Posted on 10/19/2002 4:38:58 PM PDT by gubamyster
As the president joins other GOP candidates at rallies, his housing secretary stresses that the administration stands behind Simon.
By Michael Finnegan, Times Staff Writer
SALINAS -- As Republican candidates in Missouri and Minnesota basked in the political embrace of President Bush on Friday, Bill Simon Jr. stumped in California lettuce country with a substitute: U.S. Housing Secretary Mel Martinez.
"I bring you greetings from our president," Martinez told party loyalists eating huevos rancheros at Rosita's Mexican diner.
Minutes later, Martinez said Bush's absence from California in the final weeks of the 2002 campaign should not be taken as a sign of any lack of confidence in Simon's bid for governor.
"He may not feel he needs to come," Martinez said. "There may be other races that are closer."
Indeed, Martinez is the latest Bush emissary to campaign for Simon in California as the president darts from state to state raising money and whipping up excitement for candidates in tighter races that are a higher priority to the White House.
Bush's top concerns are to restore Republican control of the Senate, protect the party's majority in the House and elect GOP governors in states crucial to his own reelection race in 2004. On Friday, he campaigned with Senate hopefuls Jim Talent in Missouri and Norm Coleman in Minnesota.
"In the last two weeks before the election, you send the president into the closest races where he can do the most good," said Charles Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter in Washington. "The California governor's race is not one of the closest races, and it's not where he can do the most good."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
| ...DATE../..TIME... | ...CITY../..SITE... | ...ADDRESS../..Link to Map if available | ...MORE INFORMATION... |
| Sunday 10/20/2002 - 1 pm | Thermal / Coachella, CA | Coachella Valley High School 83-800 Airport Blvd Coachella [Thermal], CA Thread on Free Republic with map |
Everyone able to attend is encouraged to arrive at 12 pm. The UFW Rally Starts at 1 pm. Bring signs, banners, whatever! Be creative. FOR SALE signs are HOT!!! |
| Sunday 10/20/2002 - 4 pm | Oxnard, CA | Oxnard Performance Arts Center 800 Hobson Way |
Reconning event for more info. |
| Monday 10/21/2002 - 12 pm | Chico, CA | CSU-Chico Corner of Warner St and Big Chico |
CHICO AREA FREEPERS, HERE YA GO! A RARE OPPORTUNITY to DUMP DAVIS!!! Gather at NOON! Bring your "For Sale: Gray Davis!" signs |
| Monday 10/21/2002 - 3 pm | Eureka, CA | Warfinger Building Next to Small Boat Basin Near Washington and the Bay | Reconning event. |
| Tuesday 10/22/2002 - 7 pm | Palo Alto, CA | Hyatt Rickey’s 4219 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA Cross Streets: El Camino Real and Arastradero/Charleston in Palo Alto |
BAY AREA DUMP DAVI$ Rally - Rescheduled Event GraYouT Davi$ Cancelled this the Last Time because he was BUSTED on the High Speed Rail Pay-Off! Freepers, Gather at 6:00 pm Bring your "For Sale: Gray Davis!" Signs - BRING 'EM |
| Tuesday 10/23/2002 | Los Angeles, CA | TBD | Need some Reconning event for more info. Can a Freeper Chamber of Commerce member check in on location for this? Thanks |
No! Ergo, Riordan. California is too liberal for Simon. I don't care for Riordan. I prefer Simon. But it doesn't appear he will win.
I'll ping my list.
Memories:
California Power Crisis animations featuring Governor Gray Davis
AND......................
...to see what bad, bad things Davis has done... - CLICK HERE
calgov2002:
 calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register |
You fell for it, exactly as expected. Bush screwed Simon from the get go BECAUSE he was a conservative. It started over a year ago. Are you going to be chump, or are you going to stand on principle? That's how Reagan won.
I have a feeling Bush is trying his best to save some of Roves "hand picked" Senate candidates in other states.Rove won't be hurt by these loses but our President sure will be. Riordan lost big time in Calif...get over it.
If that instinct was "good as gold," would Riordan have lost the primary?
What matters is not who "wins the primary" but who wins the ELECTION. Dukakis won all his primaries, then proved to be unelectable in the election. California, I fear, is too liberal for Simon.
Just last night I had dinner with an ultra-liberal friend from California. She would have voted for Riordan. She would NOT vote for Simon. When you add to that the fact that Simon has unarguably run a poor campaign, I simply made the observation that it is looking like GWB's instinct about "what would fly" in Calif was right.
Just last night I had dinner with an ultra-liberal friend from California. She would have voted for Riordan...I think that we have identified the problem.
Why should the California conservatives want THIS guy, "electable" or not?From:"...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..."
Conservative Triumphs in California GOP Primary
Human Events (COVER!) ^ | John Gizzi
Posted on 03/12/2002 11:32 AM Pacific by ElkGroveDan
        |
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." ________________ |
more
"In the last two weeks before the election, you send the president into the closest races where he can do the most good," said Charles Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter in Washington. "The California governor's race is not one of the closest races, and it's not where he can do the most good."For an OPPOSING point of view, see:
George F. Will: Political earthquake in California?
GOP underdog could win governorship
The Union Leader (N. H.) ^ | Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 | George F. Will
Posted on 10/17/2002 0:10 AM Pacific by heleny
Edited on 10/17/2002 2:10 AM Pacific by Admin Moderator. [history]
LAST SATURDAY morning, after another pratfall in a star-crossed, accident-prone and banana-peel-strewn campaign, a nevertheless ebullient Bill Simon, Republican candidate for governor in a state (California) that has not voted for a Republican Presidential or senatorial candidate since 1988 or for a Republican gubernatorial candidate since 1994, said: “We’re close.” Noting the incredulity of his interlocutor, he added: “I swear.”
more-- snip --"...Simon’s campaign has resembled the 1962 Mets who, while losing 120 games, moved their manager, Casey Stengel, to look down the dugout and ask, “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
Nevertheless, Simon resembles the Anaheim Angels:
"He can’t be where he is — but he is." - George Will
Won't Gray Davis cry himself to sleep in the California Statehouse for the next 4 years knowing we proudly nominated a good conservative who went down to defeat proudly? Boy! The joke sure will be on Davis THEN, huh!
If you truly believe the list you posted of Riordan's political sins are bad (and they ARE) ... wait till you see what GRAY DAVIS intends to do to California in the next 4 years.
But don't worry, WE'LL have the last laugh when Simon really zings Davis during Simon's concession speech! Woo-Hoo!!!
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, you can't win an election if you can't get the nonimation of your party. If you lose the primary, you are unelectable.
That describes Dick Riordan, and good riddance. He has stabbed far too many GOP candidates in the back, and has far too radical a social agenda, to have ever warranted serious consideration for a coronation by Bush and Rove.
They picked a loser.
One question... When you say:
"Turns out Bushie's instinct was good as gold again. They shoulda listened."
Who shoulda listened?
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