Bill Simon should bow out

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 08/02/2002 | Debra Saunders

[johnfl61]

She sounds like a real whacky Liberal DemonRat to me

[supercat]

If the nominee dropped out late in the process — meaning after the voter info and ballots were past the point where they could be changed — then there would be no official nominee for that party. The party could try to organize a write-in campaign around a new candidate, but that would be an uphill fight.

Or they could tell people that a vote for the ex-candidate is really a vote for his widow.

[Munson]

We dont expect to be anointed and win by default. But we expect to at least be supported. The problem is the kingpins of the party are the gatekeepers for money and supporters such as volunteers. Our opponents may be weak, but the kingpins are only making our opponents stronger. I dont expect the millions for my campaign, but I would appreciate some venture capital to make my job a bit easier else we may see Democrats get to 2/3rds majority in the Assembly.

[CHUCKfromCAL]

I am new to California. I lived in Austin, Texas until recently. There I was active in supporting Republican candidates, raising local funds and get-out-the-vote efforts. I didn't realize how well run the Texas GOP is, both at the state and county level, until I moved to California and began to get involved in Republican politics.

The California state GOP has no money. There is an ongoing war between moderates and conservatives and Christian conservatives. They are so busy fighting with each other that they don't even bother to raise funds for candidates and party activities. They don't seem to have a clue how to work together or end the war.

The county organization here in my county isn't in much better shape. They are also broke. Most precincts don't have captains. They have yet to think about get-out-the-vote efforts for November. They seam to be waiting for the state GOP to tell them what to do (and they will wait a long time.)

If California Republicans can't work together we will not be able to elect people. No wonder we hold only one statewide office. People get what they want and deserve. I guess California Republicans want and deserve to be out of power.

Meanwhile Grey Davis and the national, state and local Democrat politicians have built huge war chests and are busy hiring their friends and relatives. They have built a gigantic statewide patronage organization. These patronage folks understand that they must get Democrat politicians elected or they will loose their jobs.

[Munson]

Yes my mission is trying to repair my county party. The state will not do anything so it's upto the local level to take care of the situation. Unfortunally the two leading legislators of my county and the leading donor (the Building Industry) are just treating the central committee as a do nothing debating society.

My local party was so inept that a lowly 22yo college student had to file papers for State Assembly because they could not recruit candidates.

The problem is the GOP is the power war. I agree. We need an impasse on the war because the more we fight, the more the Democrats have a better chance to win.

Yes we are more disorganized compared to when Bush had his people running the county parties. If I was a bit more aged and had more experience I could probally established an organization and circumvented the establishment to make things better for my voters.