone or good intentions will get Bill elected. We need to go to our churches, go to our friends, talk up Bill Simon wherever we go. From now through November. Contact the campaign and ask for a bumper sticker and literature. Put the sticker on your car and hand the literature to friends. Send the website to all your friends and tell them to check out Simon for themselves. Get on the email update list and forward the messages you think your friends would like to them. If they don't have an email, print it out and mail it.

Bill Simon will win if the gunners and the lifers all get out and first, VOTE for Simon and second, WORK for Simon.

Because there's no such thing as a free lunch!

I arrived at SJSU at 5pm and met up with my friend Jeff who’s supporting Bill Jones. I have not committed to a candidate yet, wavering between the experienced Bill Jones, the more conservative Bill Simon, and even considering the little known but true conservative voice, Nick Jesson, who wasn’t invited to any of the debates.

We got to see Bill Jones arrive sometime after 6pm. Many of us gathered had Bill Jones signs and he waved to us but didn’t have time to shake hands or engage with his supporters.

While all the bigwigs gathered at the debate, we went off to a satellite location where the debate would be broadcast on closed circuit TV. At that location, there was a predebate talk with several people, a political science professor, communications studies lecturer, a professor of “journalism and mass communication studies,” and Philip Trounstine, “acting executive director of SJSU’s Survey Policy and Research Institute” (whew!). And if that name sounds familiar, he was editor of the San Jose Mercury (Murky) News and resigned there to work for, ahem, Gray Davis. Oh, I’m sure his allegiance to leftist politicians had no bearing on the slant of the Murky News. Sure. Whatever.

Anyway, they discussed what to look for and made some predictions on what would happen such as Jones would likely attack Riordan (which happened, but not as much as what was predicted) and Simon would stay away from the fray.

The political science professor had said that independents would have a say in our Republican primary, which I would later inquire about, since the state supreme court or some judicial branch had overturned our “open primary” as unconstitutional. He said that legislation was passed later to allow this revision but few independents probably were aware of this. Grrrrr. Something we need to look into.

The debate finally started and I thought Simon had the best opening, spiced with a “no new taxes” type of promise; Jones had the least impressive opening statement; Riordan came off all right in a grandfatherly type manner.

The first question had to do with criticism of fellow Republicans and Simon went with Reagan’s 11th Commandment (which I get annoyed with at times); slight advantage to Jones. The next question posed to Riordan regarded his relation with Gray Davis and how Riordan and L.A. profited from the energy crisis at the expense of California. This would be the first chunk taken out of Riordan. The next question regarded California’s security in the wake of 9/11. I gave the edge to Simon here but Jones had his points too.

Q5 brought the predictable question to Simon about his lack of holding elected office and also asked about budget matters. Although I was hoping he’d bring up that Reagan and Dubya started as governors of large states, he answered the questions pretty well with Jones having to ditto much of Simon’s answers. Q6 grilled Riordan on his contrary views to the GOP and giving aid to “undocumented immigrants.” Here Riordan made a major fool of himself to the GOP voters showing his socialistic side. I gave the edge to Jones here.

Enron was the next question. Should the GOP give donations back? I gave the edge to Jones. Q8 targeted Simon’s poor voting record. Simon bombed here and came across as rah-rah and overcoached, evoking laughter from my audience. Jones won easily here. Next question to Riordan, why are you a Republican? Riordan was phony and didn’t really answer the question; Jones had the edge over Simon.

Next question continued a common theme tonight, this time to Jones and his being the only statewide elected Republican and then throwing in a question about inclusiveness blah, blah blah. Simon shined with his conservative stripes here, Riordan phony as usual. Closing statements gave Jones the line of the night with a good closing slam against Davis. “In California, the governor proposes, the Legislature disposes,”' he said. “In our case, in California, unfortunately . . . we've got a governor that just supposes.”

Overall I thought Jones had the best presentation while I’m more in line with the views of Simon. The crowd overwhelmingly thought Jones won the debate and nobody thought Riordan won. Riordan started OK but then showed his true colors and hopefully alienated many voters. He didn’t do as bad as I hoped, but the seeds were planted. Also, he surprised me with his flip-flop on homosexual marriage, unless that was a flub like with the “minimum tax” in lieu of “minimum wage” flub.

Also, Riordan’s overuse of “inclusiveness” and “empower” were quite apparent. Jones may have overused the “vision” thing. Riordan was the least relaxed in appearance; Simon a bit over-the-top in enthusiasm being the least experienced political debater; Jones relaxed and most gubernatorial but perhaps too dull and wishy-washy to this conservative voter.

A clear difference between the three major candidates was evident. A clear difference between Riordan and Gray Davis was not. The commonality was that they aren’t very dynamic personalities and speakers like Ronald Reagan and Alan Keyes. It’s going to be an uphill battle all the way I’m afraid.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.