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JERRY BROWN: "Fictional Crime Fighter"
Posted on 06/25/2006 4:03:12 PM PDT by calcowgirl
Kevin Spillane says that he and Ken Khachigian are confident that their candidate, state Senator Chuck Poochigian, can take down former Governor and current Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. But there are some holes in the argument.
Spillane, a veteran of moderate Republican campaigns, is senior consultant to the Republican nominee for state attorney general; Khachigian, former chief speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, is chief strategist. “When Californians are reminded of Brown’s record, Chuck will win. He simply needs enough money to get his message out," says Spillane.
Spillane won’t say what their fundraising goal is. “I won’t go down that road,” he says. “But we are confident we can raise enough money to make Chuck well enough known and credible enough.”
Spillane notes that his campaign is in much better shape than other down-ballot Republican candidates, most of which have very little money, and that Poochigian’s fundraising is picking up. Poochigian had accumulated $3.2 million as of the last reporting period a month ago. But Brown, husbanding his resources despite having a Democratic primary rival, LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, spending millions on TV advertising against him, had $4.4 million. Most of Poochigian’s money was raised not for the race for attorney general, but was transferred over from his state Senate fundraising account.
“Ultimately," says Spillane, “we believe this race will be a referendum on Jerry Brown. While Brown’s popularity has recovered somewhat, it will decline rapidly” when voters are reminded of what they see as the bad old days of “Governor Moonbeam.”
The Poochigian team also has high hopes for provocative comments Brown may have made as a talk show host during the five year period between his 1992 presidential candidacy and his 1998 run for mayor of Oakland.
Indeed, as the campaigns sparred last week over varying interpretations of Oakland crime statistics and the endorsement of Brown by Poochigian’s hometown Fresno Police Officers Association, Spillane referred in a missive to “Brown's long record of viciously negative comments about law enforcement.”
Which Brown says is absolutely false.
While Poochigian’s team are attempting to take down the former governor, Brown and company will hardly be in a passive, defensive posture.
The former governor describes his Republican challenger as “a desk chair crime fighter.” His campaign derides Poochigian as a career staffer and legislator from a safe Republican seat. Other Republicans, who hold out hope for an upset, note that the senator has never really had a highly competitive political race.
He gained his first prominence as a senior staffer for then Governor George Deukmejian, perhaps the most conservative governor since the 1930s. He was then appointments secretary for Governor Pete Wilson, before winning election first to the state Assembly, and then the Senate.
Poochigian is an intelligent, personable, pretty well-liked figure. He also is a conservative Republican with a conservative voting record, including on issues of central importance to the office of the state attorney general such as the environment, consumer rights, and abortion.
Brown’s campaign consultant, Ace Smith -- himself the son of a former San Francisco district attorney who narrowly lost a race for state attorney general -- is actually best known as an opposition research guru. You can bet that he has already compiled a thick dossier on Poochigian.
Brown, while controversial, has a higher image score (ratio of favorable to unfavorable) after more than 35 years in politics than Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with a favorable rating of 45 to 50 percent and an unfavorable rating of 30 to 35 percent.
While Spillane derided Brown in an e-mail as “a three-time failed presidential candidate,” the truth is almost everyone who runs for president “fails” to win. But you have to be at a certain level to run in the first place.
Jerry Brown was twice the runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, in 1976 and in 1992. The first place finishers in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes of those years both went on to become president. President Jimmy Carter bested the late-starting Brown for the Democratic nomination in 1976. President Bill Clinton bested the determinedly maverick Brown for the Democratic nomination in 1992. The former California governor actually defeated Clinton and Carter in a half-dozen state primary elections each.
It was only in 1980 that Brown’s presidential candidacy failed to attract much support. In retrospect, he clearly should not have run that year. With the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and later, the Iranian hostage crisis, global security issues proved dominant. And the entry of Senator Ted Kennedy into the race immediately made the putative heir to Camelot the principal Democratic challenger to the president. There was no oxygen for Brown, or anyone else, in that primary race.
Brown moved to the fringes in that 1980 race, a major factor in his narrow 1982 loss for the U.S. Senate to Pete Wilson. Much of the “Moonbeam” material comes from that era.
But all lives present a moving target for an opponent, few more so than Brown’s. It will be an interesting challenge for Spillane, Khachigian, and Poochigian as they work to rapidly increase their fundraising, take relevant shots at Brown, and avoid the counter-barrage that will surely come should the Republican candidate get within hailing distance.
Click on the image to see the Web Ad
JERRY BROWN: "Fictional Crime Fighter"
Is there some reason chuck can't run on his own record?
He is ... and his record is excellent.
It doesn't hurt to highlight the misguided actions of your opponent.
Rose Bird--what an awful legacy.
Misguided or not, he's been elected more times than chuck. Chuck would be better offer making his case to the voters rather than showing them how stupid they are.
That is putting it mildly. In many ways, Brown reminds one of nostalgic past, in a place with far more intractible problems these days, including a thinning out of the middle class. Brown from what I can tell, was also a very competent mayor of Oakland. Brown will win easily. Write that down.
His record on crime, as presented by Poochigian, is dismal.
In Oakland? Believe it or not, Oakland is in a state of gentrification, as, inter alia, the Asian population increases there. I have seen it with my own beady little eyes.
"Brown will win easily."
I agree.
Particularly if the first argument from the little known Republican is ... "the other guy is a boob."
Little word in this article about policy differences.
Now that Red Dellums will be running Oakland, what little Brown did for the city will be stopped dead in its tracks.
Pooch has his work cut out for him, but I don't believe it's impossible to beat ole Jerr.
It figures Poochigian has a big war chest of cash for the election, I am sure many corporations gave lots to him as payback for his sellout of Californias injured workers. His senate bill 899 retroactively cut payments,and medical care to injured workers, workers who had insurance already paid for at time of injury. You can loss an arm at work, and have to live off scraps for payments, and have medical denied.
This greatly enriched the insurance industry. This has been a total sell out. There are 1000's of workers that have had care denied, payments stopped, dispite having insurance paid for at time of loss.
Poochigian is a crook, and does not deserve any honset persons vote. I don't care how bad Brown maybe to you, what Poochigian did is immoral, and for any other insurance plan would be illegal. The insurance industry got a huge windfall when Poochigian authored the bill that simply put, relieved them of their obligations to pay benefits promised, retro actively.
Place yourself in this position, you home burns to the ground, you have a policy for fire that promises to cover the full replacemtn cost, you have paid premiums on time for ten years. Five months after the fire, your house is halfway rebuilt, the insurance company is writting the checks, as per the policy in effect when the fire took place.
You are then notified by the state, that a senator has written a passing bill that tells the insurance company that you have a policy with, that they can cut the benefit in half retroactively. Your home is only now half paid for. Sure the insurance compaany is reducing the premium for you, but you are no longer covered under the old policy. Would this be right? Would you like this treatment? This is what Poochigian has done to workers compensation. He changed the law and has allowed the insurance companies to retroactively cut benefits. No option for those cut off to buy additional insurance, as the loss has already happened.
Poochigian can rot in #@ll for this stunt. He should be run out of the state. He is crimminal.
Poochigain well never get my vote, and I am making sure all my conservative friends and family understand this.
I rather have a moon beam nut as AG, than a crooked politician that stole from the injured and has soiled the good name of his party. Poochigians strings will be pulled by his masters. His masters include the insurance industry which he gave a huge windfall to when his bill excused the insurance industry of millions of dollors of obligations.
Anyone but Poochigian.
Signed a deeply saddened life long conservative Republician.
Stop, yer killin’ me!
Check out the KOS/DUer troll in post #13. The Brown forces are out in full-farce mode.
It was all quite hilarious. The poor poster was too dumb to know that his post almost certainly had no nexus with the truth.
You think those were funny, check out his contribution over here (take your violin):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1652685/posts?page=70#70
Ahhh, such a short life:
davemenche
Since June 24, 2006
This account has been banned or suspended.
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