Conservative Triumphs in California GOP Primary
Simon Stomps Riordan
By John Gizzi
Los Angeles, Calif.—"Simon! Simon! Simon!" The cheers from the largely conservative Republican crowd gathered here at the Los Angeles Airport Westin Hotel on Tuesday evening were as much about their own cause as for the man on stage, businessman William Simon, Jr., who had just won a surprisingly large come-from-behind landslide victory in the California gubernatorial primary over former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. In winning the right to face embattled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis this fall, first-time candidate Simon demolished Riordan by 49% to 31%, with Secretary of State Bill Jones placing third at 17%. This was a shift of 58% from just two months ago, when Riordan was leading in the polls by 40%. Not since Bruce Herschensohn defeated liberal Rep. Tom Campbell in the Republican U.S. Senate primary here a decade ago had the conservative grass-roots activists in this state dealt such a significant blow to the party faction they characterize as "RINOs" (Republicans In Name Only). Reagan Formula Riordan’s double-digit lead over Simon began imploding by the end of January when Simon, Jones, the media, and Gov. Davis himself exposed GOP primary voters to the 71-year-old Riordan’s record on key issues: favoring partial birth abortion, endorsing President Clinton’s record-high 1993 tax increase, opposing George W. Bush’s tax cut last year, favoring affirmative action, an amnesty for illegal immigrants, and saying he would "consider" legalizing homosexual marriage. The former mayor was also forced to defend his record of making large contributions to a string of left-of-center Democrats, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Maxine Waters, and Gov. Davis himself. Former federal prosecutor Alfredo Jarrin of Palos Verdes seemed to be speaking for tens of thousands of California Republicans when, over breakfast at the Jonathan Club in Los Angeles on the Sunday before the balloting, he told me: "I will vote for Bill Simon. Why should any Republican vote for a candidate who seems ashamed of being a Republican?" The 46-year-old Simon put up $5 million of his own money and raised another $4 million to underscore a message that clearly stimulated conservatives. Unlike Riordan, he is pro-life and unambiguously against tax hikes. Indeed, he vowed that the first thing he would do as governor was "reduce your taxes." He also said he would back more local control of education, support energy deregulation, and "safeguard our borders." (Some on the right complained, however, that he discussed illegal immigration infrequently and only when asked.) "Bill appears to have tapped the forgotten formula Ronald Reagan put together in 1966—never back down on your conservative beliefs, but be compassionate rather than angry in expressing them," State GOP Chairman Shawn Steel told me Saturday before the primary. "And it looks like it’s working." Much was made in the California media last week about Davis’s intervention in the Republican contest. It is estimated that he spent $8-10 million slamming Riordan in TV ads that depicted the former mayor as flip-flopping on the death penalty (which he now favors) and abortion (he once called it "murder," now he favors legalized partial-birth abortion). The Davis blitz, said Steel, was "the equivalent of a general parachuting commandoes into the enemy camp to shoot up the Officer’s Club." In the weekend before the primary, an obviously exasperated Riordan denounced the governor, charging that Davis’s "gloating that he hijacked the Republican primary [is] just like Mussolini bragging about killing a lot of his enemies." But given the size of Simon’s eventual margin over Riordan, his triumph cannot be attributed solely to Davis’s ads. Noting that the ads started on January 20, Simon pollster Stephen Kinney of Public Opinion Strategies argued they "actually had little impact on Riordan’s ballot numbers. By early February, a public poll still found Riordan leading 41% to 24% over Simon, with Jones down to 9%." It was former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s strong endorsement of his onetime assistant federal prosecutor Simon, according to Kinney, that "provided the initial kick, and then by connecting the endorsement with an economic message that GOP primary voters were focused on [Simon’s promise to cut taxes], Simon kept climbing." Simon’s big surge came shortly after the state convention, when former Republican Gov. George Deukemejian and three past state party chairmen announced they would not vote for Riordan if he were the nominee. If the Davis ads did anything, argued Kinney, "they caused voters to pay attention to the campaign" and "shook Riordan personally and caused him to make numerous mistakes, such as talking about abortion at a time when voters were focused on the economy." Riordan also cut his appearances to one per day and denounced Simon as an "extremist" whose pro-life views would drive away women voters. Having initially refused to appear on most talk radio programs, Riordan finally began frantically trying to get on the programs of Warren Duffy of Orange County, Hugh Hewitt of Los Angeles, Lee Rogers of San Francisco, and other popular conservative radio hosts. Pointing out that Riordan’s Democratic consultants never understood what a strong medium talk radio is for California GOP primary voters, veteran Los Angeles talkmeister Ray Briem told me, "Riordan never called me for an interview and I never wanted him." Having encouraged Riordan to run after attempting unsuccessfully last year to entice Arnold Schwarzenegger to make the race, the Bush White House began to move away from their favored candidate on the eve of the voting. "The President has always said he will support the nominee," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. Almost as if preparing for the inevitable, California Bushman-in-Chief Gerald Parsky told me, "I met with representatives of all the candidates at the San Jose [state GOP] convention last month and told them that the President would be out in California not long after the [gubernatorial] decision was made and would campaign for whoever was the nominee." "Bill Simon is a true-blue, think-tank conservative, and that’s all right," Davis told cheering Democrats at their primary night party at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. An obviously pleased Davis then ticked off the issues he and Simon disagreed about: abortion, gun control, school vouchers, and further deregulation of the state’s energy industry. "California can’t go backward," said Davis, "and it certainly can’t go right." But will Davis’s plan to portray Simon as "too" conservative gain traction with California voters who are clearly disgruntled with a governor who has brought them an energy crunch, a $12-billion budget deficit and a tax increase? A recent Field poll showed that only three in five Democrats say they are inclined to support Davis for re-election. According to Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo, Davis "is very weak in core constituencies." At a cookout in Pasadena the Saturday before the primary, local real estate agent Kathy Soulek, a lifelong Democrat who was "very happy" that Democrat Adam Schiff had unseated Republican Rep. Jim Rogan in her district last year, told me, "I will vote for Dick Riordan in November." Asked how she would vote if Riordan wasn’t the nominee, she said, "Then I will vote for Bill Simon. Gray Davis is an idiot." Similarly, actress Jeanine Jackson, also a Democrat, told me the next day at Mastro’s Steakhouse in Los Angeles: "I voted for Gray Davis last time, but I don’t think I will this time. He hasn’t seemed to have done anything the past four years." ________________ |
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's visit to California brought some energy to Bill Simon's campaign, but last week's photo flap appears to have hurt Simon in the polls.
