GO SIMON
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Tom McClintock for CA State Controller
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Dick Ackerman for CA Attorney General
Posted on 10/10/2002 10:39:01 PM PDT by DieselBoy
Apparently, I was one of the few Californians listening to Monday’s debate between Governor Gray Davis and GOP nominee Bill Simon. I tried hard to find a replay on television that evening but couldn’t locate one anywhere. Late night TV news coverage was scanty. This must have been the least noticed gubernatorial debate in state history. (Simon’s campaign has posted the debate online. To see it, go to: http://www.simonforgovernor.com/emailresponse.php?353)
Which, of course, was Davis’s strategy: hold the debate on a local TV station, mid-day, when people are working. No major networks would give up prime, evening air time for a debate replay. Given Californians’ general apathy these days, this ensures a tiny audience so no matter what happens, there’s no impact on the race.
Cynical? Yes. Manipulative? Yes. Successful? You bet it was. Outside of political junkies, I know only a handful that heard or saw any part of the debate.
Clearly, the deck was stacked against Simon. The Los Angeles Times, now practically functioning as an arm of the Davis campaign, was debate sponsor. The event was held at local TV station KTLA, owned by the Times’ parent company, The Tribune Company. Two Times staff members were panelists, including editorial page editor Janet Clayton and political pundit George Skelton, who recently proclaimed Simon “the worst gubernatorial candidate in California history.” Other panel members were old TV news pro Hal Fishman and Randy Shandobil, an obscure TV political editor from Oakland and ostensible environmentalist. How he got invited is anybody’s guess.
Anyway, this is what passes for a fair panel at the Times: three liberals and a neutral moderator. The questions posed reflected this bias — virtually every one asked why government wasn’t doing more to solve our collective problems.
Davis’s fear of Simon was well-founded. Any fair-minded observer (this leaves out most members of California’s major media) would say Simon was the stronger, more articulate debater. He put the governor on the defensive about his disastrous record of mishandling the electricity crisis, the state budget, and a collapsing public education system. He hit Davis hard on a key weakness: his weird obsession with fundraising, accumulating far more campaign cash than any human could ever use in this race.
Davis stumbled badly when directly confronted about his campaign financing abuses. While answering, he looked as shamefacedly guilty as the kid who stole the last chocolate chip cookie.
For his part, Davis tried hard to impugn his opponent’s business record and label Simon as “out-of-touch” for his National Rifle Association endorsement and belief that an unborn child is a human being. Davis claimed Simon wanted to move the state “backward and to the right.” (Oh, if only that were possible!) But the insinuations that his Republican opponent is some sort of monster carried no sting, due both to Simon’s boyish optimism and to their lifeless, morose delivery by Davis, who makes the Grim Reaper look like Jerry Lewis.
Of course, since few voters watched the debate, all this is of little importance. The press made the story of the debate Simon’s ill-advised post-debate statement that a photo existed showing Davis receiving a campaign check in the lieutenant governor’s office. Receiving political donations on state property is illegal. The California Organization of Police & Sheriffs (COPS) had advised Simon’s campaign that they believed the governor had received a campaign contribution from their organization in a state office. Naturally, Gary South, Davis’s chief thug and bottle washer, was shocked, shocked that anyone would believe the governor capable of such a thing.
It appears the photo was taken at a private residence, essentially clearing the governor of this specific charge, embarrassing COPS, and affording the press a new excuse to lambaste Simon. Amazingly, press reporting on the matter centers on whether the “damage” to Simon’s campaign is fatal — which the media has pronounced “dead” at least twice already, the surest sign it still lives — not the more obvious story of Davis’s shady fundraising tactics.
My guess is this is just a 48-hour dust-up soon to be forgotten, even by the press. One large gust from a big news story will blow this one off the front pages. Simon benefits from the fact that even at this late date, most voters aren’t paying attention: Witness the pitiful audience for the debate. The real battle — and ultimate fight for Californians’ hearts and minds — is just getting started. As is usually the case, the victor and vanquished in this race will be determined in the last three weeks of the campaign.
I live in Eureka and saw it live and reruns at least 3 times on Cspan on Cox cable
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