Posted on 11/15/2006 6:07:16 PM PST by calcowgirl
If you've seen even one national political convention, you've witnessed this scene: On the final night, as confetti flies and balloons drop, the head of the party's ticket clasps hands with his running mate and they lift their hands high in a show of confident, optimistic togetherness.
Given that clichéd expectation, it was startling to observe this summer's California Republican Party convention.
The running mate on the GOP ticket, lieutenant governor nominee Tom McClintock, emceed the Friday night dinner. By 11 a.m. Saturday, he was sneaking out the back door, departing before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived to give his luncheon speech.
The governor's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, insisted there was no snub involved, but rather it was just an example of how difficult it is to make campaign schedules mesh. It was more than three months before Election Day, but, apparently, McClintock had such a pressing engagement that he couldn't hang around to join hands with the governor in front of a dozen or so Los Angeles television cameras.
The assertion was bunk at the time, and that became more evident with each passing day of the campaign. Schwarzenegger campaigned only for himself.
To minimize grumbling from conservatives — who were far more excited about the campaigns of McClintock and controller nominee Tony Strickland than they were about re-electing a moderate governor — the Schwarzenegger campaign made an offer of what amounted to hush money.
The deal was this: The governor will campaign on his own, but he will raise millions of dollars to fund a sophisticated get-out-the-vote effort that will benefit all Republicans on the ticket.
The effort, Victory '06, cost $20 million. It was a colossal failure. Just take a look at the relative voter turnouts in two important counties for each partisan camp.
In Alameda County, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 4 to 1, turnout was 55 percent. In Riverside County, where Republicans enjoy a big advantage in voter registration, turnout was 35 percent.
To be sure, the Riverside turnout percentage will rise after all the late absentee ballots are counted, but this much is clear: Republicans weren't able to turn out their voters.
After the results were in, and McClintock and Strickland had lost, those who had been party to the deal voiced no public complaints.
I asked Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim late on election night whether he thought, in retrospect, Schwarzenegger should have done more to help the GOP ticket.
Absolutely not, Sundheim told me. "He fully met my expectations." To have the governor out campaigning with other Republican candidates wouldn't have helped, Sundheim said. "People didn't want a partisan thing."
He noted that California voters showed themselves to be independent ticket-splitters by voting in large numbers for Schwarzenegger, Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Republican Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown.
"If you're in a range, either on the left or right, you can be successful," Sundheim said.
He asserted that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides was outside that range on the left. He implied, but didn't say, that McClintock and Strickland were outside that range on the right.
Strickland, who rode in an RV caravan the week before the election to visit Victory '06 offices, also had no public complaints. "The Victory centers were full of callers. They had more activity going on in them than I've ever seen in politics," he said. "It wasn't for lack of investment."
Some conservatives, however, blame McClintock's defeat — he fell to Democrat John Garamendi by just 4 percentage points — on Schwarzenegger's decision to isolate himself from his running mate.
"If he would have allowed Tom to do TV or radio commercials with him, Arnold would have won by 15 points instead of 17 points — and Tom McClintock would be lieutenant governor," said Simi Valley conservative activist Steve Frank. "He didn't share."
Conservative voters, Frank said, "didn't see a Republican campaign. They saw a campaign for Arnold Schwarzenegger, and they didn't vote."
Schwarzenegger's standing with Republican conservatives, already low, will fall even more now that the election has ended, Frank said. They will remember that when he could have helped his party, the governor was interested only in helping himself.
It's telling that Assembly Republicans, a very conservative lot, voted last week to oust the leader who had cooperated with Schwarzenegger on the budget and the infrastructure bonds. They replaced him with someone who had opposed those signature Schwarzenegger accomplishments.
The Republican governor proved this year that he is able to work cooperatively with Democrats in the Legislature. It could be a much taller order next year to get any cooperation from legislators in his own party.
McClintock, for one, has two years left in the Senate. When he disagrees with Schwarzenegger in the future, it's a safe bet he won't go sneaking out the door.
He asserted that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides was outside that range on the left. He implied, but didn't say, that McClintock and Strickland were outside that range on the right.
Schwarzenegger, Feinstein and Jerry Brown "in a range".... McClintock outside the range?
Hey, Duf--that "range" you describe is DEMOCRAT!
This guy is the chairman of the CA GOP? What a Jerk!
Good one. That's going to be making the rounds tonight.
Perfect...
The two peas in a pod are priceless... as is the "CA-CA"
Thanks for the contribution.
Twice now I couldn't bring myself to vote for Schwarzenegger......left it blank.. I am so sad that McClintock lost, he is such a good man.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
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