California: Lopsided Senate race: Boxer in front in fund raising and the polls

Duf and Mario need to get out of politics. If they need attention, they can blow each other all day.

They are ineffective hacks with obviously zero talent for effective politics.

They are big fish in a little pond that won't let those who can do great things for California take control.

They are control freaks who want social attention among their friends IMO and that sucks for Republican politics.

And by the way, I listen to the radio all day and I have not here even ONE ad for Jones. What is this guy doing?

He's certainly not getting any help from the GOP. Even Ahnie won't campaign for him.

This would be a great thread for me to do a "that's why we it's such a shame Howard Kaloogian didn't win the Republican nomination" - but my guy Kaloogian came in third with only 11.2% of the vote in the primary.

No matter who we nominated we woulda been screwed.

The reason Jones ran away with the primary over Marin, Kaloogian and Casey was that Arnold endorsed him and helped him raise enough money to send out giant mailers to 1 MILLION plus Republican households.

Arnold was SUPPOSED to be a big player for Jones in the primary.

But, like he has done with President Bush, Schwarzenegger has shown NO DESIRE to advance the overall Republican cause if it might hurt his own personal standing with California voters.

I can understand his desire for self-preservation, but to be blunt, Republicans have A LOT to be disappointed in with Arnold in his first year as Governor (not much different from Gray Davis to be blunt) so one would hope for at least some helpful electioneering.

Instead, Arnold does the bare minimum to keep everyone in line, and then does the "I'm Arnold, and you better stay on my good side because I have the power and backing and you have nothing."

Fun times to be a California conservative.

As veteran Democratic consultant Joe Cerrell puts it, she is "just running under the right alignment of the stars."

She's gotta be the luckiest politician in America. 1992 was the only year possible for her to gain entry to the Senate.

The reason it's so lop-sided is because the CA RNC didn't have the guts to run a real candidate. Instead they gave us this lightweight. Most conservatives don't like Jones - I'll be holding my nose and voting for him, because he's an (R) - but it's not because I'm supportive of him; I just want to counter Boxer's votes.

I have heard Jones on KSFO 560 out of San Francisco a few times, but not often. He's been on the morning show, and at least once on the evening show (Brian Sussan). I think Barbara Simpson has had him on at least once on her weekend show. That's about it. He's pretty invisible. I haven't seen or heard a single ad.

OTH, Arnold wouldn't appear on any of KSFO's shows.

I agree. I heard Rosario Marin at least three times on KSFO, and she was pretty lame. I'm one of those horrible Republicans that voted for Howard the K in the primary.

Grassroots, people, grassroots...
Bingo.

Not sure that ANYONE can save Bill "Who?" Jones, but...

...LOS ANGELES is the key to taking this state.

Without the RAT concentrations in LA and San Francisco, California would be a solid Republican "red" state.

SF is a lost cause, but based on the results from the LAST election (when LA county went 32% for Bush) -

...if President Bush can capture 40% of the vote in LA county, California will go into the GOP column.

And internal polls currently show us at OVER 40% GOP here.

I hear your gripes with McCain and Giuliani and the like. I agree that they are demagogues in a certain regard, however I would contend that they have done more good than harm. Giuliani cleaned up the streets of NY and reduced the crime rate exponentially. He may not agree with the party platform on social issues, but fiscal conservatism and military strength are extremely important.

The same goes for McCain. He may have instilled campaign finance reform, but his vote in the Senate on Tax Cuts and the War on Terror is extremely important. Politics is a "give and take" game. Bush signed the campaign reform bill to get McCain's staunch support in the future which helps among independents.

As far as McClintock goes, he's a hard-lined Republican. I would love to see him elevate himself, I just don't see it as a possibility. "New faces" are always embraced by parties on the state level. The same thing happened to Bill McCollum this year in the Florida Senate primary. He was a hard-liner, terrorism expert, but the state GOP picked Mel Martinez because of his last name.

I hear your gripes with McCain and Giuliani and the like. I agree that they are demagogues in a certain regard
Maybe I'm being a little hard on them in some respects. McCain seems to be good at romancing the press, not necessarily a flim flam man like Edwards. As far as social issues go, I think Republicans need to emphasize that they oppose government intrusion in peoples lives as long as everyone's basic rights are respected as a way of blunting Democrat fear-mongering. They don't need to change their legislative agenda much apart from delivering what they promise instead of just undoing what was done and engaging in election year posturing.

"New faces" are always embraced by parties on the state level. The same thing happened to Bill McCollum this year in the Florida Senate primary. He was a hard-liner, terrorism expert, but the state GOP picked Mel Martinez because of his last name.

Which probably drives away as many voters as it attracts. People queueing up to try their hand at campaigning is great just as long as some of them go to the back of the line if they don't get what they want the first time. Having people with campaign experience seems to make a lot of difference. Name recognition (and I don't mean ethnicity, no) helps, even if you made a name for yourself with various gaffes and appeared to burn a few bridges along with way. If your opponent seems invincible one year, he may be on fire come the next election so that you can continue right where you left off (and profit!). The voters have to learn from their mistakes. Having a firebrand conservative tank on one election to be replaced by a completely different kinder, gentler candidate the next election ought to be called the "gong show" strategy. If Marion Barry or Adolf Hitler could make themselves respectable enough to get into office, the average "failed" Republican candidate ought to think twice about throwing in the towel.

Don't blame me. I voted Howard Kaloogian. :-)