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Posted on 08/27/2002 8:19:58 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
California Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon said Monday that if his opponent Gray Davis thought playing the scandal card could keep President Bush from coming to the state over the weekend to campaign for him, he was wrong.
In an exchange with nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity, Simon was asked to respond to NewsMax.com's report Saturday, "Simon's Hard Lesson, Suddenly Scandal Matters Again," which argued that the GOP needs to abandon the "new tone" directive set by the Bush White House and begin to respond in kind to Democrat scandal-mongering over a financial imbroglio tied to his family's investment firm.
HANNITY: So you've been with the president and the left-wing media has been all over the fact - there's a great piece on NewsMax actually about this with Carl Limbacher, "Republicans take note: suddenly scandals matters again." And it's a lesson, he pointed out, it seemed that you were taking.
The president's here and the press coverage was dominated by reports of how the White House was dealing with the fact that last month there was a $78 million jury verdict against the family run investment firm, William Simon & Sons. What do you want to say to that?
SIMON: You know, Sean, I'll say this. And I said this on Saturday, actually I was asked this question after the press conference that day. And I said, you know: If [President Bush] coming out 3,000 miles from Washington and putting his arm around me for three days with fundraisers where he obviously has many, many challenging issues that he could be spending his time on - If that's keeping me at arm's length, Sean, I'd love to have the president keep me at arm's length for the balance of the campaign. (End of Excerpt)
In other comments, however, Simon showed no indication that he was considering a change in tactics to combat the Davis campaign's relentless scandal-mongering over the jury award.
Instead, the GOP challenger continued to take the high road, sticking to the issues as he has for the last four weeks, as his slim lead in one poll dwindled to a 17 point deficit in another.
"[Davis is] a failed governor," Simon told Hannity, citing three policy areas where he thought the California Democrat was most vulnerable.
"The economy; he's raised taxes. He's introduced regulations that strangled business," Davis told Hannity. "Schools; he said he'd make the schools world class. We're last in the nation in science as of last month, second to last in reading."
The third issue cited by the Republican hopeful was the state's roads, water and power, which he said were inadequate.
At no time during the interview did Simon raise reports earlier this summer accusing Davis of trading governmental favors for campaign cash, or the fact that the California Governor's closest political ally in the state was once scandal scarred Congressman Gary Condit.
Neither Simon nor any of Davis' other political opponents has ever challenged the governor about he account of Condit's chauffeur, who claimed last year that the Davis ally routinely visited the late Chandra Levy in the governor's office, where she served as an intern before moving to Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by republican associations. Allow Davis link national funding back to Simon. Criticize the very campaign funding system the Leftists "revised"?
It's refreshing to see a summary of important issues again.
Flush out Dioxin Davis!
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