[ER_in_OC,CA]

You wrote:
"I'd rather have a RINO than this Clinton clone."

I'm not so sure I agree. Frankly, I don't see enough difference between Riordan and Davis on policy for me to agree with you.

Mitigating factor: Unless Simon wins and institutes huge reforms, Davis will be left holding the bag of an insane, HUGE, WHOPPING, Budget Deficit.

In my weird logic, if a real conservative can't win, I'd rather a Dem be the one raising taxes than a Repub like Riordan. The Republican reputation against raising taxes gives us the most traction in this state, since Davis has stolen the "tough-on-crime" issue (a la Clinton) and the CA electorate loves abortion-on-demand. If a Repub lost us the "no new taxes" issue, our party would be in even worse shape in CA (is this possible?)

Of course, if Riordan were on the ballot, I'd certainly be voting for him.

Our future hope for CA is that the Green Party can continue to grow and steal votes in Santa Monica, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Marin County, etc.

Of course, it would help if our party leadership would come together instead of being in this fraticidal war. And furthermore, it would help if our state party would better articulate conservative ideas.

Just some rambling thoughts...

[Democratshavenobrains]

So does that mean it would be better for Pataki to lose NY, because he isn't really a conservative? The dems don't care how many conservative southern governors they elect, as long as he has a D by his name.