TOM MCCLINTOCK DAILY EDITION - 9/26/03 (CA GOVERNOR'S RACE)

[Rabid Dog]

Please post local, regional, national news and views on Tom McClintock. This is a news and info thread. The following guidelines for posting are per DoughtyOne's most excellent suggestion.

McClintock Camp - Supporters or Defenders

Please post positive articles about Tom's policies and leave the Schwarzenegger bashing to the Democrats.

Schwarzenegger Camp - Supporters or Defenders

The call for McClintock to withdraw right now, or the tactic of calling him and his followers names for not doing so, is not productive and isn't good for the party.

Please save the Rino Arnold/Unelectable Tom rants for other threads.

"Dear Mr. Reagan, it should be obvious to you now that you can never be elected governor. Please put aside your ego, for the good of our party, and get behind the one man who is moderate enough to appeal to California voters - - San Francisco Mayor George Christopher."

Look Magazine 1966

[Rabid Dog]

Good morning everyone! The next few days are going to be tough. Expect to see lots of pressure for Tom to pull out from RNC minions. They are circling up the wagons and getting a little shrill. Remember the quotes "A Vote for Tom is a Vote for Bustamante" and "Tom is unelectable" didn't come from the Democrats.


Event Details
San Francisco Radio KSFO 8:00AM
September 26, 2003 at 8:00AM

Listen online at www.ksfo560.com

[Theodore R.]

I think McClintock would actually HURT his long-range political career if he pulls out and bows to pressure from the RNC and all those silly CA congressmen. If he pulls out, he will appear to be unwilling to keep his commitments. Surely, he will lose, but it is better to stay in. Arnold I am sure will win on the celebrity factor alone. People in CA have a soft spot not for the unborn but for celebrities. Who knows what next celebrity will step up to the plate for office there? CA may be a lost cause for conservatives. Let the liberals have it and misrule it. Then even liberals may change their minds, but most liberals are committed fully to huge governmental bureaucracies.

[Rabid Dog]

He is not going to pull out. He made a committment and he's going to keep it. The RNC is going to go crazy this week because they are used to strong-arming people and they have never been able to strong-arm Tom - or a number of his supporters.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

The call for McClintock to withdraw right now, or the tactic of calling him and his followers names for not doing so, is not productive and isn't good for the party.

No, what's not good for the party is when the party's members are too vain to do what's best for the party. The party member who has no chance of being elected should step aside for the sake of the party and let the one who can easily be elected (even though his views don't completely match every one of an extremist conservative's views) go ahead and win.

[truthkeeper]

Good morning. Thanks for your continued efforts to update us.

[Rabid Dog]

This election isn't about the good of the party - it's about what is good for California. And what is good for California is more people like Tom. So maybe the party should start supporting and promoting people like him - instead of people like Arnold or Pete Wilson.

[Howie]

I'll take the advice of your tagline and stay silent.

[Kevin Curry]

Arnold will never get our support. Ever. In a political sense, he is dead to conservative virtues and principles; therefore he is dead to us. We will not vote for a corpse.

[Rabid Dog]

djreece posted this late last night on the yesterday's thread.

An interesting article about one of Arnold's big contributors who has also started a committee (now considered California's preeminent Republican funding powerhouse) to fund the effort to make the CA GOP more moderate.


Schwarzenegger super-contributor gets own TV ad tag line
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/09/25/state2126EDT0252.DTL

[Rabid Dog]

Dang it - FORGOT TO CHANGE THE TITLE DATE TO THE 26th!!

[truthkeeper]

This election isn't about the good of the party - it's about what is good for California.

In all the words that have been expounded on this, you said it best in just one sentence. Thank you.

[Rabid Dog]

Recall Spending Tops $50 Million
Schwarzenegger's costs exceed $13 million. Davis and Bustamante also spend heavily.

Tom's budget has been around $1.6 million.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/la-me-money26sep26,1,7531137.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Howie]

If we carried the current GOP thinking to an extreme we could just get rid of all politicos and have one big computer in Washington that takes public opinion polls and makes all the decisions for us.

Why do we even need laws or ethics for that matter, we could just hang a device around our necks that would make all our decisions for us as we go through our day.

Whatever the general consensus of the day was, could drive our every action.

[Rabid Dog]

Sacbee article on Davis wanting to debate Arnold - 1 on 1. Article goes on to point out that CNN/LA Times decided to cancel their Sept. 30 debate because neither Davis or Arnold would agree to participate. Tom and Cruz did. Would have been nice to have a debate with Arianna out of the picture.

Rival's claims rile governor
Davis might debate Schwarzenegger 'to set record straight.'
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/recall/story/7485224p-8427438c.html

[Rabid Dog]

Good point. The new Big Brother.

[rdf]

Jonah Goldberg of National Review endorses Tom

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/jg20030926.shtml

[Rabid Dog]

GOP pressure mounts for McClintock to drop out. Party leaders strongly back Schwarzenegger

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Sept. 25, 2003 | James Sterngold and John Wildermuth
Posted on 09/25/2003 9:55 PM PDT by FairOpinion

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/989737/posts

[Rabid Dog]

From his endorsement

".... I would absolutely vote for state Senator Tom McClintock. Not only is he a real conservative, he's the only conservative in the race. He grasps the issues with clarity several orders of magnitude greater than Schwarzenegger. But most important, he offers what the Goldwaterites called a choice, not an echo."

[kellynla]

Backed up but not backing out
McClintock says he won't quit race even as rival Schwarzenegger's support grows.
By MARTIN WISCKOL
The Orange County Register 9/26/2003

The day of reckoning is coming for Tom McClintock, and it's likely to arrive much sooner than Oct. 7.

Election experts, including at least one key backer, say the longtime Republican legislator would have to drop out by Tuesday to avoid attracting votes that would otherwise go to GOP frontrunner Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although Schwarzenegger still might win with McClintock in the race, a split Republican vote would boost Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's bid.

"There's no way McClintock can win," said Allan Hoffenblum, a GOP consultant unaffiliated with either campaign. "To have a chance, he needed Schwarzenegger to totally collapse in the debate, and that didn't happen. Everybody in the world is starting to endorse Arnold."

Pressure on McClintock continued to mount Thursday. Bill Simon, the 2002 GOP gubernatorial nominee who dropped out of the recall race Aug. 23, endorsed Schwarzenegger, as did the California Republican County Chairmen's Association. Former GOP candidate Darrell Issa is expected to endorse the actor today.

Schwarzenegger's growing endorsement list includes 12 of the state's 20 GOP Congress members, 27 of the 47 GOP legislators, and 14 former state GOP chairmen. Most of the other lawmakers have remained neutral so far. McClintock has but a handful of endorsements from elected Republican officials.

But amid the growing chorus for him to quit, McClintock and his loyalists continue to march stubbornly forward. Win, lose or split vote, they have vowed to pursue their uncompromising quest for reduced taxes and bureaucracy, and their opposition to abortion, gay partnership rights, gun control and benefits for illegal immigrants. McClintock aides say 4,000 new volunteers signed up on the campaign's Web site after the debate.

"I promised at the beginning of this campaign that I would see it through to the finish line, and I keep my promises," McClintock told Fox News on Thursday. He had a day full of television and radio appearances in which he displayed his intimate knowledge of the state's finances, took swipes at Schwarzenegger - and expressed optimism for catching up by Election Day.

McClintock's steadfastness doesn't sit well with voters like Anaheim's Arlene Calkin. The retiree shares McClintock's views on social issues but says it will take a social moderate like Schwarzenegger - pro- abortion rights, pro-gun control - to win.

"I believe in McClintock but I don't think he has a chance to win," she said. "And I definitely don't want Bustamante."

Calkin went so far as to call McClintock's Sacramento headquarters Wednesday, telling a campaign aide that the candidate should step down.

"They said there's no way he's going to drop out," she said.

Polls have shown McClintock making significant gains since August but still have him trailing Schwarzenegger by 7 to 12 percentage points as of last week. Bustamante has the edge over Schwarzenegger with McClintock in the race, while the actor gains a small advantage with McClintock out.

McClintock has repeatedly emphasized his momentum in the polls. But Jack Pitney, a political-science professor at Claremont McKenna College, believes McClintock is nearing the maximum support he can get. That's because most voters are now aware of who he is, and he's not going to get any more big bumps in ratings like he did when Bill Simon dropped out and many Simon voters went to McClintock.

"He's going to hit a plateau, if he hasn't already," Pitney said.

But McClintock's campaign is counting on winning over people like Huntington Beach's Cindi Misak - a Republican who's not afraid to vote Democrat, who favors Schwarzenegger's social positions, but is impressed with McClintock's understanding of government and his fiscal approach.

"He understands the problems and has more of a game plan than the others," said the bank assistant vice president, who remains undecided on a candidate but is leaning toward McClintock after watching Wednesday's debate. "Arnold - it doesn't sound like he has a plan. Everybody throws (the social issues) out there as a big deal, but those aren't the most important issues. The budget and the economy are."

She said she may vote for McClintock even if he remains a long shot.

"I would if he sounds like the only one who can solve the problems," she said.

Former Assemblyman Gil Ferguson of Newport Beach remains staunchly behind McClintock, although he readily admits a win would take a "perfect storm" of Schwarzenegger and Bustamante stumbling, of Democrats successfully throwing mud at Schwarzenegger, and of McClintock retaining all of his core voters.

"There are two types of (core) Tom supporters," said Ferguson, whose monthly breakfast group - dubbed "Principles over Politics" - attracted 350 people last Sunday to hear McClintock speak. "One group, if it looks like Schwarzenegger needs their votes to win, will vote for Arnold. Then there are a group of us who will vote for (McClintock) regardless."

Ferguson said McClintock would have to quit by Tuesday to ensure helping Schwarzenegger. Later than that and voters would likely feel committed to McClintock and might just stay home rather than vote for someone else. But Ferguson is confident his candidate will stay in the race.

"We are the ones who feel that if he dropped out, he would be deserting us," he said. "And if we failed to vote for him, we would be deserting what we believe in."

The dueling GOP candidacies is distracting Republicans from focusing simply on Bustamante and Gov. Gray Davis. And Republican resentment with McClintock remaining in the race could haunt him should Bustamante win.

But McClintock has made a 20-year Sacramento career of refusing to compromise and facing the consequences. He was Republican Assembly whip for five years, until he was forced down from the leadership post in 1989 for criticizing GOP Gov. George Deukmejian's budget. He repeatedly attacked Gov. Pete Wilson's fiscal policies, further falling from favor. Last year, he received only token support from the state GOP in his failed bid for state controller.

"It was one thing to buck Wilson, but if he remains in the race he could cost Republicans the governorship," Pitney said. "He could well find opposition in the primary when he runs for re-election to the Senate next year, and find a lot of angry Republicans statewide contributing to his opponents."

But for many supporters, McClintock is the only possible vote.

"He's a good person and a good politician," said Garden Grove's Victoria Amidon, a nursing administrator. "And Schwarzenegger is going to spoil it for him."