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Barbs fly, but do voters notice?
Sacramento Bee ^ | 10/2/6 | Herbert A. Sample

Posted on 10/02/2006 12:50:48 PM PDT by SmithL

Democrat Jerry Brown's name recognition is proving to be formidable for lesser-known Republican challenger Chuck Poochigian.

OAKLAND -- In the contest for the state's "top cop," both leading contenders are radical ideologues. Or at least that's the perception each candidate for attorney general wants voters to retain about his opponent.

In television ads, Democrat Jerry Brown, the former governor and now mayor of Oakland, portrays Republican Chuck Poochigian as an "extremist" who would end abortion rights in California and legalize cop-killing assault weapons.

Poochigian, a state senator from Fresno, returns the favor by describing Brown as "a flaky liberal" who cares little about crime victims and who would work to spare convicted first-degree murderers from executions.

Both candidates reject their opponent's jibes. But amid the charges and countercharges five weeks before Election Day, political analysts say the contest's fundamental equation has changed little: In a down-ballot race that has yet to attract widespread attention, the familiar Brown enjoys big advantages over the little-known Poochigian.

"More people know him," Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior scholar at the University of Southern California and longtime observer of state politics, said of Brown, the former two-term governor and three-time presidential candidate.

"People have made their decisions about him. I don't think anybody knows who Poochigian is," she added. "So it's easier for Brown to paint Poochigian as an extremist because there's more canvas there to work with."

Brown's political consultant, Ace Smith, quibbles with the notion that voters' familiarity with Brown is the campaign's major weapon. Rather, Smith contends that voters are attracted by Brown's law enforcement endorsements and turned off by Poochigian's conservative views.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: attorneygeneral; brown; calag2006; jerrybrown; moonbeam; poochigian

Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown



Charles "Chuck" Poochigian

1 posted on 10/02/2006 12:50:49 PM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL
"More people know him,"

That's for sure. More people know him as a leftist looney loser lord-of-the-medflies whacko. I wouldn't vote for Jerry Brown for ANYTHING if you held a gun to my head. Poochigian is a good conservative and was the sponsor of the workers compensation reform legislation. Good guy.

2 posted on 10/02/2006 12:54:13 PM PDT by hsalaw
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To: hsalaw

I, for one, would have a hard time forgetting a name like Poochigan.


3 posted on 10/02/2006 12:56:05 PM PDT by Sterm26 (Death before Dhimmitude!)
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To: Sterm26

My thoughts exactly...I mean Jerry is so...well, BROWN...ya know...? But Poochigian? Yeah, that's got a ring to it...


4 posted on 10/02/2006 1:07:55 PM PDT by mozarky2 (Ya never stand so tall as when ya stoop to stomp a statist!)
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To: mozarky2; SmithL
"More people know him," Sherry Bebitch Jeffe,

But you see nothing clumsy about "Bebitch?!"

I've always avoided candidates who barb. Ted "the diver" Kennedy comes to mind...
5 posted on 10/02/2006 1:37:50 PM PDT by Froufrou
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To: SmithL

Brown's ads are filled with some of the worst distortions and outright lies I've ever heard, and THAT is saying something. For example (closely paraphrasing one Brown radio ad I heard recently):

"Poochigian even opposed Prop ___ for stem-cell research bonds. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Poochigian opposes stem-cell research?!"

Another Brown ad I heard this morning labels Poochigian as a "career legislator." Gasp. As if Brown -- scion of Pat Brown -- isn't the consummate career (and congenital) politician himself. Cripes.


6 posted on 10/02/2006 2:18:03 PM PDT by pogo101
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To: hsalaw
Official State of California portrait of the past leftist looney loser lord-of-the-medflies whacko governor:


7 posted on 10/02/2006 2:39:35 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: pogo101

Jerry Brown: Fictional Crime Fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IMEwYIx74U&NR


8 posted on 10/02/2006 2:42:00 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: SmithL
barbs fly, do people notice?

---Nope, haven't seen a TV poltical ad yet, I don't watch much TV and what I see is cable.

9 posted on 10/02/2006 2:48:07 PM PDT by cookcounty (John Murtha: the only Marine Colonel who can't find Okinawa on a map.)
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To: SmithL
"Poochigian, a state senator from Fresno, returns the favor by describing Brown as "a flaky liberal"

At least we know Poochigian is right about one issue.

And, who among us could fail to support someone with 'Ace Smith' as a political consultant?

10 posted on 10/02/2006 2:53:14 PM PDT by norton
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To: SmithL
I'd have thought "Poochigian" would be an easier name to recognize than "Brown."

Oh! It's that Jerry Brown. Didn't know he was still alive.

11 posted on 10/02/2006 3:04:28 PM PDT by x
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To: SmithL

Jerry Brown is a lifetime self-promoter politician. If he wins the voters deserve him and considering the locale, I feel sorry for the solid citizens.


12 posted on 10/02/2006 4:06:16 PM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done, needs to be done by the government.)
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To: SmithL; NormsRevenge
Debate Turns Toxic Between (Jerry) Brown and Poochigian
LA Times weblog

Excerpt:

The race between Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Chuck Poochigian for attorney general is becoming nastier and nastier.

Today, Poochigian unearthed an old skeleton in Brown's closet — Jacques Barzaghi, the former governor's friend and factotum. Actually, Poochigian appears to have used his Nexis account to uncover every available article written about Barzaghi and allegations that he sexually harassed women. From a Poochigian press release today:

"The City of Oakland paid out $50,000 in taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim filed against Barzaghi, Brown's confidant and senior aide of more than 30 years, by Nereyda Lopez-Bowden, a married 32-year-old mother of three school-age children. The City Manager suspended Barzaghi for three weeks without pay, but Brown refused to fire his 'closest adviser' from his six-figure salary. It wasn't until almost three and a half years later when the attorney general candidate was forced to fire the 66-year-old Barzaghi."

Brown campaign consultant Ace Smith said bringing up Barzaghi, the tattooed former French commando who was fired by Brown in 2004 and now lives overseas, is a "hail Mary pass." Polls show Poochigian 15 to 17 percentage points behind Brown. "This is totally unrelated to anything and they are trying to smear Jerry with something that he handled very professionally.... This is a sign of a campaign sinking rapidly."

Meanwhile, Brown's campaign is promoting a YouTube "documentary" by environmentalists called "Poochigian's Toxic Legacy." Bill Magavern of the Sierra Club says in the video that Poochigian has gone against even his own party by opposing "many of very same environmental protection bills that Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has signed or otherwise supported."


13 posted on 10/02/2006 6:31:51 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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