SAN JOSE, Calif. - Bill Simon and his Republican ticket-mates chartered a jet and hopscotched through the state Saturday in a final push to block a potential Democratic sweep on Tuesday.
Simon also unleashed a final attack ad targeting Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' fund-raising practices, as he sought to keep the focus on the governor's ethics in the campaign's waning hours.
"We can win this on Tuesday if we get the people out," Simon urged sign-waving supporters on an airfield tarmac near Santa Barbara, the first in a series of small but lively rallies.
"This election for many of us is going to come down to one or two percentage points, just as it did for President Bush," he predicted.
In the Bay Area's Pittsburg, Davis drew on his union support, telling volunteers in a working-class neighborhood that he's helped improve the lives of workers.
"For 16 years you did not have a friend in the governor's office, but I'm here to tell you you have a friend today," he told about 200 machinists, ironworkers and other union members who were walking precincts for him. Davis was setting out on his own statewide flyaround with the Democratic ticket Sunday.
Secretary of State Bill Jones, the Republicans' lone statewide officeholder, is being forced from office by term limits. Simon lags Davis in polls by 7 to 10 percentage points, and Democrats lead in all the down-ballot races.
That raises the prospect of a Democratic sweep of statewide offices for the first time in recorded state history. The contests for secretary of state and controller remain competitive, according to a Field Poll released Saturday.
Facing the possibility of another setback in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 45 to 35 percent and control both houses of the Legislature, the Republican candidates piled into a 727 and barnstormed from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Jose, Modesto and Fresno on a "Fire Davis Tour."
"It all comes down to this - do you really want to go another four years down this road?" controller candidate state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, asked as a San Jose crowd erupted into chants of "Dump Davis!"
Both candidates were ending the campaign with a final burst of television attacks, with Davis spending $4.5 million on ads during the campaign's final week, as well as $500,000 on Monday and Tuesday alone.
On Saturday Simon unleashed his most direct attack yet on Davis' fund-raising, with a new statewide ad that cites controversies surrounding Davis' collection of some $68 million for his campaign, including from donors with state business.
The spot also uses newspaper headlines to refer to two allegations of fund-raising improprieties by Davis that Republicans and Simon's campaign have sought to publicize in recent weeks.
One case involves decade-old allegations of impropriety made by a convicted felon, which were unsealed last week by a federal judge. Prosecutors decided at the time not to pursue the allegations.
The second reference is to 14-year-old allegations of campaign improprieties that a former state deputy attorney general made against Davis when he was state controller. The deputy's higher-ups decided not to prosecute for lack of evidence.
"If Gray Davis is this corrupt, this incompetent before an election, how bad will Gray Davis be if he gets re-elected?" the ad asks, showing Davis over a background of $100 bills.
Davis aides dismissed the ad's claims as false and the governor brushed them aside.
"This is sad, this is just sad. I mean, his whole campaign is an utter embarrassment. He's sinking farther and farther into the mud," Davis said.
"People are not interested in what happened 16 years ago, they want to know what's going to happen tomorrow," he said.
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Associated Press Writers Alexa H. Bluth and Jim Wasserman contributed to this report.
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