Bill Jones blasts Davis

Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar said Jones was "essentially trying to get himself back in the good graces of the Bush administration after endorsing the president's rival."

The keyword being "essentially" ... I love decrypting PolitiSpeaK.
DUMP DAVI$

GO SIMON

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

EXCELLENT!

And from...

National GOP Likely To Donate $1 Million To $2 Million To Simon; fed probe of Davis sought
Associated Press (via NBC-4 TV) ^ | September 25, 2002 | ERICA WERNER
Posted on 09/25/2002 6:24 PM Pacific by RonDog

...here is a quote from Bill Simon that The Bee seems to have missed:

"...Meanwhile, Simon's one-time political opponent, Secretary of State Bill Jones, announced he was calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' fund-raising practices.
"I believe that the recent evidence strongly suggests that Gov. Davis has crossed the line from simple poor judgment about fund-raising into criminal activity," the Republican secretary of state told a Sacramento press conference.
He released a letter to Ashcroft calling for him to determine whether federal and state bribery and anti-racketeering laws had been violated..."

Don Heller, a Sacramento attorney who has defended officials in corruption cases, said the timing of Jones' complaint makes it suspect.
...but the timing of eGray's "campaign contributions" do not make THEM suspect???

"Dump DAVIS!"

"DumpDAVIS" FReeps are currently scheduled for:

Sunday (9/29) - 6 pm to 8 pm - Kodak Theatre in Hollywood - confirmed
(note NEW times)
Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow will be raising $4 million for the DNC
theme: "Keep the Hookers in Hollywood, NOT Sacramento"
(Hooker/pimp costumes encouraged, but not required!)
Monday (9/30) - 11 am to noon - Nixon Library in Yorba Linda - confirmed
(note NEW start time)
Bill Simon speech/lunch at noon
theme: "Gray Davis: debate DODGER"
(Bring ANYTHING that says "Dodgers" - hats, posters, uniforms!)
Monday - (10/7) - 10 am to noon - Los Angeles Times building - confirmed
Simon/Davis debate
theme: "Dump DAVIS"
("Dump DAVIS" posters, sanitation worker outfits, dump truck?)
Saturday (10/19) - noon to 4 pm - Capitol building in Sacramento - confirmed
state-wide "DumpDAVIS" FReep in SACRAMENTO!
FReepers from all across Cailfornia will gather on the Capitol Steps
Jim Robinson is scheduled to be there.
Sacramento radio station KTKZ (1380-AM) would like to do a LIVE remote broadcast from the FReep!
theme: "Dump DAVIS"
(possible GIANT dump truck, dumpsters - use your imagination...)

Please FReep-mail me for details, and to get on my list for a SECRET "Dump DAVIS!" FReep - coming soon!

the little-seen back wall of Davis' office....

At least the L.A. Times leads off THEIR coverage of this bombshell with the IMPORTANT news:

Jones Calls for Federal Probe of Davis' Fund-Raising
Politics: Secretary of state says he suspects that the governor 'has crossed the line ... into criminal activity.' Davis camp denies links to policy.
By VIRGINIA ELLIS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
SACRAMENTO -- Secretary of State Bill Jones urged the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday to investigate Gov. Gray Davis' fund-raising, likening it to the activities of a former state senator convicted of racketeering because he sold access to his office.

Jones, a Republican whose daughter works in the campaign of Davis challenger Bill Simon Jr., cited newspaper stories reporting the proximity of contributions to official action as evidence of possible illegal activity...
excerpt only - click here for the FULL TEXT

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Davis' fund raising emerges as key Simon campaign issue

By John Marelius
STAFF WRITER
September 26, 2002

Bill Simon had just toured the Buck Knives plant and was about to launch into his familiar pitch that taxes and burdensome regulations are driving businesses such as the venerable knife manufacturer out of California.
But that would have to wait until what has become the Republican gubernatorial candidate's even more familiar pitch.
"Before I get into Buck Knives a little bit, I want to talk about – as usual – Gray Davis' pay-to-play scandals," Simon told enthusiastic but sweltering supporters on a recent scorching El Cajon afternoon.
"Because every day, it seems, there's another example of Davis getting a contribution because he sells public policy."
On this day, the issue was plastic pipes, of which California is one of two states to ban. Simon contended that the state's insistence on copper pipes, which take more than twice as long to install as plastic ones, inflates the cost of new housing in California up to $150 million a year.
Davis' re-election campaign has received nearly $400,000 from labor unions representing plumbers and pipe fitters.
It is, Simon maintains, just one of many examples of what he variously calls "a toll booth outside the governor's office," "coin-operated governor," "pay-to-play governor" and "state government for sale to the highest bidder."
Davis' aggressive money-raising has raked in nearly $60 million for his re-election campaign, far outdistancing Simon.
The juxtaposition of a succession of major donations and public policy decisions gives Simon strategists hope that the specter of corruption could be the silver-bullet issue that has eluded them for so long.
Last week, the controversy about Davis' voracious fund raising forced the Democratic governor to do something he is loath to do – cancel a fund-raiser.
Less than 24 hours after Davis signed a bill to put on the 2004 ballot a $10 billion bond issue to finance a high-speed rail system, a $1,000-per-person Davis fund-raiser was scheduled at the Santa Clara home of Rod Diridon, Davis' appointee to the California High Speed Rail Commission.
Diridon sent out e-mails inviting rail executives who "will build, operate and maintain the system" to a "special opportunity to communicate with and help Gov. Gray Davis." When news of the impending event turned up in Bay Area newspapers, the Davis campaign called it off, saying Diridon's e-mail was an unauthorized communication.
This week, Davis was scheduled to preside over a technology forum in Palo Alto followed by a $10,000-per-person fund-raiser sponsored by high-tech executives. Both events were scrubbed. Davis, who has until Monday to sign or veto several hundred bills, said he was "overburdened with work" and the fund-raiser would be rescheduled.
Garry South, Davis' senior campaign strategist, denied any link between contributions and actions by the governor, insisting that Davis has angered some of his biggest donors by not giving them what they want.
"The color you see in the face of those who criticize Gray Davis' fund raising is not the purple of outrage, but the green of envy," South said. "He's been very successful at it, there's no question about it. He's the most successful fund-raiser in California's history. No one else is even close."
It is that in-your-face attitude that some contend arouses suspicion about Davis.
"I think that has reinforced what people think about Davis – that he is a superficial politician who enjoys the grubby business of politics just a little too much," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist whose new "Crystal Ball" Web site handicaps campaigns across the country.
South insisted that Davis' fund-raising prowess – and the criticism of it – comes with being governor of the nation's largest state.
"When you're as successful as we are at raising money and you have as large and diverse a universe of givers as we have, you can take almost any issue and you could make some kind of phony case that the governor took money from somebody who benefited from policy that was implemented by this administration," he said.
The money issue began to reach critical mass last spring with a $95 million Oracle contract for computer software that most state agencies had no use for. Days after the since-canceled contract was signed, an Oracle lobbyist hand-delivered a $25,000 check to a Davis administration official.
Another frequently cited example is the state prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has donated more than $700,000 to Davis's re-election campaign. Davis signed legislation that gave prison guards pay increases of as much as 37 percent over five years.
An official of the California Teachers Association said Davis abruptly hit him up for $1 million during the course of a policy conversation in the governor's office. Davis said he does not remember the episode and the teachers union, unhappy with the governor's education reforms, has not been a significant supporter of Davis' re-election.
Democratic strategist Darry Sragow, who is not involved in the Davis campaign, said Republicans are wasting their time.
"I don't think they've laid a glove on him," Sragow said. "That's politics as usual from a voter's standpoint."
Whatever its effectiveness, it is an issue that gets under Davis' famously thin skin.
Davis reacted angrily when reporters peppered him with questions about Simon's criticism of the canceled Diridon event at a labor rally Saturday morning in Oakland. Raising his voice and wagging a finger at reporters, he said that Simon "has no business lecturing me on how to do business."
Yesterday, Secretary of State Bill Jones, whom Simon defeated for the Republican nomination, weighed in. Jones, who now supports Simon, called for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Davis' activities, which Jones said had "crossed the line from simply poor judgment about fund raising into criminal activity."
A Davis spokesman strongly rejected the charge.
"The governor has always operated well within the letter and the spirit of the law," said Davis campaign press secretary Roger Salazar. "He's gone above and beyond to respect the boundaries that exist."
Republicans say they have drawn blood with the fund-raising issue.
"Gray Davis' reaction is proof in itself that the issue's having an impact," said Republican strategist Dan Schnur, who is not involved in the campaign for governor. "Davis is an experienced enough politician not to lose it like that unless something is really bothering him."
Not only is there little agreement whether the fund-raising issue is making a mark, there is little agreement as to who it helps if it is.
Some campaign watchers in academia say the issue may help Simon, but only indirectly by encouraging liberal Democrats, already unhappy with Davis' centrist ways, to vote for a minor-party candidate.
"One strategy that Simon seems to be pursuing is making the criticism of Davis that no self-respecting Republican would ever make," said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute for Governmental Studies at the University of California Berkeley. "I mean, since when do they ever care about this stuff? But it is something that a lot of Democrats – the party of campaign finance reform – tend to care about."

Staff writer Bill Ainsworth contributed to this report.
Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

daughter works in the campaign of Davis challenger Bill Simon Jr.,

So jones is doing this for his daughter. Is that the premise the reporter is advancing?

Why is that put into the article?

calgov2002:

calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles.

calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles.

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